Consumables

Increased safety for food packaging: MGA

Monday 09. June 2008 - One of the most important innovations introduced by the hubergroup in the packaging printing sector is the MGA ink and coating system.

The hubergroup’s MGA system is a series of inks and coatings that ensures printed packages do not contaminate their contents. 90% of all foodstuffs sold on the Western European market are packaged: given that fact, this is a significant contribution towards consumer protection. Most of the sheet-fed offset inks commonly used today to print food packaging made of folding boxboard fulfil this demand only to a limited degree.

Interaction between packaging and the contents inside can take three different forms.
Due to the nature of the production process, the side of the stock that will face the package contents in the finished article comes into contact with the printed side while on the press (in the stack or on the reel). This means there is a possibility of ink constituents, such as solvents, being transferred. These substances can come into contact with the package contents (the food) and then transfer to the food: this is known as “migration”.

What’s more, substances of low molecular weight can also migrate through the substrate and onto the food.

Thirdly, volatile substances can transfer through the enclosed air space inside the packaging and to the food.

Until now, it has been the avoidance of organoleptic changes (changes of odour and taste) through the air space that has mainly been considered. Measurement and minimisation of substance transfers in the form of invisible set-off and migration is relatively new.
In Europe, folding boxes are primarily printed in the sheet-fed offset process. The inks used in the offset process generally use mineral oils or low-molecular fatty acid esters as their solvent. Board, paper, coatings and bags made of PE and OPP provide absolutely no barrier to these substances. This means that the solvents named above are able to migrate through the substrate.

Not the case with the MGA system from the hubergroup. MGA inks, coatings and fount concentrates are organoleptically neutral. MGA contains only substances that are not capable of migration or that are approved in the EU member states or in an FDA regulation for direct contact with food. This precludes any influence on package contents. This can only be achieved as long as the sensitive design and production process of MGA products complies strictly with the requirements of “Good Manufacturing Practice” (GMP): universal optimisation of the entire process chain, logging of each and every production step and the prevention of contamination through conventional inks and ink components.

The hubergroup’s MGA system provides food packaging printers with innovative products, optimised processes and end-to-end solutions. And food processing companies benefit from increased safety for their sensitive products.