Foenix Coding now offers an eco-friendly, vegetable-based ink for every Foenix printer that runs oil-based ink. It is mineral oil free, it prints the same codes in the same way, and you can switch whenever it suits you. Your current ink stays fully supported.
What isn't changing?
Let's start there. The oil-based ink you use today has earned its place. It prints reliably on cardboard and cases, your operators know it well, and it keeps thousands of lines coding every day.
We will keep supporting it.
Why launch a new ink now?
In 2025, Foenix Coding won the PPMA Award for Innovative Packaging Machinery Environmental Initiative of the Year for our work on more sustainable coding. It showed us what was possible. This ink is the next step, and it is now available to everyone.
Packaging is also moving. The EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) applies from August 2026 and is pushing the industry towards packaging that is easier to recycle and easier to account for. Questions about what goes onto packaging, not only what it is made of, are already appearing in tenders, retailer requirements and customer audits.
We would rather give you a choice early than hurry you later.
What is the new ink?
• Eco-friendly and vegetable-based. A clear, simple answer if a customer or auditor asks what is in your ink.
• Mineral oil-free. Made without mineral oil.
• Developed alongside our printers. It comes in a sealed cartridge, like our other inks, so changing over is simple.
• Suitable for every Foenix printer running oil-based ink, legacy Sauven-built models included. There is no new machine to buy and no line to rebuild.
• Same codes, same workflow. Your messages, settings and routine stay as they are.
Do you export to France?
France has gone further than most. Under its anti-waste law (AGEC), mineral oils are restricted in packaging inks, and the limits tightened on 1 January 2025.
If you ship packaged goods into France, it is worth a quick check that your current ink meets those limits. Depending on the ink and the product, some existing codes may no longer meet them.
Our technical team can check your current ink against the French limits. Just ask. Our vegetable-based ink is mineral oil free, which takes that question off the table.
This doesn't apply to every customer. For many of you, nothing changes. But if France is part of your market, it is the sort of thing you would rather hear from us than from a retailer.
Do you have to switch?
No. It is your pace, not ours.
• You might switch one line to try it.
• You might switch when a customer asks for it.
• You might keep your current ink for years, and that is a reasonable decision.
What matters to us is that when you are ready, the option is waiting, with no compromise on your printer or your productivity.
What should you do next?
• Ask us for a sample print of your own code on your own packaging, in the new ink.
• If you export to France, ask us to check your current ink against the French limits.
• Talk to your Foenix specialist about which lines or customers might benefit first.
Questions people ask
Will the vegetable-based ink work in my printer?
It is suitable for every Foenix printer running oil-based ink, including legacy Sauven-built models.
Will my codes look different?
You print the same codes in the same workflow. The easiest way to see for yourself is a sample print on your own packaging.
Is my current ink being withdrawn?
No. Your current ink remains supported and available.
Does the PPWR ban mineral oil inks?
Not as far as we can see in the regulation. Some national rules, such as France's, do restrict mineral oils in packaging inks.
Get in touch to request a sample print, or simply to talk through your requirements,
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