Food-Grade Lubricants: Good Common Sense, And Good Business Sense

Health and safety issues are a major concern in the food industry. Contaminated food products can not only endanger consumers, but they also can cause significant damage to a company’s reputation and bottom line. Contamination can come from many sources — industrial lubricants among them. With the abundance of lubricated machinery used in the food industry, lubricant dripping from a chain or escaping through a leak in a component can prove catastrophic. Even with the most prudent maintenance and operating procedures and a strict HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) plan, contamination may still occur. Using H1 food-grade lubricants can help reduce the health and safety risks of your company’s food products, thereby helping protect your company’s image and financial condition.

The High Cost Of Contamination

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits any food contamination by a non-food-grade lubricant. Under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, each owner, operator or agent in charge of a food facility is required to identify and implement preventive measures to substantially minimize and prevent food-safety hazards. The legislation also broadens governmental authority to order product recalls and to protect public health. The costs of a recall can add up substantially:

• Retrieval and destruction of the product
• Notifying the public of the recall
• Possible legal expenses and fines/settlements in the event of any lawsuits
• Loss of market share due to negative publicity and declining consumer confidence/trust
• Extra efforts needed to help rebuild the company’s reputation, brand image and market share

Evaluate And Address Your Facility’s Food-Safety Risks

To help you prevent contamination issues at your facility, and correct any that might exist, you should implement an HACCP plan and lubrication survey. The HACCP program, originally developed by NASA to protect astronauts from food-contamination issues, is a science-based approach for controlling and preventing food-safety hazards in food processing, packaging and transportation. The program provides a system to:

• Identify any food-contamination risks and the control points at which they may potentially occur
• Establish preventive measures for each control point
• Monitor and evaluate the progress of the new measures implemented
• Identify and enact subsequent corrective measures as necessary to achieve contamination-risk prevention and control

A lubrication survey, which lubricant suppliers such as Isel can help you conduct, provides a thorough analysis of lubricant contamination risks in a facility. Some of the key issues these surveys address:

• Do the properties of each lubricant suit the application for which it is used?
• Does the equipment design ensure lubrication maintenance without risk of incidental food contact?
• Is lubricant dispensing equipment used for multiple lubricants, thereby increasing risk of lubricant cross-contamination?
• Are the lubricant storage and handling procedures adequate to prevent contamination?

Answers to these and other survey questions will help determine the preventive and corrective measures needed, as part of the HACCP plan, to improve food safety.

Help Protect The Food And Your Company

Using food-grade lubricants can help protect consumers and your company from the health, safety and financial risks of lubricant contamination. And thanks to recent technological advancements in the lubrication industry, products are available that offer the benefits of food-grade formulation without sacrificing performance.

Lubricants used in the food industry are categorized across three types:

H1 lubricants may have incidental contact with food. Formulations may only contain certain base stocks, additives and thickeners as specified by FDA regulations (21 CFR 178.3570). In addition, in the event of incidental contact, contamination of food by an H1 lubricant must not exceed 10 parts per million (i.e., 0.001 percent).

H2 lubricants may only be used where there is no possibility of contact with food. Their formulations do not face the restrictions applicable to H1 lubricants. However, H2 lubricants cannot contain carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, mineral acids or intentionally heavy metals such as antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury or selenium.

H3 lubricants, also known as soluble or edible oils, are typically used to clean and prevent rust on hooks, trolleys and similar equipment. After application, these lubricants must be washed or wiped clean from the equipment before it is put to use. H3 lubricants may only contain edible oils, certain mineral oils that meet FDA 21 CFR 172.878, and oils generally recognized as safe (GRAS) under either FDA 21 CFR 182 or FDA 21 CFR 184.

Performance: Once An Issue, Not Anymore

Years ago, early food-grade lubricants often fell short on performance compared to non-food-grade alternatives. Many plants were forced to settle for inadequate lubrication for the sake of food safety, or accept the risks of using non-food-grade fluids to meet performance demands.

Today, advancements in lubrication technology have led to a new generation of food-grade synthetic lubricants that satisfy food-safety guidelines and can withstand the challenging demands of modern food-processing equipment. Thus, you can minimize the potentially costly risks of lubricant contamination of food products while also enhancing equipment reliability and plant productivity — which may, in turn, increase your bottom line.

Isel, a leader in the lubrication industry, offers a broad variety of food-grade lubricants for virtually any application. Our expertly formulated fluids combine the food-grade characteristics you require with unmatched performance, protection and service life. Contact us today for more information. We can help you select the appropriate lubricant solutions for your specific needs, and we can assist you with conducting a lubrication survey at your facility.

Case Study: Benefits Of Switching To Food-Grade Lubricants

According to Machinery Lubrication, a major U.S.-based food and beverage manufacturer that switched to food-grade lubricants experienced the following benefits within the first year following the switch:¹

• a 21 percent reduction in unplanned work orders
• a nearly 50 percent reduction in repair-related downtime
• a 57 percent decrease in total spending

¹Source: Machinery Lubrication, July 2005. Results are not necessarily typical and will vary.

Notable Lubricant-Contamination Recalls

Although some other types of contamination (such as bacteria and allergens) are more common, incidents of lubricant contamination in the food industry have made the headlines in recent years, including these:²

²Sources: United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Food Standards Australia New Zealand, The Straits Times, Youth Daily Shanghai, AFX News Ltd., Philippine Daily Enquirer, The Sentinel (Stoke on Trent, UK), High Court of New Zealand, Machinery Lubrication.