Riken introduces high safety plasticizers
safety Plasticizers, which it says is in response to international
concerns over claims that the material is a recognised carcinogen.
Riken Vitamin produces acetylated monoglycerides, a food additive, which is used as an edible plasticizer. The company has sold it to both domestic and overseas food makers, including manufacturers of chewing gums and sausages. In Japan, the company has sold it as a plasticizer for plastic food package materials, based on its safety, for over 20 years.
However recent studies have increasingly pointed out that petroleum plasticizers for plastics, such as DEHP (Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate) and DOA (Di-2-ethylhexyl adipate), are carcinogens as well as being endocrine disruptors.
As a result, safer plasticizers have become required in the fields of plastic food packing materials, such as plastic wrap and cap seals, and plastic toys, for which petroleum plasticizers have been used in the past.
Masakazu Imai, senior managing director of Riken Vitamin, said: "Recently, safer plasticizers for plastics have been required internationally. Riken Vitamin, therefore, decided to aggressively introduce domestically developed acetylated monoglycerides, also in similar fields overseas, using our experience in its application as a plasticizer for plastics.
"Toward this end, we built a new plant at Rikevita, Malaysia, which began production in 2003, and completed product assortments of Rikemal PL-series for plastics and Rikemal G-series for foods.
"This compound can be used to replace past petroleum plasticizers, without changing production equipment. Our technological follow-up, which responds to requests from users in the plastic field, features a system based on highly experienced R&D in Japan."
In Europe the new plasticizer conforms to EU Directive 2002/72/EC, which concerns the use of acetylated monoglycerides in food packaging. It also complies with US FDA regulations and Japan Hygenic regulations.
