Section 5.29.1.6 - Water Quality

In Section 5.29.1.6. of the AIB Standards it states: Water treatment chemicals used in steam or water that comes into direct or indirect contact with product are approved for food contact.  At our facility we manufacture plastic net that holds produce but we do not do any food processing.

Here is my question:

The only thing we add to our water is Water Softener Crystals for the water softening system.  Do I have to get food approval documentation for this because hot water is sprayed on to the net to limber it up during manufacturing.  Or am I able to simply state N/A.

Most likely your water softening crystals are sodium or potassium but you need to find out what they are.  Company who manufactured your equipment should be able to help, but if all else fails you may have to have water tested to make sure it meets the standards. 

Our water softening crystals are sodium. Thats why I was thinking I could answer N/A to this standard because sodium is not harmful to humans unless consumed in mass quantities.

If you are using salt designed for water softening systems then most likely it is not a problem and is unlikely to have contaminants, but you will need to verify that.  If water is part of your process then you will also most likely want to verify with water testing that your water is safe.  In the food environment usually you test for coliforms, yeast and molds and some companies want a total plate count.  In the packaging environment am not sure if these same tests would apply although I would think so because you can't rely on municipal water reports as your changing the water in your plant.  What am not sure if you would need to do other tests to verify that it is not contaminated by anything else. 

i agree