Young children and adolescents, the most sensitive section of the population, are affected most severely when it comes to residue – primarily of plasticizers contained in plastic – in the body. This is the result of a biomonitoring study by the German Federal Environmental Agency and the Robert Koch Institute. But baby food – although it is one of the most stringently tested foodstuffs of all – can already be contaminated. Parents play it safe concerning the health of their children. According to a study by order of FEVE (European container glass federation) they account on baby food in glass yars. One reason is the variety of positive properties concerning residues. Nevertheless it happens, that substances migrate from these packages into food. “The PVC lids in jar closures comprise 30 to 50 percent plasticizers. If food components migrate into the sealing compound – which inevitably happens when food comes into contact with the seal – the plasticizers can dissolve in part from the sealing compound and migrate into food”, says Dr. Ulrich Nehring, certified food chemist and sworn expert for commercial and food chemistry. Informed consumers. Especially parents pay attention on this aspect. The EU Commission already banned the contact of certain phthalates with baby and infant food back in 2007. Test institutes such as the German Stiftung Warentest or Ökotest have also focused on PVC/PVDC/chlorinated compounds in lid seals and included them as a component of their assessment criteria as they “contaminate the environment during manufacture and disposal. Among other shortcomings, so many points could be deducted for advertising slogans in combination with PVC/PVDC/chlorinated compounds in lid seals that the overall result deteriorated by one or even two full grades”, according to Ökotest in its September 2019 issue, adding: “Although there are alternatives”.
Long before it became known that relatively large volumes of plasticizers can migrate into fatty foods, Actega DS was looking for technical solutions for this problem and developed sealing compounds for jar lids in the form of PROVALIN® which are not manufactured from PVC and do not, therefore, contain any plasticizers. What had been tried and tested for many years for twist-off lids was also implemented for the Press Twist (P/T) lid after a development phase lasting many years. After all, the health of infants and toddlers needs particular protection.
With ACTGreen® PROVALIN®, a long-anticipated solution has been found which dispenses entirely with PVC and all plasticizers classified as dubious or not sufficiently tested. This compound is green. Green stands for health, environment, harmlessness, and many other positive characteristics. This generates confidence. Green ensures identifiability. Consumers should be able to detect that they have the safety of a PVC-free lid and therefore maximum safety in terms of baby food. This would not be discernible in the case of a white compound and mothers and fathers would not be able to be certain that they were choosing the very best for their little ones. Green stands for uniqueness here. Manufacturers using the green compound are making an unambiguous stand: Child welfare is important to us. Baby food should not contain any PVC or plasticizers.
The green sealing compound for PVC-free P/T lids offers all those relying on sustainability and focusing on child welfare a convincing alternative which is also legally conformant. It is now up to manufacturers, distributors and consumers of baby food to choose the best option.
