ILMA Compoundings March 2017 - 16

Two ILMA member companies
and an NSF International
expert share their forecast for
H1 lubricant demand and the
challenges that come with
serving a global food market.
Worldwide Increase in Demand
Ashlee Breitner, business unit manager
of Non-Food Compounds for NSF
International, says she is seeing an explosion in and greater focus on foodgrade lubricants as more countries
commit to and invest in food safety.
As countries develop regulations specifically for food processors, there is a
trickle-down effect on suppliers.
"As [food manufacturers] push
down on their suppliers to make
sure the products they are using in
their manufacturing process are safe,
it creates more and more of a focus
on the need for lubricants that are
considered food-grade," said Breitner.
"We're starting to see many lubricant
manufacturers starting to get into this
food-grade industry that were not in
the past."
Keeping up to date on regulations
particular to every region you do
business in can be a challenge. Cindy
Cleves, the owner of Interlube Corp.,
said that obtaining NSF International
registration and certification helps
largely because the organization is well
known in the U.S., reaching territories
and developed parts of Asia. However,
it is far more difficult to keep track of
all the regional regulations in Africa
and South America.
"You can't keep up, and there are
variances that are odd and quirky in
particular nations that are not familiar
with NSF International," said Cleves.
In those regions, Interlube maintains
close communication with its distribu-

MARCH 2017

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

tors and relies on them to make sure its
lubricants satisfy their customers' needs.
Demand is also increasing as more
food processors and suppliers are seeing
the advantage of using food-grade
lubricants throughout their entire operations, not just "above the line," as they
did in the past. The exceptional quality
of H1 lubricants on the market today
deserves much of the credit for that
conversion. Manufacturers have been
pushing lubricant producers to create
a product that performs in severe-duty
situations (excessive wear, high temperatures and high-speed lines) equal to
the performance of H2 lubricants.
"The H1 lubricants, especially if
based on synthetic technology, have
greatly closed the performance gap in
the last 10 years. We still see a push
towards equality, but we're not there
yet," said Cleves.
John Sander, vice president of technology at Lubrication Engineers Inc.,
agrees that while H1 lubricants are
better today than they were 10 or 15
years ago, H1 performance is still not
quite equal in extreme pressure and
anti-wear situations.
However, Sander points out that
when it comes to raw materials, "oxidation-wise, there are some very good
base fluids and good enough antioxidants to select from. As a result, you
can make very good oxidation-resistant products that are food safe."
Manufacturers will continue to pay
more for H1 lubricants than they do
for H2 lubricants because of the cost
of the raw ingredients and the added
expense of registration and certification. When compared to the price of a
mistake that results in a recall, it is still
a good deal for the manufacturer.
Both Cleves and Sander feel that
large Fortune 100 food and beverage
manufacturers understand the risk
of cross contamination and have
processes in place to ensure it does not
happen. It is the smaller, single-facility

sites, or sites that work in multiple
shifts, that might still not be aware of
the risks. A recall is the manufacturer's
worst-case scenario, but in the event
of contamination, even products
that have not yet shipped must be
disposed of. When a food processor
converts to 100 percent food-grade
lubricants in its facility, it has eliminated one very significant concern
- cross-contamination resulting from
maintenance mistakes.
Cleves said she has also seen an
increase in interest for combination
biodegradable and H1 lubricants, especially in larger organizations trying to
achieve corporate sustainability goals.
However, demand for this combination is not just about consumer
preference and sustainability goals. In
the U.S., federal law, the Federal Acquisition Regulation and presidential
executive orders direct that all federal
agencies purchase biobased products
in categories identified by the USDA.
One of the categories identified is
lubricants. Mandatory federal purchasing of biobased products applies
to governmental agencies and their
contractors.

Customer Education Gap
Larger food and beverage processors
and manufacturers have a high level
of knowledge when it comes to proper
maintenance procedures and the
value of these lubricants. That is not
the case when it comes to the smaller
manufacturers; thus, most of their
education on the value of food-grade
lubricants and the risk of not using
them falls to lubricant producers. A
lubricant producer's sales personnel
become the counselors, as they are the
ones on the front line interacting with
these smaller shops.
Cleves' experience is that for the
most part, food production companies are aware. Where the knowledge
gap appears is on the supplier end

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ILMA Compoundings March 2017

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