To support its recent move into food packaging, Asia Pulp & Pack (APP) aims to educate the region’s consumers and regulators on the health hazards from eating off normal board, says Anil Sharma, general manager of APP’s Product Entrepreneur Department.
APP launched a portfolio of products under the Foopak brand in Dubai last year.
But the company is still pushing to educate the region on the need to use specialised products for food packaging, Sharma told Packaging MEA.
“I still find people in Dubai eating food on normal packaging boards, which in my view is not safe,” he said.
“There are carcinogenic chemicals and chemicals that may affect your eyesight, memory, and could affect the kidney, heart or liver.”
While APP generated interest and orders for Foopak products at Dubai’s recent Gulf Print & Pack exhibition, further efforts are still required to convince buyers of the range’s benefits, he added.
“It is still taking time to convince them of the importance of this board for food packaging, because they are not used to it,” he said.
“Normal and even educated customers are still not aware of migration of inks and its harm. People still use recycled paperboard, which has not been surface treated, and that is even more dangerous because it contains harmful chemicals.”
APP has held roadshows to educate customers and is also looking to government regulations to ban the use of cheaper but less safe alternative food packaging.
“In Asia it will still take time for the awareness to spread, yet eventually people will realise,” he said.
“The price of this board is higher than normal board and nobody is interested to pay that much. So if the government regularises the use of food grade packaging then it will help… I feel government regulations will work faster than educating the customer. In fact both these steps should go in parallel.”
Foopak is certified by US FDA and ISEGA as safe when directly contacting food, said APP.
The product is being promoted as preserving food’s quality and taste, while being 100% food grade and OBA free.
In addition, Foopak is heat and grease resistance; applicable for oven, microwave and freezer; and environmental preferable, being easily recycled without the need of additional treatment, according to APP.
Applications include french fries pockets, donut holders, bakpao/ bun bags and food trays.
Foopak is also designed to provide burger wrappers, hotdog wrappers, meat wrappers, bakery bags and take away bag.
Other uses include street snack bags and cool olive oil containers. The range also covers pop corn bags and baking paper.
In Dubai, APP has also launched two uncoated paper products: XBrite and HighBrite Pre-print paper from Paravan mill.
XBrite is a photocopy paper with a high bulk. High Bright paper is used for offset, digital and a combination as well. It has 98% brightness and 165-grade whiteness.
APP is among the world’s leading manufacturers of paper, board and tissues. Its Guanzi mill, with a capacity of 1.2 million tons, has recently started production in China, while a new mill in Perawan, Indonesia, (PM6) has just brought another 500,000 tons of capacity online.