Urban Canteen’s™ Quality Control Program

Our Mission

Urban Canteen™ was founded on the principle of providing environmentally friendly products that improve the health and well being of our customers and positively impact our environment. This is our goal, this is our mission, this is the reason why we exist.

As part of our mission and core values we developed a strict set of product testing policies and procedures to ensure that every bottle we produce meets or exceeds our Mission and Core Values.

Our Quality Control Program involves rigorous and stringent testing at every step in the process.

Raw Materials

As part of our search for the highest quality raw materials we conducted an extensive search for manufacturers’ who produce consistent food grade, 304 18-8 stainless steel. The selected manufacturers’ were required to submit reference standards that met our requirements. It is against these reference standards that each shipment is tested, including the following:

1. All stainless steel tubing material is visually inspected for flaws and defects.
2. The manufacturer is required to submit a certified Certificate of Analysis with each shipment. The Certificate of Analysis indicates that the raw materials shipment meets or exceeds the quality requirements for being labeled as food grade, 304/18-8 stainless steel.
3. If the Certificate of Analysis meets or exceeds the reference standards and visual inspection reveals no visual flaws or defects, the material is released into the production process.
4. Each manufacturer supplying raw materials understands that, as part of the qualification and selection process, supplying deficient and defective raw materials is grounds for disqualification and the manufacturer will lose the ability to provide material in the future.

Manufacturing

There are multiple steps in the manufacturing process. Quality control and inspections are required before the product moves to the next stage of the process. The following is a summary of the quality controls required. If any of the samples tested fail any of the standards, the entire batch is rejected and discarded for re-cycling.

1. Cutting-a random sample of bottle barrels are tested to ensure all dimensional requirements are met and there are no visual flaws or defects.
2. Shaping-upon completion of the bottle neck shaping, random samples are tested to ensure openings and finished thicknesses meet the required specifications.
3. Welding-welding is required at several steps in the process. Random samples are pulled and visually inspected for weld integrity and strength.
4. Finish Rolling-this process finishes the bottle, trims and turns the lip, and smoothes the entire bottle. Again, the bottles are visually inspected for flaws, defects, and sharp edges at the bottle lip.

Painting

All of our paints and inks are required to meet or exceed EPA standards set for lead and other heavy metals content. We use Method EPA-3050B and the National Lead Laboratory Accreditation Program Quality Control Standards.

1. All paint is tested prior to being released to be applied during the manufacturing process.
2. Paint and logo application is visually inspected at several points in the painting process to ensure:
1. Correct paint and logo adhesion.
2. Logo placement is accurate and consistent
3. Bottle size information is accurate

Prior to acceptance of each shipment, the manufacturer is required to submit six bottles for a second round of testing at our U.S. based testing laboratory. This involves taking scrape samples and running Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry analysis for lead. If the tests confirm that the sample batch meets or exceeds the EPA standard of 0.05% by weight, the shipment is approved and released for transport.

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