New TPE solution complies with global food contact regulations

Consumers are increasingly focusing on the safety and health benefits of goods and materials when making purchasing decisions. This means manufacturers have to ensure compliance with national and international food safety regulations in order to attract more customers. To meet this demand on a global level, KRAIBURG TPE now extends its offering of Food Contact TPEs with a new THERMOLAST® K series.

A shift in consumer behavior can be observed: Today’s buyers are increasingly taking responsibility for their own well-being by making informed decisions about the safety and health advantages of the goods and materials they buy. This change does not happen by chance. Toxic chemicals leaching from compounds or materials are major concerns in the manufacturing and consumer goods industry. That is why food contact safe materials such as thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are gaining popularity. The change has far-reaching consequences for manufacturers. As a result, they are driven to ensure compliancy with national and international food safety regulations to attract more customers. Enter KRAIBURG TPE, a global TPE manufacturer of thermoplastic elastomer products and custom-engineered TPE solutions for diverse consumer product applications, offering food contact safe and safety regulation compliant TPEs.

KRAIBURG TPE’s latest addition to its Food Contact TPE portfolio is a material solution for everyday consumer applications that require stringent conformity with a wide range of standards, including (EU) No. 10/2011, GB 4806 and (FDA) CFR21 as well as DIN EN 71-3 for toys. It also features properties such as adhesion to PP, optimized flow, and hardness range from 30 to 90 Shore A. The materials are easily processable by processes such as injection molding, extrusion and 3D printing. Furthermore, the compounds in the Food Contact TPE series are free from animal ingredients, heavy metals, phthalates, bisphenol A, and latex, accommodating to the production of sustainable goods.

"Ensuring consumer safety is crucial for today's manufacturers of consumer products," states Lee Jia Yin, Product Developer at KRAIBURG TPE. “KRAIBURG TPE’s new Food Contact TPE series satisfies food safety material requirements and complies with REACH, SVHC and RoHS. The good haptic and soft-touch properties of the new series of compounds are ideal for applications such as household goods, packaging for food and consumer care products, razors, toothbrushes, toys and other products.”

The compounds are available in natural and translucent colors with the option of in-house pre-coloring, allowing the flexibility of a variety of product solutions.