Printing inks for food packaging have to fulfill stringent requirements, such as those of the widely accepted Swiss Ordinance and the regulations of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) of the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA). At the European Coatings Show (ECS) from 4 to 6 April 2017 in Nuremberg, ECKART presents its portfolio, which meets these regulatory requirements and is suited for indirect food contact. The gold and silver pigments stand out due to their incomparable brilliance and are available for all current printing processes.

In addition to their product name, these low migration pastes and printing inks always carry the addition FPG (Food Packaging Grade). The products are mineral oil-free. The printing inks are produced in a separate production area. As a result, cross-contamination with other products is eliminated completely.

Eckart’s FPG products help to realize a wide variety of design ideas. Using FPG-pastes, in-house printing inks can be formulated individually. The ROTOSTAR FPG family offers pre-formulated gold and silver shades for aqueous and UV curing systems. For solvent-based systems, the PLATINSTAR and ULTRASTAR portfolios contain many new Food Packaging Grade varieties. The well-established METALSTAR FPG 11-series is suited for oil-based systems in offset printing.

Unique in the industry are the new non-leafing silver colors for UV curing: METALSTAR FPG 721 5000 n.l. for offset printing and ROTOSTAR FPG 77550 n.l. for flexo applications. They are based on non-leafing aluminum pigments and both ideally suited for coloring. The resulting metallic color shades turn out to be much purer than those based on formulations with leafing pigments. Due to the non-leafing properties, overprinting doesn’t create any problem whatsoever.

Further FPG-innovations are the LED curing products for flexo and offset printing: METALSTAR LED FPG 722-series for offset printing is already on the market; the LED colors for flexo printing will follow shortly.