Materials in contact with food
Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 sets the principle: a material in contact with food must not release hazardous substances or alter the food’s composition, taste or smell. It also requires traceability at every stage.
Sector
Subcontracting for the food and drink industry
Stainless steel parts, conveyor components, guards and tooling for production lines: set out your food-contact requirements and compare proposals from workshops in France.
A food production line stops quickly, and a badly chosen part often costs more than the downtime itself: a worn guide, a deformed scraper or a porous weld all become contamination risks. The sector orders both wear parts that must be replaced fast and new equipment that has to be designed for cleaning.
Subcontracting here rests on three requirements: a material suited to food contact, a design that can be cleaned (smooth surfaces, continuous welds, no areas where product can be retained) and traceability that lets you prove what was fitted to the line. The workshops involved mostly work with stainless steel, engineering plastics and light sheet metalwork, from the conveyor to the hopper.
This page covers the requirements to know about, typical parts, the skills involved and how to write a quote request so that the workshop immediately understands your hygiene expectations. The guide to 304 or 316L stainless steel helps with the choice of material.
Sector requirements
Standards, regulations and practices that buyers expect from their subcontractors.
Plastics and declaration of compliance
For plastics, Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 sets the authorised substances and migration limits: ask for the declaration of compliance. For elastomer or silicone seals, require the documentation specific to those materials.
Good manufacturing practice
Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 requires quality to be controlled and production to be documented. In the workshop, that means clean, degreased parts with no cutting-fluid residue, and batch tracking.
Hygienic machine design
Directive 2006/42/EC, replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 from 2027, sets hygiene requirements for machinery that handles food. The EN ISO 14159 standard and EHEDG guidelines cover the rest: smooth surfaces, rounded corners, no areas where product can be retained.
Stainless steel, surface finishes and welds
Grades 304 and 316L dominate. For contact surfaces, a roughness of Ra 0.8 µm or better is a common benchmark, with continuous welds that are pickled and then passivated. State your own reference standard in the request.
Typical parts and sub-assemblies
- Conveyor guides, slides and rails in UHMW-PE or POM
- Screw conveyors, scrapers and transfer paddles
- Sorting starwheels and format parts for filling and capping machines
- Stainless steel hoppers, chutes and trays
- Guards, covers and protectors in stainless sheet
- Cutting blades, knives and combs
- Sanitary fittings, manifolds and pipework
- Like-for-like spare parts for older machines
Skills involved
Each skill has its own detailed page: services, materials, price factors.
CNC machining
Format parts, screws, shafts and spacers in stainless steel or engineering plastic. State the exact material and the declaration of compliance you expect.
Welding & boilermaking
Stainless steel tanks, hoppers, frames and pipework TIG-welded with back-purging of the weld: no porosity, crevices or discolouration.
Sheet metalwork & cutting
Guards, covers and chutes folded from stainless sheet, with rounded corners and welded rather than bolted assemblies to limit areas where product can be retained.
Plastics & moulding
Series-injected parts, seals and gaskets, supplied with the material’s declaration of compliance.
Surface treatment
Pickling and passivation of welds, electropolishing, micro-blasting: these finishes improve corrosion resistance and cleanability.
Inspection & metrology
Roughness measurement, dimensional inspection and a 3.1 material certificate: everything needed to document the parts fitted to the line.
Materials
Stainless steel 304 (1.4301) for mildly aggressive areasStainless steel 316L (1.4404) for salty or acidic products and chlorinated disinfectantsUHMW-PE for guides and wear profilesPOM-C for rollers, gears and precision partsPTFE and PEEK for temperature resistance and low frictionFood-grade silicone and EPDM for sealsAluminium, outside areas exposed to alkaline detergents
Tips for your quote request
Post a request- State the end use: direct food contact, splash zone or non-contact zone. The requirements differ.
- Specify the grade (304, 316L, UHMW-PE, POM-C) and ask for the material’s food-contact declaration of compliance with the quote.
- State the required roughness on contact surfaces (for example Ra 0.8 µm), the type of weld and the finish: pickling, passivation or electropolishing.
