FDA Food Contact
United StatesFood-contact compliance for the materials that touch liquid. Test reports are issued against the actual product and model number, not a similar one.
Certifications & Compliance
What Is Tested, Against Which Standard, For Which Market
A certificate answers one question: was this article tested against this standard. This page is organised so you can find yours — by what the standard covers, by the market that asks for it, and by what document actually exists.
The Matrix
Every Standard That Applies To Drinkware, By What It Covers
Read the third column as the set we would map for your item number. Nothing in this table is a claim that every standard applies to every product we make — the two that decide it are the material and the destination.
| Standard | Applies to | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Food contactThe materials and coatings that touch the drink. | FDA 21 CFR 175.300 / 177.2600United States | Resinous and rubber coatings and their extractives, tested against the food-contact conditions the product is used in. |
| LFGB §30 & §31Germany | The German food-contact test most European buyers name in a specification, covering both the article and the sensorial change it causes. | |
| EU 1935/2004 · EU 10/2011European Union | The framework regulation and its plastics measure; declarations of compliance are written against them. | |
| GB 4806.9China | The national food-contact standard for metal materials and articles, used for the domestic market and for buyers who mirror it. | |
| UK Food Contact Materials RegulationsUnited Kingdom | The retained GB regime, which is not the same document as the EU one and is often asked for separately. | |
| Substances and restricted materialsWhat must not be in the article, and how it is declared. | REACH (EC) 1907/2006 — SVHCEuropean Union | Screening against the candidate list, reported per article with the concentration found. |
| California Proposition 65California, US | Declarations covering lead, cadmium and the other listed substances in the body, the coating and the decoration ink. | |
| CPSIAUnited States | Lead and phthalate limits where a product or a lid can reasonably be expected to be handled by a child. | |
| RoHSEuropean Union | Relevant only to products carrying electronics — a temperature-display lid, for example — and stated separately when they do. | |
| System and socialHow the site is run and how the people who work in it are treated. | ISO 9001Quality management system | Certified against the system under which orders are planned, produced, inspected and released. |
| ISO 14001Environmental management | The environmental management system covering the production base. | |
| BSCI / Sedex SMETASocial compliance | Third-party audits of labour standards, working hours, wages and site safety, commissioned by the buyer community rather than by us. | |
| Performance and durabilityWhat the article has to survive, measured. | EN 12546-1Vacuum ware | The European standard for vacuum flasks and insulated containers — capacity, thermal performance and the marking on the article. |
| QB/T 2332Vacuum flask | The Chinese standard for the same product family, used as the in-house performance baseline. | |
| ISO 9227Salt spray | Neutral salt-spray corrosion testing on coated and plated bodies. | |
| ISO 2409 / ASTM D3359Coating adhesion | Cross-cut and tape tests on the finish, which is where a cheap powder coat fails first. | |
| ISO 15184Pencil hardness | Surface hardness of the coating against a defined pencil grade. | |
| Transit and packagingWhat happens to the carton before the buyer opens it. | ISTA 1A / 2ATransit packaging | Drop and vibration protocols on the packed carton, which is the test that finds a carton that will not survive a container. |
| FSCPaper and board | Chain-of-custody on the board used in the retail box and the display unit, where a retailer asks for it. |
Held Standards
The Approval Families We Hold
Named, not described. Every one is issued against a specific product and market, so we confirm which apply to your configuration rather than claiming they all apply to everything.
LFGB
Germany · EU 1935/2004The standard most European buyers quote, alongside EU framework regulation 1935/2004 for food-contact materials.
REACH / Prop 65
EU · California, USREACH SVHC screening for the EU, and California Proposition 65 declarations covering lead, cadmium and other listed substances for the US market.
BSCI / SEDEX
Social compliance auditThird-party social-compliance audit reports covering labour standards, working hours, wages and site safety for the production base.
ISO 9001
Quality management systemCertificate covering the quality management system under which orders are planned, produced and inspected.
Third-party testing
SGS · TÜV · IntertekWhere your market or your retailer requires a specific protocol, we commission the test against your product and send the report with the order documents.
