WEXHAM SPRINGS, UK – September 23, 2021 – Sun Chemical today announces the addition of SunPak® DirectFood Plus to its direct food contact (DFC) SunPak inks range for sheetfed offset paper-based packaging printing.

With its enhanced pigmentation and excellent printability, SunPak DirectFood Plus offers greater colour vibrancy and accuracy with a wider colour space than its predecessor, SunPak® Organic.

SunPak DirectFood Plus delivers robust lithographic stability on the same level as Sun Chemical’s standard Low Migration Inks, such as SunPak® FSP, as proven in extensive industrial testing with leading converter partners across Europe.

The combination of SunPak® DirectFood Plus together with Sun Chemical’s SunSpec™ SunStar DFC water-based barrier coatings now gives printers and brand owners the perfect solution to replace plastic barriers and inserts in paper packaging.

The development of this innovative technology, which allows for safe, direct contact of inks with food on the inside of paper packaging, is a result of its ongoing partnership with German printing inks manufacturer, Epple Druckfarben. In 2019, Sun Chemical signed an exclusive agreement with Epple to combine their resources and manufacture BoFood® Organic, available in Europe under the brand name SunPak Organic. The successful collaboration between Epple and Sun Chemical has led to the development of this newer range of pigmented DFC inks. The range will be sold by Epple under the name BoFood® DFC and by Sun Chemical under the name SunPak® DirectFood Plus.

Nicolas Betin, Director, Product Strategy EMEA & Global Sustainability Business Leader at Sun Chemical comments: “Sun Chemical can see high value for our customers in working with Epple to develop a direct food contact ink series that covers the colour spectrum. These jointly developed pigmented sheetfed inks allow us to expand our portfolio and enable our customers to offer more recyclable packaging to brand owners. We are delighted to be collaborating with Epple to provide our customers in Europe with the most advanced DFC ink technology available under the SunPak DirectFood Plus brand name.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Stefan Schülling, Member of the Executive Board at Epple Druckfarben AG says: “We are excited to be expanding our existing relationship with Sun Chemical. The original BoFood® Organic has been a unique innovation and we are extremely proud of creating a worldwide patented offset ink that has been approved for printing on the inside of food packaging. The new BoFood® DFC range enables us to address even better customer demands for eye-catching, high-quality and food-safe packaging.”

SunPak® DirectFood Plus is available immediately across Europe.

To learn more about the range, visit www.sunchemical.com/insideoutside.