As food production and processing increasingly become a global business, it creates a growing list of global concerns, including demands for food safety and purity, regulatory challenges and stricter processing and handling standards worldwide. Food equipment continues to become faster, bigger and more efficient, and food producers are competing for worldwide markets.
With food producers coping with low margins, increased operating costs and demands for greater productivity, as well as the fear of a contamination issue that could escalate into a major media event, the lubricants used in the production and processing of food are under increased pressure. The health consequences of food contamination can be severe. In fact, in the United States alone, food borne diseases caused over 5,000 deaths in 1999.
In the global marketplace, national food safety programs are being re-examined. In the United States, the government has adopted the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Path (HACCP) protocol, which encourages the food industry to write standard operating procedures for cleaning and disinfection, to monitor and report occurrences of food-borne diseases and to promote food protection at the community level. The HACCP also gives food processors and equipment manufacturers the responsibility of approving food grade lubricants.
With the heightened scrutiny, food processors seek lower cost solutions, higher efficiencies and increased productivity. Food processing equipment builders have complied by creating higher speed machinery that offers increased output and easier cleaning and sanitation. New equipment is being designed with the goals of decreasing or eliminating the possibility of contamination from lubricants, cleaners and other chemicals, while lowering maintenance demands.
When it comes to lubrication, the lubricant must not only be non-toxic, it must be odorless, colorless and tasteless so as not to affect the food in any way. Food processors have a variety of mineral and synthetic oils to choose from, but quality differences can be significant.
Mineral based products, although cheaper than a synthetic based product, often may not perform under extremely cold or hot temperature conditions. Synthetic products, on the other hand, are ideally suited for the extreme temperature found in deep freezers and ovens, meeting the most demanding performance requirements.
For example, Lubes-n-Greases magazine (July 2001) cites an example involving a coffee bean roaster that couldn’t keep its bearings greased due to the extreme temperatures reached in direct fire roasting. The outboard bearing temperature regularly escalated over 300 degrees F. which was too much for the mineral based oil and resulted in frequent bearing failure due to lack of lubrication. Once the application was introduced to a synthetic food grade grease, the problems cleared up and $25,000 in downtime, repair costs and labor were saved over an 18 month period.
Given the clear advantages synthetic food greases offer, it would seem to be the obvious choice for food processors. However, many take one look at the higher price and stay with cheaper, mineral based oils, failing to take into account the tremendous gains in productivity and savings in maintenance and downtime offered by a synthetic.
According to Mike Raab of Anderol, “We’ve seen cases where maintenance intervals are extended greater than two-fold [with synthetics], and component life extended three times or more. We can show significant operating cost reductions, from $5,000 to $40,000 annually. And we can help extend re-lubrication intervals, meaning lower labor costs since you lubricant once per week rather than every day.
AMSOIL X-Treme Food Grade Grease offers the ultimate non-toxic protection for food and pharmaceutical industry equipment. Designed for wide operating temperatures, from –35 degrees F to 400 degrees F, AMSOIL X-Treme Food Grade Grease dramatically reduces friction, wear and heat, keeping expensive food processing equipment running smooth and strong. It also effectively resist water washout, rust and corrosion.
