RIsk Assessment - Food Grade Lubricants
I'm working on doing a risk assessment for Food Grade Lubricants. This was brought up in one of our SQF audits and I'm not sure why it hasn't been done already as our facility has been certified previously as a Level 3. It's my understanding that this is more for Allergen management. Is that correct?
I've gathered a list of all the food grade lubricants that are used in the facility and they pretty much consist of mineral oil, silicone, and other chemical compositions.
Has anyone else, going through SQF Quality Ed 8, had to do this? Can I get some feedback on the purpose? If it's just for Allergen, then I would think being able to supply SDS or data sheets that explain the contents should be sufficient on why they are not a risk.
Note: I had done a search, but was unable to find anything more recent (posts from approximately 3 years ago).
Do your food grade lubricant have food grade certification stating that it is food grade? For those lubricants that you currently have that are without food grade certificate, how did they claim as such?
There are relatively about 3 contaminants difference from H1 and H2 rated lubricants as opposed to "industrial" lubricants that have so many contaminants.
What we have done before is that we did lubrication map (we also use the equipment manual) in which what we have is that anything that may incidentally contact food and any machine that needs to be lubricated however located on top of product stream must also be lubricated with food grade grease/oil :)
I'm working on doing a risk assessment for Food Grade Lubricants. This was brought up in one of our SQF audits and I'm not sure why it hasn't been done already as our facility has been certified previously as a Level 3. It's my understanding that this is more for Allergen management. Is that correct?
I've gathered a list of all the food grade lubricants that are used in the facility and they pretty much consist of mineral oil, silicone, and other chemical compositions.
Has anyone else, going through SQF Quality Ed 8, had to do this? Can I get some feedback on the purpose? If it's just for Allergen, then I would think being able to supply SDS or data sheets that explain the contents should be sufficient on why they are not a risk.
Note: I had done a search, but was unable to find anything more recent (posts from approximately 3 years ago).
There are 1/2 sample SQF procedures for (allergen oriented) risk assessment posted here. But you will probably need to search (eg SQF forum-Lubricant) back around 5 years.
addendum
Can try this thread although I haven't checked for any Code textual changes as time went by -
Dear J. Gerthe,
Try to rationalize the used lubricants, while you're doing the risk assessment. It will be much easier to manage, if there is only 1 or just a few lubricants circulating in your production area.
Kind regards,
Gerard Heerkens
Food grade lubricants are not really an allergen issue, unless you are using something that is based on soy bean oil or other lubricant related to a food allergen.
I am not an expert, but many lubricants are petroleum based or silicone based. These would not generally cause an allergic reaction.
If the lubricants are not food grade, then they would likely be considered more as foreign material contamination or adulteration if the lubricants got into your products.
Keep in mind that an auditor cannot check every single aspect of your food safety program. Just because you passed one audit and corrected the nonconformances from that audit doesn't mean that your entire food safety program is now completely in compliance.
I work for a packaging company. I did have a customer tell me that silicone on packaging materials would interfere with proper dough rising in yeast based products. Silicone is used as a defoamer and thus can cause the collapsing of the CO2 bubbles created by the yeast.
We had to do an assessment on our food grade lubricants starting 3 years ago. We make sure we have on file a Specification Sheet, a SDS, a statement that it is food grade approved (H1), and an Allergen Statement for each of the ones we use in our facility.
Some vendors are on top of it and supply these documents on their website, others we have to contact directly and they send the information to us.
I agree with Mulan, contact the manufacturer of the lubricant and they can supply you with documentation regarding allergens and food grade certification
Hi jgerthe,
Any further comments to all the above posts ??
Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions. I have been working on getting the documentation that was suggested from the suppliers. Some of them have been pretty easy and cooperative, others are like trying to solve a cold case. :giggle: Once I have that, the risk assessment itself should be pretty easy to work up.