Reading prior-contents affidavits like an auditor

I read these all day. Most of them are written in good faith by somebody doing a favour, and most of them would not survive thirty seconds of questioning in a food-safety audit. Here is the difference.

What the affidavit has to do

It has to answer one question: can this container have held anything that is not food contact, at any point in its life? Everything else is supporting detail.

That framing matters because it explains why a document can be entirely truthful and still fail. "These totes held food products" is true and it does not answer the question — it describes some fills, not all of them, and it says nothing about the period before this filler owned them.

The four fields

That last row is the one that does the work, and it is the one most commonly missing. Without it the document covers one filler's period of ownership and leaves the preceding history unstated.

The purchased-new clause

When a filler can state that they bought the containers new and have only ever run food product through them, the chain is closed. That is the strongest affidavit available and it is why we pay roughly double for documented food-grade stock compared with undocumented units of identical appearance.

Where a filler bought them used, the affidavit can only cover their period. We then either obtain the prior affidavit from the previous owner or we grade the units as industrial. There is no third option that is honest.

An affidavit covering one owner of a three-owner container describes a third of the question.

Red flags I check for

• No signatory role. A name without a title is unverifiable. Quality manager, plant manager or operations director are the roles that can actually attest to this.
• Category language. "Food grade materials", "edible products", "FDA compliant contents". None of these name a material.
• Serial ranges with gaps. If the affidavit covers serials 1000–1200 and the load contains 1247, somebody has mixed batches.
• A date later than the fill. An affidavit signed before the last fill cannot attest to it.
• Fragrance or essential oil anywhere in the history. Even in a food context, these permeate and the unit should not carry the grade.
• A photocopied signature across a whole batch. It happens. It means nobody looked at these specific units.

A template that works

For anyone who needs to produce one rather than read one, this is the structure we ask for. It takes about ten minutes per batch and it roughly doubles what the containers are worth.

1. Identify the issuing entity: legal name, site address, and the serial range or unit count covered.
2. Name the material or materials in full, with grade or specification where one exists.
3. State the period of ownership and the date of last fill.
4. State explicitly whether the units were purchased new or used, and by whom if known.
5. State the exclusivity clause: no non-food-contact material at any time during ownership.
6. Sign with a name, a role and a date, with contact details for verification.

What we do with them

The affidavit is retained against the serial number for the life of the container plus two years. When a unit sells, the affidavit reference travels on the paperwork so the buyer can request the document itself for their audit file.

Our wash certificate then records what we did — hot water only, 82 °C, no caustic, no solvent, segregated line — which is the second half of the evidence chain. One without the other is incomplete: a perfect affidavit on a unit washed with caustic is not a food-grade container.

If you fill food product in totes

Signing affidavits on your empties makes them worth roughly double to the next buyer, and several of our customers now do it as policy because it converts a disposal line into a revenue line.

It takes about ten minutes per batch. Name the material, name yourself, date it, and state exclusivity. That document is worth more than the washing.

The two conditions for food grade and how to verify a supplier's claim are on food grade vs industrial, and the seasonal supply picture is in why food-grade supply collapses every August.