What food contact means
Any material that touches food can transfer substances into it. Regulation exists to keep that transfer below defined limits. It applies to the plastic of a container, the coating of a pan, the glaze on a ceramic bowl and the ink on a printed lid.
In Europe the reference is framework regulation plus, in practice, the German LFGB standard, which is what most buyers ask for. In the United States it is FDA compliance for the specific material. Neither is a logo you buy. Both are test results on a specific product.
The migration test
The test simulates food contact by exposing the product to a solvent that stands in for food, at a defined temperature and time, and then measuring what came out. This is called a migration test and it is the number that matters.
Overall migration for plastics. Specific migration for named substances such as heavy metals in a ceramic glaze. For coated cookware, the coating supplier's documentation plus a test on the finished pan, because a compliant coating applied badly is not a compliant pan.
The certificate that is worth nothing
A factory sends you a beautiful PDF. It is a real test report from a real laboratory, and it is for a different product, or a different colour, or a batch from two years ago. This is the most common compliance shortcut in the category, and it is not always dishonest: the factory genuinely believes a similar product is the same product.
It is not. Colour pigments change the migration result. A different glaze changes it. A different supplier of the same resin changes it. The certificate must match the SKU you are buying, from a batch you can identify.
How to do it once and be done
- Name the material and grade in the contract, including the coating and its supplier.
- Send product from the production batch to an accredited laboratory. Not the sample. The batch.
- Keep the report, and keep a retained sample sealed at the factory.
- On repeat orders, verify the material has not changed. If it has, the test is void and you are exposed.
- Food contact compliance is a test result on your SKU, not a logo the factory owns.
- The migration test is the number. Overall for plastics, specific for glazes and coatings.
- A certificate for a similar product is worthless. Colour and coating change the result.
- Re-verify on repeat orders. A material change voids the test and the liability is yours.
