Epple Druckfarben AG, Sun Chemical Develop New Direct Food Contact Ink System for Packaging

Society and business are increasingly demanding sustainably produced, recyclable and plastic-free food packaging. Epple Druckfarben AG presents its BoFood® DFC system as a new printing ink system for printing on packaging.

The offset printing inks for direct food contact (DFC) are suitable for paper packaging and are also available with immediate effect in Europe from Sun Chemical under the name SunPak® DirectFood Plus.

The BoFood DFC system is the logical evolution of BoFood Organic, the offset printing ink series by Epple for safe printing on primary food packaging. The new BoFood DFC system allows for the safe, direct contact of inks with food on the inside of paper packaging.

This system was developed thanks to a great deal of hard work by the analytical team at Epple Druckfarben AG and along with Sun Chemical, who analyzed and evaluated the raw materials, semi-finished products, and final printing inks. All the raw materials used in the BoFood DFC system have been evaluated and approved for use in coatings with direct food contact.

The raw material selection and entire manufacturing process as well as the incoming and outgoing goods inspections are subject to the strict requirements of GMP Regulation (EC) No. 2023/2006.

The new BoFood DFC system with its greatly enhanced color space offers impressive print-ing with stable pigmentation and exceptional runnability along with greater color vibrancy and accuracy. The process stability of the new ink system rivals other proven low-migration standard inks. Sun Chemical, the partner for SunPak DirectFood Plus, has verified this stability in industrial tests with leading European finishing partners.

Once again, Epple Druckfarben AG is helping to advance sustainable and safe packaging printing with its R&D work into DFC sheet-fed offset inks with a successful collaboration between Epple and Sun Chemical.

The result of their ongoing partnership with Sun Chemical introduces even more printers to the application of this innovative technology. In addition, with its inks and coatings from the BoFood product family, Epple Druckfarben AG provides its printing customers, distribution partners and brand manufacturers with a way of making full use of plastic-free packaging.

Stefan Schülling, member of the Executive Board at Epple Druckfarben AG, welcomes the deepening collaboration with Sun Chemical.

“We are extremely proud of creating a worldwide patented offset ink that has been ap-proved for printing on the inside of food packaging,” Schülling said. “The new DFC ink sys-tems from Epple and Sun Chemical enable printers to better address customer demands for eye-catching, high-quality and food-safe packaging.”

“These pigmented sheetfed printing inks jointly developed with Epple enable our custom-ers to offer a broader range of recyclable packaging to brand owners,” added Nicolas Betin, director of product strategy EMEA and global sustainability business leader at Sun Chemical. “We are delighted to be collaborating with Epple to provide our customers in Europe with the most advanced DFC ink technology available under the SunPak DirectFood Plus brand name.”