Food contact · grades and paperwork
Moulds for bakeries, chocolatiers, confectioners and food manufacturers. The shape is usually the easy part. For a food-contact job, what matters is the grade, the declaration that comes with it, and whether your mould can withstand the way you clean it.
Status, plainly
For food-contact work, paperwork matters as much as geometry. We will be clear about what we have and what we do not. Food-grade silicone is a material specification supported by a supplier declaration. We buy to that specification, record the grade against your order, and provide the declaration for the material used with the job.
BRCGS certification is in progress, but it has not yet been awarded. We are working towards it. Until certification is awarded, we will not describe ourselves as certified, and you should not rely on it for your own supplier approval. If your specification requires a certificated supplier today, please tell us at enquiry stage and we will honestly confirm whether we can meet it.
We will not suggest that a grade declaration and a certification scheme are the same thing, because they are not. A grade declaration tells you what the silicone is. A certification scheme tells you how the site that handled it is audited.
Our culinary division looks after food-contact moulds, so the grade, the declaration and the ordering history stay together in one place. You will not need to reconstruct the details each time you reorder.
Cleandown
A mould that works beautifully in a demonstration can be destroyed within a fortnight by a real food clean-down. Caustic wash, hot water, steam, sanitiser, a dishwasher on a heavy cycle or a scouring pad used by somebody in a hurry can all take their toll. Each one attacks silicone differently.
Before we talk about shape, we ask about your cleaning regime. Chemical exposure and repeated heating determine the grade and wall thickness. A mould specified for a gentle hand wash will go soft, tacky or brittle on a caustic line. That's a specification failure, not bad luck.
Trays and moulds used in an oven need a little more consideration, as both the cycle temperature and the number of cycles matter. This is covered under high-temperature moulds.
Geometry can be just as important as material when it comes to food moulds. Sharp internal corners, deep narrow slots and thin webs collect product, are difficult to clean and are often the first places to tear. If your part includes them, we will suggest changing the design before recommending a grade. The hardness is also selected with the cleandown requirements in mind.
Questions
The grades we buy for food-contact work are supplied as food-grade, with a supplier declaration, and the grade used is recorded against your order. This is a material declaration, not a site certification. BRCGS is in progress and has not yet been awarded, so we will not describe ourselves as certified until it is.
Usually, yes, but only when we assess it against a stated cycle. Tell us the temperature, how long the cycle lasts and how often it runs. We will then specify a grade for that duty, rather than offer a general assurance. A mould that survives one bake is not the same as a mould designed for a daily bake.
Properly cured silicone of the right grade should not cause taint, and post-curing reduces residual volatiles further. Taint complaints usually trace back to release agents, cleaning chemicals left in the mould or an unsuitable grade, rather than the silicone itself.
Colour and moulded lettering are both standard options. For food-contact work, pigments are selected through the same specified route as the base silicone. This means a colour request can narrow the grades available. If colour matters, tell us early rather than waiting until sign-off.
Typical work
Sectors, not customer names. The pattern is the same: a shape someone wants repeated, and a cleandown it needs to withstand.
Fine relief and crisp edges matter, especially when your product is brittle. Demoulding also needs to be gentle. A vacuum cast mould usually helps the detail come out cleanly, without touching up.
Vacuum casting
Your mould needs to handle repeated oven cycles and repeated washing, while helping an operator get the product out fast. Hardness and wall thickness are set around the shift, not around the sample.
High-temperature moulds
For food-handling equipment, we supply gaskets, seals and moulded parts. These are pressed parts in a specified grade, rather than moulds, so they are quoted as components.
Compression mouldingTo quote it
Which faces will be in contact, and what will they touch? Wet dough, hot sugar, fat, acid and brine each behave differently when they come into contact with silicone.
You can clean it by hand, in a dishwasher, through a tunnel, or with caustic. If you know them, please include the chemicals and temperature. The cleaning method has the greatest impact on the specification.
Oven, chiller, blast freezer or nothing at all. Tell us the temperature and how often it will be used, and we'll specify the mould for the duty rather than the peak.
Tell us what your own approval process needs from us. We prefer to find any gap now, before you build a specification around us.
At a glance
Silicone hardness in everyday terms
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From idea to finished mould
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Ready to start?
Send us a drawing, a photograph or a sample. We'll come back with a mould strategy, a material recommendation and a price.
Real people, a real workshop
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Mouldings, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare