Do Food Grade Lubricants Under-Perform Traditional Ones?

There is a common misconception that food grade lubricants always perform worse than their conventional partners. This is both true and untrue. It actually depends entirely on the technology used. There are several possible base sources:

Highly Purified Mineral Oils

Surprisingly to many people, mineral oil from the ground can be purified far enough that it is edible, or semi edible. These technical white oils have performance that may match conventional oils. This type of oil is also found in many cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.  As with all of the following oils, limitations of food grade additive packages may render them weaker than their conventional brothers.

PAO & PAG

PAO & PAG are a type of synthetic lubrication. They can often offer comparable or enhanced performance when compared to conventional oils.

PFPE Food Grade Lubricants

PFPE oils use extremely advanced and expensive processes. This means that these lubricants are actually better performers than all conventional oils.