FDA Approved Food-Safe Printing
At SunDance we specialize in FDA approved food-safe and drug-safe printing. We stock the appropriate inks and materials, and can even set up a dedicated clean room to complete your project. We are AIB International certified for food-safe packaging and printing. We’ve combined our expertise in packaging design, digital printing, and lamination with the latest in food-safe substrates, inks, and coatings to produce safe and high-quality food, drug, and cosmetic packaging.
Food-safe inks are those certified by the FDA as safe for either direct or indirect contact with food. Using them requires carefully washing the previous ink off the press and documentation verifying that a particular food-safe low migration ink was used. There are also specific food-safe coatings and lamination barriers, as well as a variety of FDA certified food-safe papers, from board stock for boxes to to parchment-type paper for lining trays or wrapping sandwiches. Even package inserts need to be made of food-safe material, printed with food-safe ink.
FDA Regulations and Good Manufacturing Practices
In the United States food, drug, and cosmetic packaging falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA requires these materials to be manufactured under strict safety and cleanliness practices. Packaging must be suitable for its intended use (hot, cold, wet, dry, intended shelf life, distribution considerations, and product lifetime). All of these aspects are important to ensure packaging maintains its effectiveness over the product’s lifetime.
Good Manufacturing Practice regulations assure the identity, strength, quality, and purity of food and drug products by requiring that manufacturers adequately control operation and facility conditions. This includes establishing strong quality management systems, obtaining quality materials, establishing robust operating procedures and, maintaining reliable testing. These practices assure that food and drug products meet the necessary quality standards.
Direct Contact vs Indirect Contact
Direct contact covers anything that has planned contact with a food or drug product, such as a food wrapper, box without an internal bag, paper insert, or anything else the food, drug, or device will likely touch.
Indirect contact covers anything that may be close enough to the product to have contact with it. For example: if you have a bagged product in a box, the box needs to be approved for indirect food contact. A tray liner at a fast food restaurant needs to be safe for indirect food contact because a sandwich might be placed on it, or it might be used for ketchup and fries where the consumer could inadvertently ingest small amounts of the tray liner or its ink.
Direct Additives vs Indirect Additives
Under FDA guidelines direct additives are substances that are intended to be consumed in food as ingredients. These include preservatives, flavoring agents, gums, and anti-caking agents.
Indirect additives are used in processing, packaging, holding, and transporting food. These additives have no functional effect in the food, but may become components of food or otherwise affect the characteristics of it. Inks and coatings usually fit within this definition of food additives.
Good Manufacturing Practices require that the quantity of indirect additive used in a food-safe product is not more than what is reasonably required to accomplish the intended physical or technical effect. The substance must be of a suitable purity for the intended use, and must not impart an adverse taste or odor to a food product.
SunDance has the expertise to walk you through the process of creating and producing items using both direct and indirect additives, for a safe and fully compliant end-product.
Food-Safe Printing Materials
The materials food-safe inks are printed on must also be approved for their specific application. We use FDA-approved papers, specially formulated cardboards, adhesives, plastics, and more to develop a completely food-safe end product. SunDance also has the ability to print on FDA-approved kosher print stocks to create beautiful food and beverage packages, boxes, wrappers or printed containers.
We offer both standard CMYK (four-color process) food-safe inks and along with custom order spot color options. And our food-safe aqueous coating can be used to protect printed items that come in direct contact with food like wrappers, food containers, shelf or tray liners.
Beyond Food-Safe: Cook the Book
A particularly memorable project of ours was for the advertising firm working for the frozen-food company Stouffers. They wanted a memorable new option, and together we made a cookbook you can cook that was sold in Barnes & Noble. Not only was it FDA food-safe compliant, it was created with food-safe inks and pages you could actually cook with! This was one of the projects that required us to create a designated clean room facility.
Whether you need packaging or printed material for food, drugs, supplements, CBD/cannabis, or other items, contact us to get your project started and see how SunDance can be a one-stop shop to meet your needs.
