Product Safety & Quality

Our customers, and our customers’ customers, demand products that are high in quality, safe and sustainable—and so do we.

The Never Compromise pillar of our Twentyby30 program supports our product stewardship strategy and reflects our commitment to ensure that our materials are sourced responsibly, our products are designed to minimize risks to people and the environment and the products we manufacture meet the highest safety standards. Goals of this pillar include that all Crown operations will meet the consolidated “One Crown Standard” by 2022 and that by 2025, we will have screened all food contact materials for the presence of Chemicals of Concern (COC) and will take action to eliminate their use whenever necessary.

One Crown Standard

The One Crown Standard unifies existing standards and procedures including all aspects of migration, toxicology and safety utilized in our various geographical locations. All direct food contact materials (e.g., coatings, can end sealants, closure sealing gaskets, metal forming lubricants) must comply with the relevant U.S. FDA and/or European Union (EU) legislative frameworks. New materials under qualification must comply with both the relevant U.S. FDA and EU legislative frameworks. Depending on their region of use, legacy materials may, by specific agreement from Crown, comply with either U.S. FDA or EU legislative requirements with a target for compliance with both to be confirmed by 2027 or its use phased out. 

The following objectives were set out in the One Crown Standard: 

  • All materials have a Crown MD entry for all applications for which they are used. 
  • All Crown MD entries for commercial products are fully populated (including supporting documentation). 
  • Up to date SDS and TDS in appropriate languages. 
  • All materials have full supporting documentation. 
    • Declarations of Compliance (reviewed and refreshed by the supplier no later than every five years from the issue date). 
    • Declaration for Externals Compliance (DEC) for all non-direct contact materials. 
    • Statement of Composition (SoC) for inks 

Crown has partnered with our suppliers to complete the items listed above. The Crown MD entries are 95% completed. Collaboration with the suppliers continues to obtain all the supporting documentation required in the One Crown Standard.  

Chemicals of Concern (COC)

We launched our Chemicals of Concern (COC) program in 2020 in response to concerns from the public, NGOs and government entities over the use of potentially hazardous chemicals and industrial products. 

Since no single authoritative list of COC exists, we have been developing our own list based on several publicly available materials and our evaluations. Initially, over 1,000 chemicals were identified. We are currently refining the list of chemicals to focus on those relevant to the food contact materials we use. Once the list is finalized, we will begin evaluating the composition of our food contact materials and determine where COC are used or present. Where they are used or present, we will collaborate with our suppliers to either substitute the COC in the material, obtain third-party expert confirmation of the safety of the COC in the finished article or eliminate the material.