With its Ink Safety Portal, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA, an international supplier of printing inks for packaging applications and labels, has created an expert platform offering knowledge on crucial product safety and regulatory (PSR) topics.

The information includes printing ink ingredients, regulatory affairs requirements, exposure assessments and safety evaluations, and more. The Ink Safety Portal was first launched in 2017 and offers customers a diverse collection of key elements relating to safe printing inks and safe food packaging. Siegwerk now has added new services and resources to further improve the usability of the portal.

“As consumers become increasingly critical of health-related aspects and personal well-being, more scrutiny has been placed on how products they consume are packaged,” says Evert Delbanco, director of food safety and toxicology.” With our Ink Safety Portal, we’ve created a comprehensive knowledge database bundling our expertise and making it available to customers and other interested parties.

Available now, the following new features added to the Ink Safety Portal make it an even more valuable tool for Siegwerk customers. This is a sample of what’s new:

A Worst Case Calculator allows users to determine the maximum amount of substances that could lead, in the worst case, to migrate into packaged food. The calculator offers in a user-friendly style different variables to determine the exact results: migrant name or chemical identifier, content of migrant in solid ink film, dry ink applied per square meter, area coverage of ink and surface-to-mass ratio. If the results of the worst case calculation for the packaged food unit are lower than the applicable thresholds, no further measures are required. If not, users will need to perform further refinements, such as migration modeling or migration testing, for which Siegwerk’s Ink Safety Portal also offers valuable guidance and support services.

Another new resource on the portal is a video which explains “NIAS”, or Non-Intentionally Added Substances. The term “NIAS” refers to all chemical substances, which are not intentionally added and do not have an intended and specific function within the ink formulation. These can be, for example, impurities in the raw materials, a reaction intermediate formed during the production process or a decomposition product. To ensure consumers are not harmed by any substances migrating from packaged material, all “NIAS” are subject to risk assessments conducted by Siegwerk product safety experts.

Siegwerk’s global commitment to product safety is based on proactive transparency and shared responsibility along the entire packaging value chain with the manufacture and marketing of safe inks. “Our product safety guidance includes global regulatory initiatives, brand owner requirements, and safety and risk assessments targeting raw materials to end use applications,” explains Jörg-Peter Langhammer, vice president, Global HSE.

The Ink Safety Portal underlines the company’s claim to differentiate itself from competition through high-quality services in the field of product safety. “Sharing knowledge with customers is just one important component of this approach. Safe and legally compliant quality products form the basis for customer trust – a key element for long-term relationships,” adds Delbanco.

To ensure the safety of its customers’ products, Siegwerk offers a complete range of migration-optimized inks and varnishes for all printing processes and supports its customers with training courses on all matters of food safety and regulatory compliance.