EuPIA-Guideline
EuPIA-Guideline
In October 2005, the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA) published a Guideline relating to printing inks for food packaging:
The most important pronouncements of the Guideline are:
- Raw materials shall be selected in accordance with the Selection Scheme specified
- Inks shall be produced in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practices GMP
Printing inks and overprint varnishes that satisfy this Guideline are suitable for the manufacture of legal food packaging as long as the following requirements are met:
- The printed or overprint varnished surfaces shall not come into direct contact with food
- Visible set-off must be prevented
The following criteria apply when selecting the raw materials, in accordance with the Selection Scheme laid down in the Guideline:
Colorants (pigments) must comply with the specifications of Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1
The following raw materials are not used:
- CMR substances (carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction)
- Substances classified as ‘toxic’ or ‘very toxic’
- Raw materials based on the toxic metals antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium (VI), lead, mercury or selenium
- All substances whose use is restricted by EU Directive 76/769/EEC.
- The global migration limit and specific migration limits (SML) of individual substances in the finished packaging must be complied with.
For the migration of substances with a molecular weight < 1000 Da the following limits apply:
- < 10 ppb*) in case of insufficient toxicological data
- < 50 ppb if three negative mutagenicity tests are available
- > 50 ppb up to the SML if supported by favourable toxicological data and/or evaluation done in accordance with the EFSA (BfR, FDA) Guidelines
*) This migration limit is subject to the following deadlines: up to 50 ppb to be achieved by December 2010, up to 10 ppb by 2015.
Implementation of the EuPIAGuideline in the hubergroup:
For the majority of migration-capable solvents used in commercially available sheet-fed offset inks the available toxicological data are Insufficient. The hubergroup's MGA ink series puts the group in the unique position of being the first to already meet the requirements laid down in the EuPIA-Guideline that must be fulfilled by 2015.
All potential migrants contained in MGA sheet-fed offset inks, water-based coatings and fount concentrates are approved in the EU member states or in an FDA regulation for direct contact with food.
All products are manufactured in separate production plants in line with the GMP specifications in order to prevent contamination with undesirable substances.