Sun Chemical’s flagship food packaging offset inkset, SunPak FSP, which is based on renewable bio-based materials, has achieved a new standard in eco-friendliness through a combination of compliance and sustainability. Not only is the popular inkset, which has achieved double digit sales growth across Europe each year since its launch, fully compliant with all existing food packaging legislation worldwide, but it has also been independently tested to prove the high level of its environmental sustainability.
The analysis of SunPak FSP was carried out by Beta Analytic, the world leader in Carbon-14 measurements since 1979, at its testing laboratory in Florida, USA. There Beta Analytic measured the ratio of radiocarbon in the inkset relative to a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) modern reference standard (SRM 4990C) and the results were accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation, the highest level of recognized quality any testing or calibration laboratory can attain.
The ratio of radiocarbon was calculated as a percentage and reported as the percentage of “Biobased Carbon”, which indicates the percentage of carbon in the inkset from “natural” (plant-based) sources versus “synthetic” (petrochemical) sources. The test showed that, on average, 77 percent of the total organic carbon in the inks in the SunPak FSP range is biobased carbon content, with only 23 percent being fossil carbon, of which the majority relates to pigments.
“For some years Sun Chemical has been working to promote sustainable solutions, such as SunPak FSP, and our ongoing approach to sustainability guides the way we develop, manufacture and distribute products, as well as how we work with our customers and suppliers,” said Felipe Mellado, Chief Marketing Officer and Board Member at Sun Chemical. “It’s therefore gratifying now to be able to provide independent evidence of the sustainable quality of SunPak FSP—one of our most popular ink ranges. Our emphasis on sustainability will continue to be fundamental to our innovation and product development and, as demonstrated by the demand for SunPak FSP, is gaining broad support from our customers.”
