Customers who use fatty acid methyl ester ethoxylates FMEE and FMES for refining enzymes or pre-treatment, please note that recently more and more customers have reported that FMEE contains a large amount of nonylphenol APEO, which brings great trouble to printing and dyeing enterprises.
More than 12,000 shirts exported to the EU by a textile company in Shantou were returned by foreign buyers because the nonylphenol (APEO) content in the fabric exceeded the standard. The APEO content of this batch of goods reached 2,500 mg/kg, which was nearly three times higher than the EU standard. The number of returned shirts was 12,300 pieces, and the amount was as high as 60,000 euros. A absorbent cotton company in Henan processed absorbent sanitary napkins for export to Southeast Asia. It was also because the absorbent cotton was detected to contain a large amount of APEO components and was forced to be returned by the other country’s customs. The returned sanitary napkins contained APEO, which caused problems in domestic sales, and was eventually changed. Used as stuffing for toys.
After these companies later inspected each processing procedure, they found that APEO seriously exceeded the standard because of the use of a raw material called fatty acid methyl ester ethoxylate FMEE. According to relevant information, in order to reduce costs, industrial FMEE uses mixed acid methyl ester as raw material, which inevitably contains nonylphenol APEO. Especially if the subsequent distillation process is not thorough, a large amount of nonylphenol APEO will remain, so Textile enterprises should be cautious in using fatty acid methyl ester ethoxylate FMEE as a pre-treatment additive raw material.
