Did You Know Soybeans Help Us Read?

Soybeans are used to produce many bio-based products including cooking oil, biodiesel, plastics, cosmetics, soap, crayons and ink. Soy ink is so widely used that an estimated 90% of newspapers in the USA and 70% of Japanese print use soy oil-based inks [1;2]. Compared to petroleum-based ink, soy ink can produce more vibrant colors, simplify paper recycling, and reduce the release of undesirable volatiles [3].

In the EU, environmental and safety advantages of vegetable oil-based inks (e.g. soybean, rapeseed and linseed) continue to make them attractive for industries such as print, packaging and food contact material [4].

[1] Soy ink (Wikipedia)

[2] Vegetable oil ink (Shiga-Web))

[3] The root of plant-based printing (LinkedIn Pulse)

[4] Vegetable-based Inks Market (Transparency Market Research)