Henkel is now offering low migration versions of its water-based adhesives under the Adhesin brand, which the company says will “ensure that practically no substances can migrate from the adhesive to the food”.
Up to now, the Düsseldorf-based industrial group says, there has been a “potential risk” that substances could migrate from an adhesive into the interior of the package, particularly in the case of many dry foods with a long shelf life packaged using dispersion adhesives with paper and board folding boxes, bags or sacks.
In its Adhesin Low Migration series, Henkel claims to have “eliminated plasticizers completely” – including those accumulated in paper fibres used in paper and board produced via the paper recycling loop – and to have minimized the use of other substances with a potential migration risk, offering: “The greatest possible safety for packaging manufacturers and consumer goods producers.”
“The packaging industry frequently overlooks the risk of migration from adhesives,” says Oliver Klewe, Henkel marketing manager paper converting Europe. “A really low migration package, however, demands the right combination of paper, printing inks and adhesives.”
Since the adhesives in the Adhesin Low Migration series contain no plasticizers whatsoever, Henkel says it is now possible to completely avoid the contamination of foods by adhesives.
The new products comply with Recommendation XIV of BfR, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment – a recommendation applying to plastic dispersions intended for contact with food, which aims to reduce the contamination of recycled papers with entrained plasticizers.
