430 Stainless steel Testing for food contact

Hello to all,

A customer asked us for a certification for our stainless steel, we are currently using 430 stainless steel to make funnel cake rings. Is there a annual testing on the stainless or its a one time test if we are using the same vendor? Need some help.

Hi, I.G;

I think you should offer the forum some more info.

SAE grade steel chemistry testing is normally performed by lot or "heat" IIRC (several years in the oil industry), as manufacturing makeup (die change, weld temp, cooling and tempering processes, etc.) can have a significant impact on input/output .  
 

To elaborate on lot vs. heat, a lot could be a days production of a grade, yet a heat or coil change would demarcate a supply change of raw material into that lot.  It would require another analysis after that point of course.

Curious, but what spec is your customer purchasing by?  The frequency and standards really depends on your customer requirements and regulatory bodies.

As far as certs go you can either contract a 3rd party lab for GDS or invest in a spectrometer for in house testing.