Siegwerk's commitment to the safest inks and coatings

Packaging plays an important role to protect food from contamination. Printing inks are an integral part of the packaging and are important because of their function to provide visual information, brand awareness, and as decorative of the packaging. Packaging safety still remains a highly important topic as no food is safe without proper packaging.

As global printing inks and coatings manufacturer, Siegwerk is making every effort to develop the safest inks and coatings for food packaging worldwide. To date, Siegwerk has established itself as a global leader in safe packaging solutions and has already helped numerous brand owners with its expertise in terms of food safety and systematic processes to ensure regulatory compliance and avoid food contamination risks.

Siegwerk not only offers toluene-free packaging inks, but also helps printers to switch to these safer solutions and thus to meet the increasing requirements of brand owners banning the usage of Toluene in ink formulations intended for food packaging material. Toluene is a well known solvent that has been classified as suspected of damaging the unborn child. Furthermore, when printing with toluene-based inks, there is an immanent risk of residual toluene in packaging being transferred to the packed food and beverages which impacts the organoleptic properties of the product thus leading to food quality and safety as well as legal compliance issues.

Towards the end of 2023 the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam announced and issued National Standard "Printing ink for food packaging – General requirements". Toluene is now one of the prohibited substances in ink formulation according to the Vietnam-TCVN 13928:2023. Some printers/converters have already switched to safe options.