Ask the Experts: What plant professionals need to know about food-grade lubrication standards

Key takeaways

• Food-grade compliance isn’t just about lubricant type—it also demands precise control over quantity and application to avoid contamination.
• Emerging automation tech like ultrasound greasing improves compliance by preventing over-lubrication in food processing environments.
• Regional regulatory differences require practitioners to adapt lubrication strategies across global food manufacturing facilities.
• Misconceptions persist—using food-grade lubricants alone doesn’t ensure compliance; delivery systems and practices matter too.

Food and pharma lubrication practitioners face unique challenges with their machine lubricants and lubrication programs. They must contend with numerous regulations, priorities, and practices that are simply not common or necessary in other environments.

The International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML) offers a specialty certification badge for Food Processing Lubrication (FPL), developed by a remarkable, multi-national team of industry professionals. To provide some insight into the background, development, and relevance of the FPL badge—even in sectors outside of direct food & pharma manufacturing—I connected with several members of ICML’s development committee.

Joining the discussion were:

• Mohamed Ibrahim, Senior Mechanical Engineer, QatarEnergy
• Roberto Trujillo, Senior Technical Consultant, Noria Latin America
• Michael Holloway, President, 5th Order Industry
• Garrett FitzGerald, Senior Principal Engineer – Maintenance & Reliability, Eli Lilly and Company
• Rich Wurzbach, President, MRG Laboratories

What followed was an insightful and in-depth exchange about the unique challenges, regulatory demands, and evolving best practices in this specialized field.

This second part of this conversation centers on regulatory nuances, contamination limits (e.g., 10ppm), and misconceptions about food-grade lubricants, highlighting the complexity beyond simply using certified products. The panelists also explored how technologies like automation, ultrasound greasing, bioengineered lubricants, and smart sensors are potential game-changers in this area, improving precision and compliance but requiring careful integration with regulations.

(Part 1 of this conversation centers on why food-grade lubrication is a valid topic for certification due to its direct impact on public health, strict regulatory oversight, and widespread relevance across industries like food processing and pharmaceuticals.)

Question 4: Is there anything new that you personally learned about food-grade issues while developing this badge? Anything that surprised you?

Ibrahim: As I am working in the oil & gas industry, I was already familiar with the importance of regulatory adherence and contamination control, but the extent of regulatory intricacies across different global regions was eye-opening. The diversity in lubrication practices, even within specific food processing sectors, underscored the need for a nuanced understanding of regional variations. This experience reinforced the importance of continuous learning and adaptability in staying ahead in the ever-evolving field of food-grade lubrication if I were ever to change my career.

Trujillo: Standards and norms are in constant change. There are innovations in lubricant formulation and many techniques to learn. 

Holloway: Nothing new for me while developing this specific badge, because I came into this assignment having visited well over 1,000 food processing facilities [during my career]. However, I did find it amazing when I first got into this years ago, to learn just how miniscule an amount of contaminant is allowed—10ppm! How do you even test for that? If more than 10ppm of oil or grease touches the food product, the items before and after the run have to be trashed. It seems ludicrous, arbitrary, and impossible to truly enforce.

Wurzbach: Given the need for such precision, I learned it is important to communicate to food production practitioners how all the lubrication best practices would impact their ability to deliver precise quantities of lubricant by setting up auto-loop systems or by creating routes for manual grease lubrication to ensure that these limits are not exceeded, [including a] focus on seals within gearboxes and other oil-lubricated equipment and how they need to be set up and managed to ensure that there is not an excessive amount of even food-grade lubricant getting into the food product.

I also learned more about what [food-related industries] really need their folks to understand and learn. There's a widespread misunderstanding that if you purchase a food-grade lubricant and you use it within your facility, then you are compliant with the regulations. The truth of the matter is that the regulations are much more complex. They actually address the quantitative amount of a lubricant that's getting into the food process. So, you can't just say, "Well, I can just grease all day long and fling that grease all around because it's food-grade." That's a misconception. And this subtlety is addressed in the regulations.

Holloway: Just because a product is H1 doesn’t mean it is edible or biodegradable! I have witnessed firsthand various lubricant sales representatives that will try to demonstrate just how safe their product is by actually eating a small amount! I am sure there are better ways to sell food-grade grease. I have also seen sales representatives sell H1 products into environmentally sensitive areas claiming biodegradability—because, after all, “it’s food-grade.” [Yikes!]

Question 5: Which job roles/industries will be most positively impacted by certifying practitioners with the FPL badge?

Holloway: Anyone who serves the food industry with lubricants, be it sales, marketing, product development, and research. Also, anyone involved in training and reliability for the food industry can benefit from this badge. Not only do you learn about the code, you also get a great understanding of the concepts around how the requirements pertain to various processes. The badge also addresses the equipment commonly found in these facilities.

Trujillo: Definitely food processing, personal care products and pharma are the most positively impacted by FPL. The high risk they pose makes them directly impacted in this specialty.

Ibrahim: Certifying individuals with the FPL badge will have a far-reaching positive impact across various job roles and industries. Beyond food manufacturers, sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and any industry where lubrication intersects with food safety will benefit significantly. The FPL badge provides a standardized skill set that is applicable in diverse scenarios where maintaining food-grade standards is of paramount importance. By elevating the competency of practitioners, the FPL badge contributes to enhanced safety, quality, and compliance in a broad spectrum of industries that prioritize the rigorous standards set by food-grade lubrication practices.

FitzGerald: Anyone working in the life science or food & beverage industry can benefit from this badge. This would include biopharma, pharma, med device, medical, and food & beverage industries. This would include those working directly in the sector but also many support industries. ICML is primarily aimed at the practitioner, but in this case that can include the engineer setting the lubrication requirements to the technician dispensing the lubricants.

