Plastic, cardboard, glass and various metals. When assessing food safety, we often focus only on the quality and process of sourcing and preparing food without considering food packaging, which is an important part of the supply chain. There is no food that has not been in contact with a material at various stages of its life: from agricultural harvesting in plastic containers, to storage in silos, from food processing steps (drying, pressing, freezing, cooking, and so on), to packaging for distribution to arrive in our kitchens and on our tables.

The assessment of the suitability of Materials and Objects in Contact with Food (MOCA) is, therefore, part of the food safety chain and requires specific professionals who know the characteristics of the product and at the same time the technologies that regulate food packaging. This very topic is one of the three explored by Italy in the 2022 edition of #EUChooseSafeFood, the campaign launched in Europe by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) with the collaboration in Italy of the Ministry of Health. The other two topics covered are animal welfare and food supplements.

For a safe table

Not everyone knows that in certain cases certain chemicals that make up MOCAs can be released and transferred to food through contact, with possible damage to consumers’ health. For this reason, in Europe, all food contact materials are evaluated before their use and are only approved if they meet specific standards, which guarantee safe use.

MOCAs can be made of different materials, e.g. plastic, cardboard, metal or glass, alone or often in combination. The way and material in which food is packaged, distributed and cooked (in catering, in a restaurant or at home) is important not only to protect food from microorganisms and preserve it better and longer, but also to ensure sufficient chemical safety.

To ensure that the potential transfer to food does not cause safety problems, scientists assess the risks to consumers. The risk may depend on the chemicals used in the materials, but also on storage and sales conditions, such as temperature and humidity.

EU regulations, including those on MOCA, based on agreed scientific criteria, ensure that the composition of food is not changed, that the taste and smell of food is not adversely affected and, above all, that the consumer’s right to safe food is respected.

EU experts constantly assess and advise on the risks to consumers from the presence of chemicals in food from food contact materials. Industry has to implement and follow the rules and the public system monitors their correct application.

EU framework

Food contact materials must not transfer their components to food in unacceptable quantities (migration). It must therefore be ensured that during contact there is no migration of chemicals from the material to the food at levels that are not acceptable in terms of safety.

The general requirements to be met by all food contact materials are laid down in Framework Regulation EC 1935/2004. Good manufacturing practices for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food are described in EC Regulation 2023/2006. Specific EU regulations have also been issued for ceramics, regenerated cellulose film, plastics, recycled plastics and active and intelligent materials. In addition, there are EU directives on individual substances or groups of substances used in the manufacture of food contact materials.

di Sandra Riccio
29 SETTEMBRE 2022-AGGIORNATO ALLE 11:27
La sicurezza passa attraverso la scelta del contenitore
www.repubblica.it

L'articolo Safety comes through the choice of container proviene da Astor Carta.

From Brussels to Rome rebounds the alarm raised by companies in the paper industry. The message is simple: the production of books, newspapers, packaging and paper for the food industry is at risk because of the difficulty in finding raw materials, and when they can be bought, prices per tonne have reached another record high. An economic situation that is slowing down and progressively blocking activity in Italy and Europe. Assografici, which represents the graphic and paper converting industry in Italy, endorses the appeal launched at pan-European level by Intergraf, warning that the situation in the Peninsula is very serious. The publishing and commercial printing sector, already characterised by a structural crisis but able to show signs of settling down and holding its ground (-2.4% production in 2018 and +1% in 2019), has been strongly affected by the pandemic (-21.3% in 2020) and was now slowly recovering with +7.9% in the first 9 months of 2021. Now the recovery is at risk due to the international economic situation and the well-known increases in energy and raw material prices. In fact, printing processes with rotary presses are highly energy-intensive and are no longer sustainable; on the contrary, they are at great risk at a standstill, warns Assografici. Moreover, rising paper prices, which are difficult to pass on downstream to publishers and large-scale distributors, are eroding all margins in the business. To further aggravate this scenario, the extremely scarce availability of raw materials, particularly of paper for graphic use, mainly sourced abroad from the few remaining suppliers, prevents production planning, jeopardises the fulfilment of contractual commitments, and hampers any recovery path. So for the sector, which in Italy has about 14 thousand companies and over 76 thousand employees, it is an extremely problematic situation, but the risk in the short term of no longer being able to dispose of newspapers, books and many paper products for everyday use should worry every citizen and push the government to take targeted measures. We call for possible action, including international action, to remove certain bottlenecks that are further slowing down paper production, for generalised recognition of tax credits on paper, not only for newspaper publishers, but also for publishers of professional journals and books, especially school books.

