"Green" Requirements for Food Flexible Packaging

At present, the health and safety of food has become a concern of the whole nation, but people have failed to pay equal attention to the health and safety of food packaging. The world's largest flexible packaging manufacturer - Alcan Baobo Holdings Co., Ltd., the world's largest supplier of water-based adhesives - Rohm and Haas China, the world leader in environmental protection inks - Switzerland Sikh The "Food Packaging Hygiene and Safety Symposium" jointly held by Bai (Shanghai) Ink Co., Ltd. was recently held in Beijing. The purpose of the three foreign-funded enterprises holding this seminar was to want Chinese counterparts to pay attention to and solve problems in food packaging products. Efforts will be made to bring relevant standards of the Chinese food packaging industry into line with international standards.

According to the results of the latest sampling of food packaging bags (films) announced by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine at the end of September, the sampling failure rate was as high as 15%, of which the main quality issue was that the hygienic indicators did not meet the standards and the physical and mechanical properties of the products were poor. In food flexible packaging, plastic film accounts for 70% of the total composition, adhesives account for 10%, ink accounts for 10%, and others account for 10%.

At present, there are certain health problems and hidden dangers in the production and application of domestic flexible packaging products. The harmful substances such as benzene, toluene, etc., which are largely discharged into the air during the production of food flexible packaging, not only pollute the environment, but also pose a danger to the health of workers and consumers, and organic solvents may remain between the composite membranes. As time passes, it migrates from the surface of the membrane to the food, causing it to degenerate and taste bad.

Qian Qian, the secretary general of the China Packaging Technology Association, believes that there are more and more types of green food on the market, but many green foods are not green. Green packaging should use environmentally friendly packaging materials, printing inks and adhesives. While China's packaging industry has grown rapidly, it must pay attention to hygiene and environmental protection, allowing consumers to be assured of the food itself and also be confident about the health status of food packaging. This requires the joint efforts of the entire society.

At present, adhesives for flexible packaging in Europe and the United States have gradually shifted to water-based and solvent-free products, while alcohol-soluble inks have replaced toluene inks as major trends in Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Foreign countries have noticed the environmental protection issues of food flexible packaging, and many countries have Both regions and regions have established corresponding laws and regulations. Relevant experts believe that compared with developed countries, the regulations in this area need to be improved.