Vending machine messages

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TomKQT

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Hello,
I would be very grateful is somebody could check whether the following messages are gramatically correct, clearly understandable and well worded.
They will appear on a display of a vending machine that sells milk. Not bottles of milk, you must bring your own bottle, hold it under a filling pipe and the machine fills it with milk.


  • Thank you very much for buying our milk. (appears at the end)
  • Raw milk is recommended to be boiled before consumption.
  • We are sorry, the vending machine is currently out of order due to the lack of milk. You may try it later.
  • No change is given.
  • Hold the bottle sideways to the filling pipe to prevent frothing. (appears during dispensing)
  • The milk is being dispensed as long as you hold the button pressed. (appears during dispensing)
Also, what is better to be written above a picture of coins which the machine accepts:

  • accepted coins:
  • acceptable coins:
Thank you very much in advance ;)

Tom
 

TomKQT

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Thanks a lot for your ideas!
  • Raw milk is recommended to be boiled before consumption.
  • It is recommended that raw milk be boiled before consumption
Is the red just other possible (better) way how to say it or is the black one (mine) not recommended at all? (Just wondering.)



  • The milk is being dispensed as long as you hold the button pressed. (Milk will be dispensed only when the [red, white, blue, big, small? Which button has to be pressed?] button is pressed. Is this true? Isn't there a limit to how much milk will be dispensed?)
There is only one button so I think it's not necessary to specify it more. The key point of this particular instruction is to say the customer that he has to HOLD the button. As long as he holds the button, milk is flowing. It stops when either the customer runs out of credit or releases the button. How would you write this?


If the readers are used to reading English, then, the messages above will work fine. Sometimes it is helpful to include pictures (a picture is worth a thousand words). You may want to include a picture showing how to hold a bottle sideways to the filling pipe.
This particular machine is for Ireland and in the future also for other English-speaking countries.
There is an animation together with the text instructions ;)
 

BobK

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...
Also, what is better to be written above a picture of coins which the machine accepts:

  • accepted coins:
  • acceptable coins:
Thank you very much in advance ;)

Tom
Why so wordy? Most vending machines I've seen just list them. If a slot has '5p 10p 20p' beside it, I'm not going to try forcing a £1 coin in. Some machines even have pictures of acceptable coins.

b
 

TomKQT

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Some machines even have pictures of acceptable coins.
There are pictures of the coins on the display (it's a color lcd display, similar to lcd displays on cameras).
It would probably be clear what that means even without any text above it, but there's empty space anyway :)
 

Tullia

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One comment I would make is that the phrase "raw milk" sounds a little odd. It's technically correct but I think "unpasteurised milk" sounds more natural to me - what do any other native speakers think?


[On a side note, I thought the sale of unpasteurised milk was pretty strictly limited here in the UK? I'm not sure about in other countries, though, but I thought it was illegal in shops here - I've bought it from Farmer's Markets before, but I'm pretty sure supermarkets aren't allowed to stock it.]
 

TomKQT

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One comment I would make is that the phrase "raw milk" sounds a little odd. It's technically correct but I think "unpasteurised milk" sounds more natural to me - what do any other native speakers think?
In my language (czech) we also say unpasteurised (of course not exactly this way but the word is still very similar). But if raw is OK, I would prefer it as it's shorter. What do others think?

[On a side note, I thought the sale of unpasteurised milk was pretty strictly limited here in the UK? I'm not sure about in other countries, though, but I thought it was illegal in shops here - I've bought it from Farmer's Markets before, but I'm pretty sure supermarkets aren't allowed to stock it.]
I don't know how it is in the UK, so far we've made only first few pieces of the vending machine and only for Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and now this one for the Republic of Ireland. I personaly didn't have to deal with the legal questions, but from what I know there really are very strict limitations, but when you meet them, you can sell milk this way. It includes stuff like that the milk must be kept under 4oC, mustn't be older than 48 hours, the tanks must be completely sterilized everytime new milk is brought etc.
These machines are for farmers, to allow them directly sell their product (milk in this case) to end customers.
 

Tullia

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In my language (czech) we also say unpasteurised (of course not exactly this way but the word is still very similar). But if raw is OK, I would prefer it as it's shorter. What do others think?

Raw's not wrong; I think you would be fine with it if space is an issue.

TomKQT said:
I don't know how it is in the UK, so far we've made only first few pieces of the vending machine and only for Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and now this one for the Republic of Ireland. I personaly didn't have to deal with the legal questions, but from what I know there really are very strict limitations, but when you meet them, you can sell milk this way. It includes stuff like that the milk must be kept under 4oC, mustn't be older than 48 hours, the tanks must be completely sterilized everytime new milk is brought etc. These machines are for farmers, to allow them directly sell their product (milk in this case) to end customers.

Sorry for going off-topic :) ROI may well have different legal requirements to the UK. I didn't mean to suggest your company was doing anything illegal: I was just interested because unpasteurised milk isn't very common here in the UK at all (and I've certainly never seen a milk vending machine!) and I wondered whether it was more common elsewhere. I actually like the taste of it, but it's quite hard to get in England unless you live near a farm or somewhere that has regular markets.
 

BobK

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A while ago you could by unpasteurized milk in bottles with green tops ('Two pints of siver-top and one pint of green-top please'). This was called 'raw milk'. (I don't think 'green-top' is on sale any more - Tullia's right.) But I don't have any problem with 'raw' here.

b
 

Tullia

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A while ago you could by unpasteurized milk in bottles with green tops ('Two pints of siver-top and one pint of green-top please'). This was called 'raw milk'. (I don't think 'green-top' is on sale any more - Tullia's right.) But I don't have any problem with 'raw' here.

b

I don't ever remember 'green-top' being easily available but then again, you are a little bit older than I am ;-)

It's interesting that the large plastic milk containers haven't used the same colour code that glass bottles and foil tops do. Green tops now mean just normal semi-skimmed milk (in the supermarkets near me at least). Blue is 'full fat' and red is skimmed... I miss milk in proper bottles with foil tops.
 

BobK

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I don't ever remember 'green-top' being easily available but then again, you are a little bit older than I am ;-)

It's interesting that the large plastic milk containers haven't used the same colour code that glass bottles and foil tops do. Green tops now mean just normal semi-skimmed milk (in the supermarkets near me at least). Blue is 'full fat' and red is skimmed... I miss milk in proper bottles with foil tops.

I suppose they didn't maintain the colour coding because gold and silver are hard to represent in plastic. Silver would become a funereal grey, and nobody would buy gold-top anyway (which was top-of-the-range in those pre-cholesterol-aware days; maybe it's blue - I don't know; I've never seen it.)

;-)
 
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