Swipe left to see more
Typically, tortilla factories produce either corn or flour tortillas. There is a growing market segment for facilities to produce tortillas made from other ingredients such as beets, nopal cactus, and more. Regardless of what type of tortilla is produced, some things remain constant in industrial production settings, tortillas are made in high speed ovens, baked on steel "slat" oven plate chain belting systems that travel over a series of ribbon burners, with a relatively short bake time and a high throughput rate. To maintain such high production rates, the oven chains must be lubricated consistently using the right oil for the oven slat belt chain system.
An alarming rate of tortilla factories, tortillerias and/or tortilla bakeries continue to use natural black graphite based oil to lubricate slat belt oven chains. Although sometimes falsely promoted as food grade, black graphite lubricant is NOT food grade, is a hazardous product and should NOT be used in a food production facility or in a bakery oven application.
To see a list of manufacturers that falsely advertised their product as NSF food grade click here.
TL/DR - ALL tortilla bakeries should be using food grade lubricant in their machinery. If using non food grade hazardous oils, the tortillas run risk of food contamination and having their product removed from food service and hospitality facilities and supermarket shelves. Stop Using Graphite! #BakeSafe
Click to learn about the dangers of using black graphite lubricant in food production facilities.
The tortilla market continues to grow globally and many consumers are adding tortilla as a bread alternative. In order for tortilla bakeries to service the demand, they must get their products onto supermarket shelves and in food service restaurant facilities. To gain access to valuable supermarket shelf space, the client(s) are demanding that the tortilla is baked in a facility that adheres to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and is audited with physical inspections to satisfy and exceed global food safety standards mandated by global organizations and associations, such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Safe Quality Food Institute (SQF) and others. To accommodate the need for greater manufacturer (bakery) accountability, assurances, along with better organizational and operational processes, the tortilla facilities have been forced to invest in the following:
Improvement to the Quality Assurance (QA) process Improved to Health and Safety
Food Safety Regulation Audits Greater Documentation Keeping
Improved Sanitation Maintenance procedures
What type of lubricant is good and safe for use on a tortilla oven slat belt chain system?
Many maintenance departments know that black graphite is hazardous, unsafe, and should not be used in a tortilla food manufacturing facility. Given this information, you must eliminate any use of black boron nitride graphite lubricants. The next step is to verify that the oil which you are considering for the lubrication application is listed and or registered as Food Grade. You should verify who the governing body is in your jurisdiction. In North America, The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) has taken the helm as the organization that food grade lubricants are listed and registered with. Prior to the NSF, in USA, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) were the regulatory agency responsible for deeming a product Food Grade.
The three different NSF classifications for food grade lubricants are H1, H2, and H3. The easiest way to understand the differences is that H1 is used in applications where there is a possibility of incidental contact, H2 is to be used on equipment where there is NO possible chance of food contact and it must be impossible for any lubricant to ever come in contact with food, and H3 which is lubricant made of soluble or edible oils. When picking an oil to lubricate your tortilla oven slat belt chain system, always select an NSF H1 registered lubricant. There are many companies that sell lubricant that is falsely labeled. Be sure to use H1 registered products. To avoid any exposure risk to contamination, never use H2, H3 or non-food grade lubricating products on a bakery oven chain. Never!
Click to verify if the lubricant you are using is NSF H1 Registered under the NSF "Proprietary Substance and Nonfood Compounds" "White Book" directory.
Which lubricant is right for your tortilla oven slat belt chain system?
The bake temperature affects which food grade lubricant should be used. To ensure you will be using the right food grade lubricant, first, determine the surface temperature of your slat belt chain system. This can be done using an infra-red thermometer. If you do not have an infrared measuring device, to gain your benchmark reference temperature, you can use the oven's temperature controller or high limit temperature control as a reference point. However, it is important to remember that unless the temperature control system is measuring the slat belt chain surface temperature the Process Value (temperature) displayed on the temperature controller is the ambient air temperature typically within the exhaust stack or the oven baking chamber. This is typically lower than the chain temperature, which as a result of the heat sink of the metal surfaces within the oven combustion chamber, will typically maintain a higher temperature reading than the air temperature.
It is important that the lubricant will not flash off during application. Typically, flour tortilla is baked at lower temperatures than corn tortilla. For flour tortilla oven chains there are many high temperature food grade lubricants available that are suitable. However, there are less choices of lubricants that provide protection at extended higher temperatures typical of corn tortilla applications.
At Chain Guard, we make your choice simple. We offer only two lubricating products for tortilla oven slat belt chain systems. In addition, we break the choices down by temperature. We use 600°F as our discussion point. The following table will help make your choices simple:
Swipe left to see more
As a rule of thumb, flour tortilla is baked at lower temperatures and high temperature food grade synthetic lubricant oil with a 220 ISO grade has had great success. Chain Guard offers our CG-FS-220-H1 synthetic food grade high temperature lubricant. These oils are typically clear to amber in color and suitable for use with manual or automatic applications below 575°F (301°C). Corn tortilla is usually baked in ovens at temperatures between 575°F (301°C) and 650°F (343°C) and lubricants for such intense heat applications must have special additives and anti-wear ingredients added to provide extended high temperature lubrication.
To emulate natural black graphite and provide the extreme high temperature lubricating chain protection, Chain Guard offers a synthetic White Food Grade Graphite oil that can be applied on cold or hot oven slat belt oven chain systems. Which you choose, ALWAYS pick a food grade option and #BakeSafe!
Click the icons to visit our social media pages
Would you like to receive exclusive content & avoid missing out on promotions? Click here to create an account & join our community.
You can also sign up instantly by submitting your email in the box below!
-(1).png)
.png "Chain Guard Logo"){kind=logo}
$ CAD
USD .png)
-(1).png "Chain Guard Logo")
-1.png "Chain Guard Logo"){kind=logo}