Ahlstrom, a Finnish producer of fiber-based materials, has developed PFOA-free flexible packaging paper for greasy food products.
The new product, Coralpack NG, is a variant of the company's Coralpack range - a flexible packaging paper for direct wrapping and packing of numerous grease-containing food products. It can be used for products such as biscuits, pastries, coffee beans, fast food, take-away food, pizzas, popcorn for micro wave, butter & margarine, soup cubes, among others.
The product's paper range spans from 32 to 200g per square meter and offers paper characteristics such as printability, laminating, extrusion and crimping, the company said.
Ahlstrom Coralpack is produced at the Rottersac plant France. Food products packed or wrapped in Ahlstrom Coralpack papers are free of grease stains, which positively impacts the image of different brands.
To develop grease resistant packaging papers, fluorochemicals are added in the paper production process. However, this can lead to the presence of trace amounts of PFOA as unintended impurity.
In January 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked manufacturers of fluorochemicals to commit to reduce by 95% PFOA from their emissions and products content not later than by 2010 and to eliminate it totally by 2015.