05/03/2026 by Daniel Tait
From food manufacturing to pharmaceutical production, many industries require food grade lubricants.
The food safe oils and greases are designed to ensure that if consumable products have contact with lubricant, it never puts those who ingest them at risk. For instance, food grade gear oil made by Mobil and Shell is available to properly maintain conveyor belts in factories, while compressor oil from CPI Fluid Engineering made with safer ingredients is employed to service air-conditioning units in plants to avoid airborne contaminants entering products.
To ensure lubricants are safe to use, specific standards are set by regulators. However, it’s worth noting that food grade lubricant regulations and standards can vary considerably from country to country. It is worth noting that many nations’ legislation and approved standards are often influenced heavily by guidelines set by the United States and European organizations from institutions like the US Food and Drug Administration and National Sanitation Foundation and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Third-party certifications like H1 and NSF are also accepted widely to demonstrate compliance.
Here, we explore regulations around the world for food grade lubricants in Europe, the United States and Canada, Australia, Brazil and China.
European Union (EU)
In the EU there is no single formal regulation that strictly covers food grade lubricants. However, the region has established strict food safety regulations through the EFSA. As a rule, lubricant regulations in the EU accept products that have an NSF H1 registration, but certain difference exists. For example, EU regulations are more restrictive regarding contaminants. For instance, unlike many markets, the EU does not consider titanium dioxide safe for use as a food additive. As a result, products containing this additive are forbidden in many European nations.
In terms of compliance, EU food and beverage processors usually depend on H1 registration for lubricant products and an ISO 21469 certification.
United States (US) and Canada
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the main regulatory body overseeing food grade lubricants via the regulation 21 CFR 178.3570. It is designed to define ingredients that are permitted to use in lubricants that are safe for incidental food contact.
While safety standards were originally managed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), currently they are the purview of the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) International. This is now the primary organisation registering lubricants as H1 and appropriate for incidental contact.
Over the border in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has historically regulated food-grade lubricants, however its role in reviewing product has decreased with lubricant makers now selecting NSF registration instead.
Australia
In Australia, lubricants were managed via a programme set up by The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, or AQIS, for short. Today, present regulations focus mainly on approving chemical compounds used in meat production operations that export meat. Instead of using the H1 classification for incidental contact, the Australian equivalent is referred to as “Lubricants Type A”.
Brazil
Renowned for its levels of strictness, South America’s Brazil has rigid rules and practices governing the production of food garde lubricants but also those entering the country as imports. Since 2014 Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) has an enforced requirement that all food-grade lubricants imported or manufactured within the country must carry an ISO 21469 certification.
The standard demanded goes far beyond food grad lubricants analysed to achieve and NSF H1 registration as product testing and on-site audits are mandatory.
China
Regulations for food safety in China are set by The Food Hygiene Law of the People’s Republic of China. However, its detailed and specific regulations regarding food-grade lubricants are far less defined in comparison to the US and European nations. Standard requirements exist for imported food grade lubricants with many products required to have an ISO 21469 certification or be H1-registered. A more recent development is a drive for more traceability across entire blockchains backed up by certifications.
To sum up, while it is true that NSF H1 remains the most globally accepted “standard” for food grade lubricants, enterprises operating internationally must make sure that their lubricants can meet specific local and regional requirements. These range from the stricter food safe additive regulations in the EU to the ISO 21469 certificate in Brazil and China.
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