Analysing the trend in the production of paper, cardboard and flexible packaging, the picture does not improve. Certainly for Italy some sectors are growing, as in the case of corrugated cardboard widely used by e-commerce platforms. Here, production is flying with +12.7% in the first nine months of 2021. Another help comes from the green transition that calls for biodegradability, recyclability and lightness of packaging, even those used for food products. However, even in these sectors there are difficulties in passing on increases in energy and raw material costs downstream, with an inevitable heavy effect on the economic viability of the business and the difficulty of finding paper and other raw materials. Several companies producing corrugated cartons have already halted or slowed down their activities due to a lack of paper for production, label manufacturers are at a standstill due to a lack of self-adhesive backings, and folding carton and packaging manufacturers are having to give up or postpone orders. At the country system level, there are more than 3 thousand companies with 60 thousand employees working in a sector worth 7.7 billion and with a trade balance surplus of 1.9 billion. On their activity depends, downstream, the ability to move goods of all kinds, in particular consumer packaged goods found on the shelves of supermarkets, pharmacies and shops in general. If the paper sector, as demonstrated in the midst of the pandemic, is recognised as strategic and essential for the country, then it must be made the subject of targeted measures to safeguard it from a potentially dangerous production stoppage.

di Enrico Netti
3 febbraio 2022
Allarme cartotecnica: a rischio la produzione di cartoni, imballaggi e libri
ilsole24ore.com

L'articolo Paper converting company alarm: production of cartons, packaging and books at risk proviene da Astor Carta.

The raw material used by this particular type of factory is mostly semi-finished products from paper mills, i.e., factories that convert raw materials such as water and cellulose into paper and cardboard.

The main difference between the paper and cardboard industry lies in the fact that the former actually supplies the latter with raw materials to be processed into finished objects.

Processing steps in a paper company

In a paper converting company, all the processing stages are carried out to produce paper or cardboard products. The various processing stages of the raw materials are carried out by specialised workers, who are called paper technicians.

Before becoming a box, a shopper or any type of container, the semi-finished product (paper or cardboard) has to undergo various processes, some of which are standard, while others depend on the artefact to be produced.

The processes that can be carried out within a paper converting company are essentially:

• Lamination
• Fitting
• Assembly
• Gluing
• Die-cutting
• Creasing and folding

Lamination is the first stage in the processing of the semi-finished product and involves the joining of two or more sheets to create a single sheet with a greater thickness and therefore more resistant.

Fitting is the flaking of a semi-finished product to prepare it for the next processing stage.

Die-cutting is the phase in which the substrate is cut according to a pattern, known as a die, which varies according to the product to be made.

Assembly, finally, is exactly the phase in which the product is composed by joining the elements that compose it.

Gluing is one of the final processes and involves the joining of the parts that need to be glued together.

Like gluing, creasing and folding are also processes that are carried out at the end of the production process. Creasing is the process by which the cardboard is softened and then folded.

Finally, there are special processes that are not inherent to the production of the products, but rather to their customisation, such as: fenestration and thermo-impression.

Fenestration consists of creating an opening on the envelope, and/or box, on which transparent plastic templates are applied, such as those that allow the product inside a container to be seen. Thermo-pressing, on the other hand, allows – by means of a hot printing process – printing, writing or decorations to be impressed on the object.

The art of papermaking in all its forms

In conclusion, what kind of artefacts does a paper converting company produce? A paper converting company produces any type of artefact that can be made from paper and cardboard: from packaging containers and shopping bags to window and shop displays.

Paper and cardboard are extremely versatile, inexpensive and environmentally friendly materials and can be used to create numerous types of artefacts. This is why, in recent years, the frontiers of cardboard are expanding more and more, encompassing other areas such as home design. Cardboard furniture and furnishings, in fact, represent the new trend in home furnishing.

Cit. eurocities.org
28 Ottobre 2020
Cosa fa e cosa produce un’azienda cartotecnica

L'articolo What a paper company does and what it produces proviene da Astor Carta.