- Describe the cleaning: clean-in-place, high-pressure washing, alkaline detergents, chlorinated disinfectants. These conditions guide the choice of grade and seals.
- For a spare part, attach a photo of the worn part with its dimensions or the original drawing, and say whether the line is down.
- Ask for traceability (material certificate, batch number) in the quote request if your HACCP system or your customer requires it.
Designing and making for cleaning
In food production, a part is also judged by how it cleans. Product residue clings in sharp corners, exposed threads, overlapping sheet and uneven welds, where it forms biofilms that are hard to remove. Hygienic design means eliminating these areas.
- Generous radii instead of sharp corners, including inside tanks and chutes.
- Continuous welds, ground or polished as required, rather than spot welds or lap joints.
- Few exposed threads: hygienic fasteners, plugs, and tool-free demountable assemblies where the line is dismantled for washing.
- Drainage slopes, so that wash water does not stand.
Think about access too: a part that has to be removed for washing must come off quickly, otherwise cleaning will be cut short.
Surface finish matters as much as shape. A low roughness limits the adhesion of soiling, but achieving it takes finishing time: reserve it for the surfaces that are genuinely in contact, and use the roughness tool to choose a sensible value. After welding, pickling and passivation restore the protective layer of the stainless steel; the guide to TIG, MIG and MAG welding explains why gas shielding of the back of the weld matters.
Stainless steel, engineering plastics and workshop cleanliness
Grade 304 suits most dry or mildly aggressive equipment. Grade 316L, which contains molybdenum, resists chlorides (salt, brines, chlorinated disinfectants) better and is the right choice in salty or acidic environments. The guide 304 or 316L stainless steel and the page on welding and fabrication go into this choice in detail.
Engineering plastics replace metal where you want sliding, light weight or less noise: UHMW-PE for guides and wear profiles, POM-C for rollers and precision parts, PTFE for low friction. Each time, check the material’s food-grade status, its resistance to cleaning products and the washing temperature. A part cut from a plate must remain linked to its material batch, which is why a material certificate and good traceability are worthwhile.
Finally, workshop cleanliness is part of the specification: the part must leave degreased, with no swarf or cutting-fluid residue. The lubricants used on the machine itself must be food-grade (category H1). To document a batch, first-article inspection remains the simplest method. Ready to send your request? Post your request with the drawing, grade and documents you expect.
Frequently asked questions
A question not answered here? Visit the help centre or write to us.
Is a stainless steel part automatically compliant for food contact?
No. The material must suit the application (grade, surface finish, resistance to cleaning) and come with the documentation required by Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. A badly welded or overly rough part retains soiling even in stainless steel. Specify the grade, finish and documents you expect.
Which documents should I ask the workshop for?
Depending on your requirements: a 3.1 material certificate to EN 10204 for stainless steel, a declaration of compliance for plastics, a roughness or dimensional report, and a batch number for traceability. They are not all supplied as standard: state them in the request so that they are priced.
Can a spare part be made from a worn part?
Yes, this is common on older machines whose manufacturer no longer supplies the part. The workshop takes the dimensions, checks the fits and sometimes suggests a more durable material. Attach photos, the known dimensions and the machine reference, and say whether the part touches the food.
Do food processing machines have to carry CE marking?
Yes: a new machine placed on the European market falls under Directive 2006/42/EC, which will be replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 from 2027. Its manufacturer remains responsible for compliance, hygiene included; the workshop makes the parts to your drawings.
Guides to go further
Stainless steel 304 or 316L: which grade should you choose for your parts?
EN designations, the role of molybdenum, chloride resistance, machining, welding and relative price: how to choose between stainless steel 304 (1.4301) and 316L (1.4404) according to the use of the part.
TIG, MIG, MAG or stick welding: which welding process should you choose?
TIG, MIG, MAG or stick welding: what each process does, for which material and thickness, and what to specify (qualifications, quality level, inspections) in a quote request.
Dimensional inspection: inspection report, critical dimensions, first article
Which measuring equipment, which report, which dimensions to inspect and how often? Inspection report, first article and control plan: ask for the right level without overpaying.
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