Product safety starts with high quality raw materials

Raw materials play a key role in the production chain for safe products.

Metsä Group is committed to using only wood from sustainably managed northern forests. We always know the origin of the wood used in products. Most of the wood used by Metsä Group comes from Finland and always from certified or controlled forests.

When converting a renewable raw material into products, safety aspects are taken into account already in the research and development phase. This ensures that both their use and recycling is safe for people and the environment.

Our products are produced from fresh fibres according to good manufacturing practice (GMP) and an in-house control plan. The certified ISO 22000 food safety management system ensures that products, such as packaging boards, greaseproof cooking and baking papers and their main raw material, pulp, meet the strictest safety requirements. Numerous end use tests of finished products are conducted in both internal and external laboratories. These tests serve to ensure that, for example, greaseproof papers are suitable for use in microwaves and conventional ovens at high temperatures. In addition, the management systems serve to ensure that products intended for food use are not contaminated or damaged during production or transportation.

We closely monitor the origin of the chemicals we use and maintain a database of key chemicals used in production. This database includes environmental, health and safety data, as well as information about registration for substances in accordance with the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

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A perfect match - fresh wood fibre and food

Pure pulp

Fresh forest fibre pulp produced by Metsä Fibre is pure and suitable for use in products that come into contact with food. Nothing that is hazardous to human health must be transferred to the food, and coming into contact with packaging materials made from our pulps must not change the taste, smell or composition of the food. Metsä Fibre’s pulp mills use an ISO 22000 food safety system.

Fresh fibre paperboards

Paperboards produced by Metsä Board are used for sensitive end uses like food packaging, meaning that the production processes are strictly regulated. Metsä Board aims to exceed the regulatory requirements and stay a step ahead of the game of consumer’s safety concerns. Producing paperboards for food packaging involves not only guaranteeing safety, but also ensuring that there are no scents, flavours or harmful compounds in the board that might transfer to the food.

Safe food packaging also serves other purposes: it protects the food during transportation and at the store. The packaging must protect the food from moisture and contamination, for example, on the shelf and on the way home from the store. The packaging must not break or be dented, as these types of damages also compromise product safety and increase the risk of food waste.

Safe tissue products

Metsä Tissue's mission is to make the everyday cleaner. Metsä Tissue has the raw material supply in its own hands, which makes us unique among European tissue suppliers. We always know the origin of the wood we use, and purchase other raw material such as pulp, recycled paper, chemicals and packaging only from responsible suppliers. We produce hygiene solutions that improve the everyday life of millions of people daily by providing high-quality, trustworthy hygiene tissue and household papers to homes as well as schools, offices, health care, industry and hotels and restaurants across Europe.

In the recent times, hygiene has become more important than ever. Careful handwashing and drying with paper helps to prevent infections from spreading and careful hygiene at home and workplaces promotes both health and safety.

Household papers, napkins and hand papers come into short-term contact with food and skin whereas toilet tissues are used in contact with skin and mucous membranes for a short period of time.

Metsä Wood product safety is systematically controlled

Metsä Wood products are manufactured according to relevant national and international regulations and standards, and the products have several product approvals. Continuous high quality of products is ensured by modern quality assurance procedures. Both production process and product properties are systematically controlled. In addition to Metsä Wood’s own quality control, Eurofins Expert Services Oy oversees production operations and internal quality control at Metsä Wood’s plywood and Kerto^® LVL mills.

The majority of the Metsä Wood products are CE marked. The products have been assessed by Eurofins Expert Services Oy and therefore deemed to meet EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements for construction products.