Food-Grade Aluminium Foil: The Compliance Documents Buyers Should Request

Buyers often ask for "the food grade certificate". There is no such document. Food-contact compliance is demonstrated by a small set of papers that together show the material is suitable for its intended use, and each one answers a different question. Knowing which is which makes it much harder to be sold a reassuring but empty piece of paper.

The declaration of compliance

The core document is the declaration of compliance, sometimes called a declaration of conformity. Issued by the manufacturer, it states which material the declaration covers, the intended conditions of use, and the regulation it is declared against. For the European market that normally means the framework regulation for food contact materials, 1935/2004, together with the specific measure that applies to the layers in question. It must be specific to the product and the conditions of use, not a generic page carrying the company letterhead.

Migration testing

Compliance is not a property of the alloy alone. What matters is whether substances can migrate out of the material into food under the intended conditions. That is established by migration testing, which reports overall migration and, where relevant, specific migration for named substances, against the limits for the intended use. Pay attention to the test conditions: results for a short contact at ambient temperature say nothing about a long oven contact at high temperature, and a test run on the wrong food simulant does not support your application.

Mill test certificate is a different document

A mill test certificate reports the metallurgical property of the coil: alloy, temper, mechanical properties and chemical composition. It proves the metal is what you ordered. It says nothing about food contact. Both documents are commonly needed, and it is a warning sign when a supplier offers one as a substitute for the other.

Third-party inspection

An inspection report from a recognised body, typically covering a defined batch and scope, adds independent evidence that the product matches the specification at the time of inspection. It is valuable, but read the scope: an inspection of a factory system is not a statement that every subsequent coil is compliant, and a report covering one production line does not automatically cover another.

What to check before filing it

• Does the declaration name your product, or a product family that genuinely covers it?
• Are the stated conditions of use the conditions you will actually use, including temperature and duration?
• Is there an issue or revision date that is still current, and is the supplier identified?
• Do the migration results reference the correct simulant and test conditions for your application?
• If the foil is lacquered, laminated or printed, are the coatings and adhesives covered by their own declarations?

Keep your own file audit-ready

If you supply food businesses, your customers will eventually ask you for this paperwork, and some will audit you. Keep the declaration, the migration report and the mill certificate together for each product and each supplier, with the dates visible. When a specification or a coating changes, ask for an updated declaration rather than assuming the old one still applies.

We supply food-contact foil with the declaration, migration test reports and batch mill certificates, and we will tell you plainly what each document covers. See our food grade aluminium foil or the wider food and household foil range, and tell us your intended use so the paperwork can be matched to it.