Food factories saddled by high cost of food-grade lubricants

Amid the rising food-safety awareness among consumers in Japan following several food-mislabeling and contamination incidents, the need for food-grade lubricants for the food-processing machinery is growing. This has led to increased sales for lubricant suppliers but many food factories are finding the extra costs quite prohibitive. The increasingly stringent hygiene requirements are forcing food factories to use food-grade lubricants on gears and bearings that didn’t require them in the past. As a result, some food factories have been seeing an eight-fold increase in costs. Because food-grade lubricants are more expensive than regular lubricants, industry sources said that the rate of compliance is still around 50% for small and medium-size food factories. (March 15, 2012)