Safe packaging inks for consumer safety

Packaging is an essential tool to make products stand out from the competition. Beyond the shelf appeal, packaging also provides protection to the contents from physical, chemical and microbiological hazards. However, a lesser-known fact is that the same packaging material could also be a source of chemical contaminants, and hence, may impact food safety as well as food quality.

Among the different components of packaging material, packaging inks play a critical role as they might hamper product and consumer safety. Each packaging ink is a mixture of different chemicals and some of these chemicals might be harmful with the potential to migrate to the foodstuff when getting in contact. In terms of risk, the chemicals could be toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, repro-toxic and even endocrine disruptors. The chemical contaminants from the packaging inks can get transferred to the foodstuff by a process called migration.

Concept of safe, compliant and migration optimised inks

Compliance in packaging safety needs to be based on these three pillars:

• Legal requirements
• Brand owner requirements
• Self-commitments

Each supply chain partner (including the ink manufacturer, adhesive manufacturer and substrate manufacturer) needs to be aware of the legal requirements (relevant for a particular region) for their component of the packaging structure and must build systematic processes to ensure delivery of consistent and safe products. If the packaging material needs to be exported, the legal requirements of the importing country must also be given due consideration.

Brand owners, with their global footprints, sometimes have their own specific requirements for packaging safety beyond the legal requirements of the countries (especially developing countries like India). Each supply chain partner needs to make themselves aware of such requirements and upgrade their products to comply with such norms, in order to offer same level of consumer safety across all regions.

Each supply chain partner is responsible for their own products and formulations. Hence, it becomes the ethical responsibility of supply chain partner to deliver safe products (with only safe chemicals in their formulations) and also update the authorities and brand owners on such initiatives to benefit the society at large.

Compliance can never be achieved through an isolated approach since each packaging structure is a mixture of different components (including substrate, ink and varnishes), and hence, there should be an open and transparent communication across the supply chain on the requirements, as well as on the risk assessment of the individual components of the packaging structure.

Bangladesh market needs to evolve on the concepts of packaging safety and there is an immediate need to develop regulations on the subject of packaging safety and Packaging inks. Moreover,  the supply chain has to work together in a step-wise manner to deliver safe packaging to keep consumers safe from chemical contaminants among which there can be chemicals which can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic as well as endocrine disruptors.