Page 35 - FINAT Yearbook 2012

The main conference room at the Fira Palace hotel in Barcelona was packed with 175 delegates plus stands from 13 sponsors.
sectors are today under threat from alternative technologies, and Mr Reardon noted that converters are therefore expanding their product
offering to include sleeves and flexible packaging – in turn, creating change and opportunity in the narrow-web supply chain. In the medium term, growth is predicted to be greatest in the food and beverage sectors, and in logistics and transport applications – with the emerging economies representing the most dynamic marketplaces.
regulatory matters
FINAT Public Affairs Manager Mark Macaré updated delegates on regulatory matters. The European chemicals legislation, REACH, has finite deadlines for registration and compliance within a number of arenas. However, he observed, ‘a review is underway, but the outcome is unclear. The goalposts are already moving during the registration period.’ He added: ‘while, in general, the label industry is exempt because it is a downstream user, it needs to ensure
that its suppliers are appropriately registered.’ FINAT is part of the CHEMI platform for downstream chemical users, serving the interests of member companies, and sees as its overall role in relation to REACH to ‘keep track of changes, influence, and communicate’. Food safety is another area where label printers may face regulatory issues – there have already been a number of incidents, particularly involving packaging inks and migration. Here, there has recently, Mr Macaré said, been a rise in country-specific legislation. The Swiss Ordinance has, since 2010, has prescribed permitted substances, materials and articles; and a German Ordinance is currently under discussion for possible enactment this year. While ‘there is, however, no specific harmonised EU legislation on inks for food’, Mr Macaré advised, all label converters should be well-
Mark Macaré
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FINAT YEARBOOK 2012 |