TPE for Household and Kitchen Items

Whether as a seal in a bread bin, food storage container or reusable coffee-to-go cups, as an ergonomic anti-slip element in cutlery, dishwashing brushes, laundry baskets or as a purely decorative element in kitchen utensils or household items – the possibilities for using thermoplastic elastomers for kitchen and household products are enormous.​

Particularly in the area of kitchen utensils for preparing, storing, cooking or baking, TPE materials are necessary which are suitable for direct contact with food.

The legal requirements on plastics for materials coming into contact with food are high and are specified for the EU in the form of the EU/2011 Directive. According to the Directive, “Materials and items coming into contact with food may neither pose a risk to health nor cause an unacceptable change in the composition of food or impair its organoleptic properties.” The distributing company is obliged to provide evidence that the respective product complies with regulations. In order to obtain this verification, migration tests are required, for example, which examine whether the item adheres to the corresponding migration limit value of 10 mg/dm² or 60 mg/kg. Test conditions depend on the respective application of the end product. Accordingly, test simulations for determining migration and test conditions, test times and duration are determined by the laboratory depending on the respective product involved.

The latter are of importance for the two-component items which can often be found in the market for household and kitchen products, for example, and whose hard components are largely manufactured from PP. ACTEGA has modified mixtures for adhesion with the soft component made of TPE which leads to extremely good adhesion by SOFT EST.^® on PP, as confirmed by adhesive tests in our in-house technical center. Accordingly, numerous items can be manufactured with outstanding haptic properties, displaying a special soft grip, an ergonomic grip texture or a non-slip element, e.g. plates with soft grip elements on the sides and a non-slip element on the base or to-go cups with a collar for a firm hold and protection from scalding.​

Other key features of household and kitchen items include their suitability for use in dishwashers and microwaves as well as their color-fastness and dimensional stability. As this fast-moving market also means attracting attention by way of special designs and colors, the SOFT EST.^® product range offers the possibility of customized colors, with ACTEGA collaborating with partners capable of complying with any color request.