How should acetone use in packaging equipment maintenance be addressed in an SQF audit?
Packaging machine operators and maintenance employees apply acetone to belts that convey packaged product from the bagger to the packers. This is done due to a recent delivery of packaging film with a lower than usual coefficient of friction that causes the filled packages to slide off the belt onto the floor. Application of the acetone creates friction on the belt and this corrects the problem for a time, but acetone needs to be applied several times during the shift. Even though the product inside does not come into contact with the acetone, i have some concerns as to how an SQF auditor would look at this. The secondary bottles containing the acetone are labeled and all have been made aware of the SDS for the acetone. And the film has a high MVTR and OTR barrier
I share your concerns about the acetone, mostly because I am not real familiar with it. Could your process use something like a powdered cellulose? It is more user friendly, but I can see that it's not a good fit everywhere.
I don't like it. It's a toxic chemical used in what I assume is pretty close proximity to an area where you probably have open product going into the packages. Not to mention unknown risk of the residue lingering on your package for the next customer in the line. Sure, acetone evaporates, but dried residues on your finished packages probably aren't being disclosed to your customer.
I'd rather see the role of film placed on hold for non-conforming and replaced with conforming packaging. Complain to your film manufacturer as well, as if it has a lower coefficient of friction, something might've changed that could affect the high MVTR and OTR barriers you are citing as a protection against the acetone.
Look into the GRAS rules and see if this complies. If so, you are good. This is actually pretty commonly used in the packaging industry from when I was in it. Never had an auditor say anything about it actually. Again look to the FDA's guidance on this with GRAS.