UV - It's Good ... But Be Careful

Zubair Khan, director technical development—energy curable products for Environmental Inks and Coatings, stresses the importance of monitoring extractables when running UV inks or coatings for indirect contact with food packaging and being wary of different ink products that are offered throughout the industry. "Printers have to be careful about the low-extractable products being offered by some companies. Unless printers have tight control over their processes, ensuring the highest degree of cure and repeatable print reproduction using low-extractable products, they should not venture into this area of food packaging using UV technology," he said. He offered cationic UV inks as a still-popular technology for indirect contact with food applications due to their advantage of post curing, which results in a high degree of cure.