Advice on the use of printing inks on food and packs

Printing equipment specialist Domino has produced advice for companies in the food supply chain to clarify the regulations and guidelines that govern use of inks for food packaging as well as coding and marking.

The advice covers situations where printing is either direct on to food or on to packaging, using continuous ink jet techniques.

While the inks used for coding and marking in food production which comprises ‘use by’ or ‘sell by’ dates or batch numbers constitutes a fraction of all printed inks used in the food packaging process, the rules surrounding their use are complex in their application in different countries.

Domino’s white paper, titled ‘Inks for food packaging’, outlines the key regulations (EU and non-EU) and related issues, such as migration of inks from packaging into food and migration in the offset printing process.

The advice also explores the effectiveness of different substrates in providing adequate barrier protection against the risk of migration.

Contact: Domino