FOOD GRADE LUBRICANTS SUPPLEMENT 3 Jessica Evans


Nonfood Compounds Registration Manager, NSF


Reduce chemical hazards in your food processing facility


Managing risk in the food supply chain has become priority number one for food and beverage companies today. With the emergence of international food safety standards, the food industry has new tools for proactively identifying, analysing and managing risks. Standards like ISO 22000 (Food Safety Management Systems) have set requirements for organisations in the food chain to demonstrate their ability to identify and control potential hazards.


Similarly, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is globally recognised by food manufacturers, food safety agencies, including WHO (World Health Organisation) and FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations), and many governments as the predominant science-based scheme adopted to ensure hygienic food production. The primary objective of standards like ISO 22000, HACCP and others is to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption.


Don’t let this happen to you… Several years ago, a food packaging facility received numerous customer complaints about an oily smell coming from the plastic liner used to store the product. After exhaustive and costly investigations, it was determined that there was an undetected leak on the packaging line and that equipment


www.newfoodmagazine.com


This story illustrates the importance of maintaining a stringent quality program that reviews all products entering a facility to protect both the manufacturing environment and the consumer.


lubricant had come in contact with the packaging components. The facility did not have the controls in place to ensure that the lubricant wouldn’t cause any harm if consumed, so they had to notify their customers and issue a product recall. The overall cost of the investigation, recall and lost sales ran into tens of thousands of pounds. The company is still measuring the cost of reputational damage.


Approved nonfood compounds reduce contamination risks What is a nonfood compound? According to the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), “establishments are responsible for all safety and performance aspects of processing (nonfood) compounds. Processing compounds are those chemical compounds that are used in the areas of food processing, handling, and storage, and that do not otherwise require declaration on food labelling under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 7 (part 59) or Title 9 (parts 317 and 381)”1


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Nonfood compounds fall into three basic categories: lubricants, cleaners and water treatment products.


Lubricants Lubricants, greases, oils and hydraulic fluids are used to lubricate moving parts in food processing equipment. These chemicals protect


New Food Volume 14, Issue 4, 2011


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