A simple step towards food safety often overlooked, but with a big impact on food production processes: Lubricants.
A simple step towards food safety: The overlooked impact of lubricants
For quality management, audit preparation and related tasks, where everybody is working in a busy environment and under pressure, it is crucial to make processes efficient. This helps to ensure better compliance with quality standards and regulations in production.
As a result, the preparation and execution of audits proceed better and more efficiently if the processes have been systematically optimised in advance. Among the numerous components used in a production plant making an important contribution to smooth success, one element that contributes to food safety is often overlooked: the lubricant.
As a rule, the term “food-grade lubricants “is used for products which are safe for unavoidable or unintentional contact with food simply because of their formulation. But this only covers a narrow range of the advantages that precisely fitting lubricants have customer-oriented lubricant manufacturers offer advice and services that can provide important contributions to the organisation and establishment of process structures beyond the products. Lubricant management is thus also an essential building block in the establishment of efficient processes.
5 challenges and how to overcome them with the right lubrication
Comply with food safety standards
Food manufacturers must comply with numerous rules and regulations in order to offer their customers the high-quality products they expect. Lubricants – although only a small component in production – do have an impact on food safety. And food safety is a very complex issue. Ask yourself if your lubricant supplier offers you products and services that match this complexity. Seemingly simple solutions do not match the complexity in food production.
Pass the next audit easily
Passing audits is a must. Passing them efficiently and with little effort is a competitive advantage. Make sure that the lubricants area in your production is clearly structured and process oriented. For example, does your lubricant supplier provide you with colour-coded labels, does he/she plan a grade reduction with you, or does he/she work out a TPM-based lubrication plan with you?
Avoid reputational damage
A company‘s reputation is built up over years and can be damaged in seconds. To avoid small mistakes with big consequences, you should exhaust all possibilities. Lubricants and comprehensive lubricant management, supported by a reliable supplier, are a seemingly small contribution but can have a big impact.
Overcome internal resistance
When it comes to details in production, keeping all the rules is not easy. It is important to have all employees on the same page. It is all the better if they know exactly what they are doing and can rely on clear structures. Training helps your employees to always act safely when it comes to lubricants and to exploit the full potential that modern lubricant management offers.
Take a look at lubrication only once
Lubricants are a small but important part of a production that maintains high quality standards. The right products and services can make it much easier for you to comply with rules and pass audits – without having to deal with them time and again. Take a look at lubrication when you are looking for the right partner, so that you can then leave the issue to the technical experts in production with peace of mind.
Conclusion: You should understand the relevance of lubricants and modern lubricant management. Because although a small part of production, lubricants have a big impact. The best way to do this is with a reliable partner.