Documents
What Actually Arrives In The Pack
The document set follows the product and the market. These are the types that accompany an order or a quotation; tell us the item number and destination and we will say which of them exist for it today.
| Document | What it proves | Issued by | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food Contact Test Report | That a named article, in a named material with a named coating, was tested against the food-contact regulation of a named market and passed. | An accredited third-party laboratory | Per article and per market |
| Material Safety Test Report | That the materials in the article were screened for the restricted substances the destination market limits — heavy metals, BPA and other SVHCs as applicable. | An accredited third-party laboratory | Per material and per destination |
| Compliance Declaration | That the manufacturer states the article conforms to a named regulation and takes responsibility for that statement. It is a declaration, not a measurement. | The manufacturer | Per article and per regulation |
| Quality System Document | That the site operates a documented quality management system across incoming material, in-process gates and final inspection. | A certification body | The site as a whole |
| Product Test Report | That a finished article was measured against a performance protocol — capacity, retention, leak or drop, depending on what was commissioned. | An accredited laboratory, or our own laboratory where the protocol allows | Per article and per protocol |
| Factory Audit Document | That the site was assessed against a buyer or scheme checklist covering quality, social compliance or security, on a stated date and scope. | The commissioning buyer, or the scheme | The site, at a point in time |
| Material Declaration | That the manufacturer declares what an article is made of. Useful for a specification file; it is not a laboratory measurement of it. | The manufacturer or the material supplier | Per material |
| Third-party Inspection Report | That an inspection nominated by the buyer — SGS, TUV, Intertek or the buyer’s own — was carried out against an agreed plan, with the result recorded. | The nominated inspection body | Per order or per batch |
| Export & Registration Document | That the shipment or the company is registered and documented for export to a named destination — the paperwork an import file is built from. | The manufacturer and the carrier or authority | Per order or per entity |
A declaration and a test report are not the same evidence, and a report issued against one article is not evidence for another — the "applies to" column is the one to read before an order is committed. Which of these exist for your item number is confirmed against the item number and the destination market rather than assumed from this page.
Due Diligence
What Makes A Certificate Worth Reading
The same four checks work on any supplier, including us. A document that fails one of them is not evidence, whoever sent it.
Who issued it
A named laboratory or certification body, with the accreditation it holds printed on it. A report with no issuer, or an issuer with no accreditation, cannot be verified by anyone.
The report number
Every issued report carries one, and the issuing body can confirm it against their own register. Ask them, not us — that is the whole point of a third-party report.
What it covers
The model, the material and the condition actually tested. A food-contact report for a similar body is not a report for your body, and a coating tested at one thickness is not evidence for another.
How current it is
Materials, suppliers and coatings change. A report that predates the last formulation change describes a product that is no longer being made.
Compliance Questions
What Compliance Teams Ask
Can you send certificates before we place an order?
Yes. Tell us the item number and the market it is going to and we will send what exists for that combination, together with a note on which of it is current. We separate documents we hold from tests that would have to be commissioned, rather than sending a generic pack.
Is a certificate issued once, for everything you make?
No, and any supplier who answers yes should be asked again. Food-contact and restricted-substance reports are issued against a specific article, material and coating. A report for one body is not evidence for another, and a coating tested at one thickness is not evidence at another.
Which standard applies to my product?
It follows the market, not the product. A stainless bottle sold in the United States is normally tested to FDA food-contact regulation; the same bottle sold in Germany is normally tested to LFGB. Send us the destination and we will name the set before you commit to anything.
Do you hold a social-compliance audit?
The site is audited against the social-compliance schemes the buyer community commissions, commonly BSCI and Sedex SMETA. The reports belong to the buyer who commissioned them, which is why this site names the scheme and the scope rather than printing a report number.
What is the difference between a declaration and a test report?
A test report is a laboratory record of a measurement on a named article, with an issuer and a number you can check. A declaration of conformity is the manufacturer stating that an article meets a regulation and taking responsibility for it. Both are useful; they are not the same evidence.
How current do the documents need to be?
Recent enough to describe the article as it is made now. Materials, coatings and suppliers change, and a report that predates the last formulation change describes a product that is no longer being built. Ask for the issue date and compare it with your first order date.
Enquiry
Tell Us The Item Number And The Market
Those two facts decide the whole document set. Send them and we will answer with what exists, what is current, and what would need to be commissioned.