Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced the introduction of a new optical brightening agent (OBA) specially designed for food packaging and paper, Leucophor® AFCN liq. The newly launched OBA has been approved for food contact by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Urbanization and digitalization are rapidly changing our lifestyle. People around the globe are increasingly purchasing and consuming on the go. A growing part of food containers are made from renewable sources, such as paper and board. It is necessary to ensure that these paper containers are free from substances that would be harmful for the consumer.

Archroma is committed to continuously challenge the status quo in the deep belief that we can make our industry sustainable. We strive to introduce innovations that allow safe, efficient and enhanced manufacturing processes – and end products.

Leucophor® AFCN liq was designed with these guiding principles in mind:

• Leucophor® AFCN liquid has approval for use in food-contact paper and paperboard under FDA Food Contact Notification 1921, which became effective on 9 November 2018.
• Leucophor® AFCN liq is ideally suited for stock application and for use in coating formulations that contain polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) or casein as a secondary binder.
• Leucophor® AFCN liq is a disulphonated OBA, with a characteristically high substantivity in the wet-end delivering the papermaker cost savings through the ability to make more rapid grade changes.

“There is a fast-growing demand for food packaging made with paper and board, and our Leucophor® AFCN liquid OBA has been developed to help manufacturers to respond to that demand”, comments Andrew Jackson, Global Product Manager Optical Brightening Agents, Paper Solutions Business, Archroma.

“Complementing our FDA-compliant tetrasulphonated OBAs and shading colorants, Leucophor® AFCN liquid provides our customers with greater flexibility to produce attractive, white, paper-based packaging and containers for food applications. Because it’s our nature!”