As stainless steel is inert and non-reactive when employed correctly, health and safety impacts are extremely limited. This is why stainless steel is so widely used in medical appliances and for equipment and tools in the food processing industry where health and safe use are of the utmost importance.

Nevertheless issues that affect health and safety are important – not only during the process of manufacturing stainless steel, but also when our customers are processing the material, when stainless steel products are used and when they are eventually recycled and remelted.

Recent testing program on metal release from established stainless steel grades in contact with food confirmed that stainless steel is suitable as a food contact material. We have also tested some of our newly developed stainless steel grades for food contacts. The results revealed that these new grades are as well suited for food contacts as the more established stainless steel grades. On top of testing, there is a long-term experience of using stainless steel in a wide variety of applications.

We provide safety information for our products

Outokumpu manufactures stainless steel grades that are standardized and proven to be safe for their recommended use. The Safety Information Sheet provides information on substances contained in the material as well as advice on safety measures to be employed when handling stainless steel. The safety information is provided in accordance with REACH requirements to supply sufficient information to permit safe use and disposal of articles. The information is regularly reviewed and updated. We also offer detailed information on the chemical and technical properties of each stainless steel grade.

EU Safety Information Sheet and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for the US are available for download below under the tab Safe Use of Stainless Steel.

Full compliance with REACH, GADSL, RoHS and WEEE requirements

Outokumpu products do not contain substances of very high concern or SVHCs (as defined by the REACH legislations), nor do they contain any GADSL prohibited substances. Our products are in compliance with the following EU directives:

REACH
ELV and GADSL
RoHS and WEEE