The new regulations on printing ink for food packaging material shall be in place by July 2019. FSSAI, the country’s apex food regulator, is working on the regulations, and it would take another year-and-a-half for the process to be complete. This was stated by Kumar Anil, advisor, standards, FSSAI, at the International Packaging Conclave-PackPlus, which took place at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, recently.

“Six months’ time after publishing is mandatory before any regulation comes into force. The regulations can only come into force from either July 1 or January 1. We would be able to publish the regulations by August this year, so the date of implementation effective would be July 1, 2019,” he added.

FSSAI is in process of drafting a regulation which will bring printing inks for food under the scope of the regulatory framework for food packaging. They were not regulated till now.

According to sources, the regulation shall refer to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards for printing inks for food packaging, where there is a list of chemicals which should not be used in printing inks. This new regulation will be beneficial for many, from brand owners to printers to consumers, and even from the regulatory point of view. Moreover, BIS has recommended a ban on the use of toluene in inks used in food packaging.

Ashish Pradhan, chief executive officer, Siegwerk India, said, “It is a big step forward by the regulatory body and will certainly push the industry to move towards healthy and safe packaging.”

“Globally, toluene has earned disrepute for its bad toxicology nature and is classified CMR category 2 (suspected of damaging the unborn child). The residual toluene in packaging impacts the organoleptic properties of the product leading to food quality and safety issues,” he added.

In India, 90 per cent of flexible market maufacturers use toluene. So, a ban on the use of toluene in the new draft will affect the business of many and might take a lot of time to get implemented.

However, Pradhan said, “Regulations don’t offer any alternative. All major industry players already have toluene-free inks, hence solutions are available, and there is no reason to describe this as a challenge for the industry. It may take anywhere between six months to a year to implement this regulation.”

He added, “The unfavourable toxicology properties of toluene is the reason why global brand owners like General Mills, Nestle, Ferrero, Perfetti and Wrigley’s have already joined this movement of going toluene-free by either restricting or even completely banning the usage of toluene in ink formulations intended for food packaging material of their products. Even various countries have banned toluene. These include China, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”

“Siegwerk India is the first and only printing ink manufacturing company in India to manufacture Swiss- and Nestle-compliant toluene-free inks in a completely toluene-free environment,” Pradhan said.

Speaking about the Siegwerk support to FSSAI, he added, “It’s not only about support to FSSAI, Siegwerk’s intent is to always contribute to consumer safety and we are ready to support the industry, association and authorities in whichever way we can. Siegwerk, for the past four or five years, has been continuously interacting across the supply chain to create more awareness on packaging safety, especially packaging inks.”

“Siegwerk’s Bhiwandi site is now toluene-free and does not use toluene in its manufacturing facility,” Pradhan said.