Safe printing – safe packaging

Gerhardshofen, – the packaging industry is on the move and due to various recent food scandals planning to make the food packaging sector and associated industrial sectors such as the tobacco industry even safer than before. The relevant laws are being tightened up and the choice of suitable substrates, inks, varnishes and adhesives minimised. That is good for protecting consumers, but is a cause of sustained uncertainty for many service providers.

It is for this reason that the company WEILBURGER Graphics has re-catalogued its complete range of products and re-evaluated it in terms of its food conformity in accordance with current statutory requirements and the recommendations issued by the key testing institutes and certifying bodies FABES and ISEGA as well as by the Swiss Commodities Act SR 817.023.21.

In its recently published product manual, WEILBURGER Graphics presents its reworked product class list and provides its customers and other interested parties with comprehensive information on the application options of the individual product classes in direct and indirect contact with food in accordance with current statutory provisions as well as with more detailed information on the subject and related areas.

A main focus of the new product catalogue is the new identification number system that enables the food packaging-related applicability for each class and product to be identified by way of simple number codes. The roll-out of the new identification number system is to be launched on 1 September 2011.

In addition, WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH has on the basis of the excellent level of acceptance of the dying of food-compliant UV lacquers introduced in 2009 for enhanced differentiation purposes in the printing room decided to dye dispersion coatings suitable for food industry use too with immediate effect.

Günter Korbacher, managing director of WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH, comments: 'We have considered the standardised production of safe food packaging and associated products to be an urgent necessity for many years. Only by way of clear statutory requirements, suitable varnishes, inks, adhesives and substrates and complete inspection chains throughout the entire industry will we be in a position to guarantee comprehensive and sustained consumer protection. That this will have implications for all involved in the process chain must be clear to everyone. Our experience shows that the current uncertainty experienced by users is however largely based on the lack or inadequacy of information provided by the manufacturers. As such, our aim once again is to set a good example and provide our customers with absolute certainty in general and specifically in the production of food-compliant packaging by way of comprehensive information, clear cataloguing and a well-conceived product range that already takes future statutory requirements into account.'

The new 28-page product manual is available in German, English, Spanish and Polish in a handy DIN A6 format directly from WEILBURGER Graphics and can be downloaded as a digital PDF version from the company's website.

For further information go to www.weilburger-graphics.de