Low Migration Technology

Every UV product contains photoinitiators and monomers, and any of them that survive cure unreacted can migrate through the pack into the food. Three routes exist: permeation through the substrate, relevant on plastics and thin paper and negligible on foil; set-off, where the printed outer surface touches the food-contact surface of the next sheet or reel lap, which is the dominant route on paper and board and which a barrier substrate does not stop; and gas-phase transfer through the headspace.

A less-migration ink keeps conventional chemistry and chooses heavier molecules. They migrate more slowly, but they still migrate. A low-migration ink uses photoinitiators that are themselves polymeric or carry acrylate groups, so that during cure they react into the polymer network and become part of the film.

UniCure FP is built on the second principle: cross-linkable polymeric photoinitiators from Groups 1A and 1B of the EuPIA suitability list, no low-molecular-weight acrylates, no Fanal pigments, no mineral oils. Independent testing to Regulation (EU) 10/2011 protocols using the fatty-dairy simulant returned overall migration below 1 mg/dm² and specific migration below 10 µg/kg at the recommended ink load and cure.

Chemistry alone does not make a compliant pack. Full cure at the specified dose, correct ink load, a suitable substrate and a validated set-off situation are all required, and the responsibility is shared between ink maker, printer and brand owner.