STOCKHOLM (News release) -- Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a global leader in innovative fiber-based solutions, launches its enhancements in the Grease-Gard® family of brands, including its expanded global offering of Grease-Gard® FluoroFree® technology. Grease-Gard® FluoroFree® delivers outstanding grease-resistance for common fast-food packaging, food wraps, clamshells, and microwave popcorn bags, without the use of fluorochemicals, commonly referred to as PFAS.

"Due to our continuously improving innovation in the area of PFAS-free food packaging, Ahlstrom-Munksjö has the unique capability of manufacturing our FluoroFree® papers at several plants across the globe, including the United States and Europe," said Robyn Buss, Executive Vice President for Ahlstrom-Munksjö's North America Specialty Solutions Business Area. "Increasingly, consumers and brand owners are looking for a PFAS-free option, and yet they still need the product to meet food safety requirements, be cost-effective, and eco-friendly. We are uniquely situated to provide that option."

The FluoroFree® technology has also been successfully commercialized in microwave popcorn applications, the most difficult grease-resistance to achieve. One of the first to launch this product was Coop Denmark.

"In 2015 Coop made the decision to remove PFAS-treated microwave popcorn bags from the store shelves, and we at first were not certain a solution could be found," said Malene Teller Blume, Quality and Social Compliance Manager with Coop Denmark. "However we found Ahlstrom-Munksjö's FluoroFree® papers, and within five months our microwave popcorn products were available once again and this product is still being used successfully today."

Grease-Gard® FluoroFree® papers not only meet grease-resistant needs, but also offer a broad range of basis weights, excellent glueability and printability, and can be uncalendered or calendered and bleached or available in trulyNatural®. As a leading manufacturer of grease-resistant papers and one of the first to engineer fluorochemical-free papers, Grease-Gard FluoroFree® technologies flex to hit every performance specification.