Control of Processing Aids in Food Packaging

My company manufactures extruded food contact packaging and we are trying to become AIB certified.  Here is my question:  The only processing aids we use is in our film extruder.  In the AIB consolidated standards the exact definition of a processing aid is: substances that are added during the processing of a food.  But the problem here is that we do no food processing at our facility all we do is manufacture food contact packaging.  Can I simply file this one processing aid in with the MSDS or do I have to have special records still.

Dear paconmatt,

I suspect AIB assume their readers/users  will be familiar with FS/GMP terminologies and interpret "food' as equivalent to "food contact material' followed by "acting accordingly".

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Paconmatt. We are a blown film extrusion company and we, too, use process aid but the standard is not asking about an additive that goes into the blend itself. A process aid, in this case, would be something like corn starch that is used on a rewinder or slitter, something added after the extrusion process to help with production. We do not have any process aids and that is what i tell my auditor every year, citing the corn starch so he knows i understand what he is asking for then tell him no, we don't use any. Hope this helps.

Lworden,

That helps out immensely. Here at our facility we don't use starch in the extrusion process here but in our label department they use something similar to that before the label goes to the winder.  Do, I need to include that in process aids.

If the label comes in contact with the finished product, then yes. The procedure would cite what the processing aid is, that it is FDA approved and have something from the manufacturer with the procedure that states it is FDA. If it is not food grade then look for an alternative that is. It is perfectly acceptable to have something as long as it is food grade and you can prove it with documentation.