Packaging
Drent Goebel acquires Safety Food Certificates
Thursday 22. May 2008 - New Milestone with Declaration of Compliance
Drent Goebel has successfully proven that the offset press VSOP 850 can produce a pet food bag with UV offset inks, which is within the migration limits set by European legislation.
“Not only have we proven that we are able to produce pet food bags, we have also proven that we are able to print any kind of food or animal feed bag with a laminate structure of OPP/OPP. This material structure is widely used in the field of packing snacks, candies, cookies and waffles,” says Oliver Thiele, sales manager and head of the Drent Goebel project team, which took care of the certification.
Gravure and flexo printers who print with either solvent or water-based inks dominate the market for flexible packaging. When printing offset inks on film material, Drent Goebel needs to apply energy curing systems (UV or EB) to cure the inks on such flexible materials.
By being able to present such a declaration of compliance the printer has a proof that his products do comply with the latest regulations in terms of migration limits. With this declaration of compliance Drent Goebel is able to support their customers in a way in which the builder of the offset presses has proven that UV / UV inert / EB offset is fit for purpose and must be seriously considered as a viable alternative to gravure and flexo.
Oliver Thiele: “Considering the full-sleeve technology of the VSOP, and the declaration of compliance achieved for food applications, we can say that the VSOP is an ideal press for any flexible packing printer in the field, who is looking for an alternative for printing short and medium runs profitably.”
Kuhlmann Institute
Oliver Thiele explains the process of getting the approval. “Initially we teamed up with several ink and material suppliers; also we looked for partners in the industry who were able to produce various laminate structures for us. Then we tried to identify the most common material combinations in the market (cookies, candies, chocolate, coffee, soups, etc.).
Having identified what the most commonly used laminates are, we started printing with various types of inks on various materials. During this process we considered the printability of the inks, their initial adhesion on the material, odor, and laminating capabilities.
With the results we did trials with the example of the pet food bag. Once the products were ready, we sent samples to the Kuhlmann Institute in Germany for them to do the various migration tests. It turned out that many of the samples did comply with the current regulations.”
Best inks in the market
Thiele adds: “Offset is a newcomer in this field. Therefore we needed to find the best partners with the best inks in the market. Also, we had to review our press design and consider all chemicals, which are currently being used in the VSOP. Every detail in the press needed to be attended to in order to ensure that it is not a source of contamination.”
This Declaration of Compliance is for the VSOP 850. In principle there is no reason why it should not work on any of our other press models. Drent Goebel is able to achieve the same results on any other VSOP.
Oliver Thiele: “We will not stop here. We have many more packaging jobs in the pipeline for testing and certification. Thanks to our showroom press in Eerbeek, the Netherlands, we can run trials on a daily basis and team up with printers to prove the feasibility of the VSOP for them.”