Food Grade Ink

Hi All,

Please help, I am ntrying to figure out how necessary food grade ink is???? I have been advised by a printer sales representative that "food grade ink" is only suitable for printing directly onto product..... I find this hard to belive......

However my question is if the product is already packaged & then goes into a carton & thereafter a "master carton" is it necessary to have food grade ink? Please help

Thanks.

The first problem is to define what a "Food Grade Ink" is.

For something to be food grade, it must be proven not impart any harm to the consumer (my definition - I don't believe that there is a statutory definition anywhere)

There is very little positive information from ink suppliers and their specifications nearly always have a get out statement somewhere saying that the user must satisfy themselves that the ink is suitable for the application.

I am attaching the European Printing Ink Association guidance which you may find useful. (I think it is the most recent). There is also a 'Swiss List', which I cannot find at the moment unfortunately, but does give some additional detail and examples.

Your description suggests that the ink is being applied only to an outer carton with at least 2 barriers between it and the food. From this I would think that any ink will be OK, subject of course to an adequate risk assessment which looks at the permiabilty of the layers and the application method.

I hope I have understood your post correctly

I'm not sure what the rules and regulations are in South Africa. In the US, there is direct and indirect contact. Direct meaning the product contacts the food, indirect meaning there is a functional barrier between the ink and food product. Having said that, there is only one ink manufacturer in the US that has an ink approved for direct food contact.

Again, not knowing the rules and regulations in your country, it sounds like if you had an ink approved for indirect food contact, it could be used to mark the outside of the master cartons.

Dear Ashnee,

I remember the question of food grade inks has occurred previously on this forum.

In addition to Foodworker's attachment i recall various other organisations are active in Europe (especially Germany from memory).

You might try searching the forum for "printing ink" or similar. ("ink" won't work, not enough letters. "inks" might work).

I also believe automatic lines for packaging/labelling/coding, eg by ink-jet, sometimes include safety data sheets, eg toxicological, for all components, including the ink.

Rgds / Charles.C