Ink supplier Siegwerk has demonstrated its pioneering role in terms of product safety and sustainability by launching its new, low migration UV offset ink range Sicura Litho NutriEco. This innovative UV printing ink system, including overprint gloss varnish, was awarded Gold status of the “Cradle to Cradle Material Health Certification” by the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) at this year’s Cradle to Cradle experts’ meeting in May. Siegwerk is therefore the first ink manufacturer to market a low migration UV ink range that is suitable for cosmetics and food applications and complies with the highest international environmental research-related product standards.

As part of the ink development project Siegwerk partnered closely with Werner & Mertz GmbH, an innovative brand owner that is now set to utilize this new, sustainable range of UV offset inks for its printing labels. Despite its currently limited color gamut and its suitability for a limited range of substrate, from now on, Siegwerk is also making Sicura Litho NutriEco available to all other interested customers.

“We attach maximum importance to product safety and always make any effort to further improve the environmental footprint of our inks while upholding a strong ink performance. The EPEA’s Gold certification underlines the fact that we are on the right track here,” says Jorg-Peter Langhammer, VP Global HSE + Sustainability at Siegwerk. “It is a special honor for us, to actively support Werner & Mertz’s Recyclate Initiative by the development of these certified UV inks and thus fill another gap in the overall development of sustainable labels and packaging in line with the Cradle to Cradle principle.”

According to the EPEA, Cradle to Cradle is a design concept that is inspired by the nature and represents innovation, quality and good product design. In particular, it is about the safe and potentially infinite use of materials and nutrients in cycles. This means that products are rated or benchmarked in terms of production, use and recycling. EPEA also monitors whether there are continuous product optimization processes in place, which pave the way for improved compatibility between humans and their natural environment. By awarding Material Health Gold certification, the independent Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute in San Francisco (USA) is acknowledging compliance with stringently defined

“Cradle to Cradle Chemical Profiling Methodology” benchmarking criteria are applied to all components and ingredients of the product in question. Gold certification is also only awarded to those products, which contain absolutely no substances listed in the so-called “list of banned chemicals”, and which do not pose any carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproduction-toxic (CMR) risks whatsoever. “We want to use this ‘Cradle to Cradle Certified’ label to provide consumers, the industry peers and regulators with a transparent and tangible validation of the quality and safety of a product.” explains Albin Kalin, CEO of EPEA Switzerland. “The Gold certification awarded to Siegwerk’s printing inks therefore attests not only the chemical safety of printed ink layers to humans and environment, but also safe recycling of printed product packaging in currently established materials cycles.”