Safety and hygiene are the primary factors

Food safety has always been a never-ending topic. Especially in recent years, frequent food safety incidents have made food companies pay more attention to food safety. The safety of food packaging is very important to the safety of food. Therefore, as a very important type of packaging in food packaging - cartons, its hygiene and safety are one of the first factors that food companies must consider.

From the perspective of food hygiene and safety, no matter whether the food carton is in direct or indirect contact with food, it must meet the basic requirements of no pollution, cleanliness, and safety. From the perspective of technology, enterprises can focus on controlling food safety and hygiene from the aspects of base paper, ink, varnish, coating materials and adhesives.

Base paper is the source link of product hygiene quality control. The selection of base paper that meets the hygienic standards is of great significance to the quality control of food packaging and printing. According to the relevant requirements of the national food packaging base paper hygiene standards, food packaging paper must not use waste paper and socially recycled waste paper as raw materials, and must not use fluorescent whitening agents or chemical additives that have an impact on the human body. The sensory indicators of base paper require normal color, no peculiar smell and no dirt; besides base paper, ink is also an important factor related to the safety and hygiene of carton packaging. Ink is the basic material for food carton printing, and bad ink is the main source of food carton pollution. To print food cartons by offset printing, it must be printed with inks made of synthetic pigments and synthetic resins free of heavy metals and organic solvents.

In terms of laminating materials and adhesives, enterprises must not be negligent. Due to the different product characteristics, some food outer packaging cartons use the film coating process, and some window cartons also use the base film. Film materials directly or indirectly affect food safety, so the characteristics of film materials are particularly important. Film lithography used for food packaging should also be non-toxic, tasteless and meet the requirements of food safety and hygiene; finally, for adhesive products, it must also be non-toxic, tasteless and benzene-free organic solvents, so as to Ensure that packaging and food are free from direct or indirect contamination. Therefore, from the perspective of health, safety, and sanitation, the use of water-based adhesives to bond food cartons is more in line with environmental protection requirements.