Henkel will focus on food packaging safety through its time at Interpack next week.
With its Food Safe Packaging Initiative, Henkel takes a closer look at adhesive-related aspects of food packaging. It now invites collaborators along the food packaging value chain to an open dialogue at this year’s Interpack fair in Düsseldorf. At Interpack, Henkel presents product innovations that, in addition to being food safe, increase production efficiency and operational safety for its customers.
Monika Tönniessen, Manager for Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs, said: “Packaging is the unsung, versatile hero of the food supply chain - it has to be attractive and convenient. Most of all, however, it must keep the food safe and protect it from adverse environmental factors like light, pressure or contamination. Of course, packaging also has to be food safe itself.
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Monika Tonniessen, Henkel
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Food pack bags
“Food safety in this sense means minimising the risk of undesired substances migrating from packaging into the foodstuff. Migration of so-called chemicals under discussion is a complex field. And the regulatory legislation is of equal complexity. This is leading to a need for guidance and transparency in the market. Therefore, creating transparency for our customers is at the heart of our commitment to food safety.”
This commitment to transparency includes broadening its communication on food safe packaging to address a wider range of stakeholders – from experts like packaging developers and food safety managers to generalists like plant managers, brand owners, retailers – and even consumers.
It means sharing adhesive expertise right from development phase of packaging, through to running safe processes during packaging operations to ultimately having the right documentation to prove safety for customers. Beyond this, Henkel is providing its customers with clarity on the ingredients of adhesive solutions.
Specifically designed for film-film and film-foil laminates, which have to show an increased resistance to aggressive fillings or hot water during boiling procedures, Ultra Low Monomer adhesives contain only a minimum amount of free isocyanate monomers. They reduce the amount of primary aromatic amines (PAA) that could be formed from the outset. Loctite Liofol LA 3712 / LA 6222 is one of these adhesives. It is a 2-K solvent based laminating adhesive for medium to medium-high performance that is PAA-free right after lamination. It can be used for a large variety of laminates and sets a new industry benchmark in food safety. With an isocyanate monomer content far below 0.1 per cent, it will be exempted from further regulation under the ECHA proposal for a restriction on diisocyanates.
Interpack - Hall 7, booth C10.