Wurzbach: Sometimes it's a little surprising who falls under the food-grade umbrella. When you go to answer that question who the target audience is, it's more about discerning those folks who are affected in the whole supply chain process of agriculture, food production, packaging, delivery—starting with the companies, and then from there asking who within those companies would be the candidates to sit for this badge and learn from this?

For instance, the packaging industry—which sometimes falls under the umbrella of pulp and paper or even plastics manufacturing—actually has a lot of these same regulations because the packaging ends up with food in it. The same goes for machinery manufacturers that build machinery that goes into food production, right? And warehouses that handle food product—that’s logistics. It sounds pretty obscure, but my lab is located close to the largest automated warehouse in the world, and it's all for a grocery chain. And they basically run in the dark with robots. So, the grocery store says, for example, “We need a truck and it's got to have this many cases of pineapples and a few mops and all this other stuff.” And then the robots go pick all that stuff, build pallets, and send it out. So, this operation is very much under that food-grade umbrella. And individuals there have expressed an interest in this FPL badge, as well.

Question 6: What emerging technologies do you anticipate will impact food-grade lubrication practices, for better or worse? And how might the FPL body of knowledge be affected in order to remain relevant in the face of such developments?

Ibrahim: Anticipating the impact of emerging technologies on food-grade lubrication practices is pivotal in navigating the dynamic landscape of industrial operations. While advancements in nanotechnology, smart sensors, and data analytics hold promise for better monitoring and control of lubrication processes, careful consideration is required. Ensuring that these technologies align seamlessly with stringent food-grade standards is crucial. Potential challenges, including compatibility issues and risks of contamination, must be proactively addressed. As technology continues to evolve, it is imperative to strike a balance between innovation and adherence to the highest standards of food-grade lubrication.

Holloway: There are constant advancements for products that are odorless, tasteless, colorless, physiologically inert, and non-toxic from the various base oils such as mineral oils, PAOs, esters, and silicones to the additives such as anti-wear additives (friction modifiers, extreme pressure additives), antioxidants, corrosion inhibitors, viscosity modifiers, pour point depressants, surfactants, dispersants, and emulsifiers and antifoam agents, all of which are plant derivatives! They achieved this through genetic modification. It's amazing what you can do with bioengineering. There is work underway at various research universities as well as additive companies that have switched their focus away from petroleum-derived chemicals to those that can be bioengineered and harvested. An emerging area of research and product development for lubricants is bioengineering. In the years to come, you will witness a departure from petrochemical feedstocks and process vats in favor of plant-based product and biological reactors.    

FitzGerald: Regulator requirements will continue to increase over time. This will be a significant challenge to those specifying and formulating lubricants in the future. There will be pressure to move facilities to “only food-grade” lubricants to prevent potential for cross-contamination. Practitioners in the future will have to be able to balance this need for compliance with the fundamental need for robust lubrication of rotating equipment. Lubrication management remains the foundation block of rotating equipment reliability.

Trujillo: Industry 4.0 and automation may benefit this industry branch, allowing a better way to apply lubricant in exact quantities/frequencies and avoiding over-lubrication. New lubricant formulation and certified food-grade lubricants and plants are one of the most important advances in this space, ensuring lubricants are formulated and produced following the rules.

Wurzbach: I agree that automation developments in general—whether robotics or other forms of automation—will potentially require these principles of effective lubrication and food production to be applied to them. For instance, early adopters of the FPL badge might already recognize that the use of ultrasound greasing has the ability to minimize or even prevent over-lubrication events. As that technology becomes more widely disseminated and understood, it could be a very powerful means of meeting the regulation requirements that limit the amount of food-grade grease allowed to contact these things. So, depending on how it proceeds, more elements regarding automation could be considered for part of a future expansion or adoption into the FPL badge.

Paul Hiller: This makes sense, because automation lends itself toward consistency and accuracy even at miniscule levels, making it easier to meet some of those regulatory requirements. But adoption is going to be key to that, whether food-grade facilities would even budget for implementing such technological advancements. However, as you described earlier, could adoption be driven again here by legal liability pressures?

WURZBACH: Even though it goes all the way back to 2011 when FSMA became law, it's only after bad cases get publicized (e.g., food recalls) that the profile becomes greater, prompting maybe a higher level of scrutiny by managers of these facilities, so that they would say, "Well, now I believe there is a good reason for me to invest in a more precise lubricant delivery solution," or maybe, "I'm concerned that a non-food grade lubricant might end up in a food-grade application, and therefore I may want to invest in color-coding and better lubricant storage and transfer type devices." I think that's something that we will see evolve over time and prompt those decision-makers to adopt more best practices and technologies that will help them stay compliant with regulations.

Final thoughts: ICML recommends that lubrication professionals interested in pursuing the FPL badge should already hold MLA I or MLT I certification; however, work experience can satisfy this requirement instead. So, Roberto Trujillo offered this helpful reminder to all potential FPL candidates:

Trujillo: Because the FPL badge does not require a candidate to hold any other ICML certifications, candidates must have general knowledge about lubrication fundamentals, oil analysis, contamination control, in addition to all knowledge related specifically to FPL. It makes this certification badge more complex; not only does it test food-grade lubricants, but overall lubrication.

It is true that food-grade lubrication isn’t just a technical nicety—it’s a vital component of food safety and operational efficiency. Thanks to the dedication of ICML volunteers such as these FPL committee members, lubrication professionals now have a standardized path to gain knowledge and measure their competency so that they can help elevate industry standards and ensure a safer, more efficient future for food processing worldwide.