Vickers Oils to open dedicated facility for food-grade lubricants

Vickers Oils announced it will formally open a purpose-built facility for manufacturing food-grade lubricants and greases on February 23rd. The new site is located two miles from the lubricant company’s main Airedale Mills factory in Hunslet, Leeds, UK.

“We are what we eat, and consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality and safety of what goes in the shopping basket. That is the primary reason for building this dedicated facility,” said Paul Vann, managing director at Vickers Oils.

The self-contained facility is believed to be the only large-scale food-grade lubricant manufacturing site in the UK. By having raw materials and finished products exclusively for food-grade use on-site, the risk of cross-contamination with non-food-grade chemicals is significantly reduced compared to a multi-purpose plant.

The new facility includes a quality control laboratory and training area. With a modular design for scalability, it features renewable electricity and solar panels.

This significant investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to continuous improvement for its food industry customers, the company said.

“Alongside our channel partners, we are committed to continuous improvement in our products, services and solutions to benefit food and associated manufacturing equipment, operations and last, but by no means least, industry compliance,” it added.

While some lubricants directly contact food during processing, most food-grade variants are formulated to minimise contamination from incidental equipment contact. Vickers Oils’ food-grade products meet ISO 9001, ISO 21469, Halal, Kosher, NSF H1 and 3H standards.