In March 2024, I signed a purchase order I'm still a little embarrassed about: 40 boxes of Virkon S disinfectant from a Lanxess distributor. Price was right. Delivery was fast. The problem? I never opened the safety data sheet (SDS) before I hit approve. One lazy decision, one audit observation, and a year of expensive lessons I could have avoided.
I'm the facilities coordinator at an egg processing and packing facility in Iowa. I've been handling chemical purchasing for just over a year, after eight years on the production floor. And in that time, I've personally made—and documented—four significant mistakes, totaling roughly $6,000 in wasted budget, downtime, and contractor callbacks.
If you've ever bought an industrial chemical without reading its SDS, you know the feeling I'm describing. That little voice that says "I'll look at it when it arrives." Trust me on this one: don't.
Mistake #1: The Virkon S SDS I Didn't Open
We use Virkon S for boot dips and equipment disinfection in the animal areas. It's a broad-spectrum disinfectant made by Lanxess. If you mostly know the Lanxess chemical company from its rubber chemicals or lubricant additives, Virkon S is the ag and food-safety side of the business—big in hatcheries, farms, and processing plants.
Because we'd used the product for years, I usually treated it as low-risk. It's a powder. You mix it with water. What I didn't realize is that the active ingredient, potassium peroxymonosulfate, is a strong oxidizer with specific storage requirements. The Virkon S SDS says it plainly: keep the container tightly closed, store in a dry and well-ventilated space, and avoid contact with acids and reducing agents. (The 16-section format is required under OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200—but a format doesn't help if you never open the file.)
Our storage room had an acid-based descaler on the shelf directly below the Virkon S. In March 2024, a third-party food safety auditor asked to see the SDS, read it in front of me, then asked why those two products were within arm's reach of each other. I couldn't answer, because I'd never opened the SDS.
She didn't write us up. She called it a "minor observation," which is auditor-speak for "you're lucky today." We fixed the storage that afternoon. That moment changed how I think about chemical buying. I used to treat SDS files as paperwork. Now I understand they're the operating manual for every product I order.
Mistake #2: The "Deal" on Propylene Glycol
Six weeks later, I made a costlier mistake. We use propylene glycol in our facility's temperature-control loop for the egg washing line and in the air curtain at the loading dock. In a food facility, propylene glycol in products that might contact food has to meet a specific grade. Our spec is USP-grade, with a lot certificate on file.
In April 2024, a new sales rep from our distributor offered a better price on "multi-purpose propylene glycol." He said it was the same compound, just a different production source. Technically, the molecule is the same. The grade is the difference. Neither of us said the words "USP" or "food-contact" out loud. I assumed he knew our application. He assumed I knew what "multi-purpose" meant. Classic communication failure.
The tote showed up and looked fine. When the technician opened it, the smell was stronger and sweeter than the USP product we normally used, and the liquid was amber instead of clear (I didn't catch either sign until he pointed them out). We pumped it into the loop. Then the quality manager asked for the lot certificate. There wasn't one.
Industrial-grade propylene glycol is fine for radiators and construction sites. It's not certified for food processing. We had to drain 250 gallons, flush the loop, refill with the correct USP-grade product, and dispose of the contaminated mix. The material and disposal came to about $1,650, plus most of a production day. The original "savings" were around $450.
The surface illusion here: from the outside, industrial and USP propylene glycol look basically identical. Clear liquid, similar labels, similar name. The reality is that when propylene glycol is used in products near food, the certification is the product. Propylene glycol is generally recognized as safe under FDA 21 CFR 184.1666—but only the grade that actually complies with that standard.
Mistake #3: The Adhesive That Didn't Survive Washdown
Mistake number three was partially a contractor issue, but mostly mine. In July 2024, we hired a crew to re-seal a conveyor housing in the packaging area. The work order said: "re-seal joint with durable sealant." The crew used a synthetic rubber-based contact adhesive from a manufacturer I'd never heard of.
Now, synthetic rubber-based adhesive manufacturers do make good products. Contact adhesives are great for bonding panels and trim in dry areas. But this product had no chemical resistance data, no FDA compliance statement, and no documentation for use near food processing. I didn't ask for any of it before approving the job.
It failed in about six weeks. A combination of hot washdown water, humidity, and quaternary ammonium sanitizer softened the bond, and the housing shifted out of line. When the contractor came back, he told me straight: "it's the sealant from our van." I wrote "durable sealant" on the work order. He read "whatever's cheap and strong." Same words, different expectations.
The rework invoice was $920, plus a week of the housing held together with cable ties while we sourced the right product. For food facilities, any adhesive that might indirectly contact food should comply with FDA 21 CFR 175.105. That's a ten-minute check. I skipped it.
Mistake #4: Can You Buff Epoxy Resin? (No.)
This one is the most embarrassing, so I'll keep it short. In September 2024, a rental forklift with a worn steer tire spent two days in our storage area. When it went back, there were about 30 square feet of scuffs and light scratches on the epoxy-coated floor. Cosmetic damage, nothing structural. My first thought, almost word for word: "can you buff epoxy resin?"
I'd seen videos of people polishing epoxy river tables and countertops to a mirror finish. So I borrowed the floor machine, put on a white pad, and spent 15 minutes on the damaged section of floor.
Here's what I learned: polishing a poured epoxy casting with progressively finer abrasives is a legitimate process. But our floor was a standard troweled epoxy coating that had cured two years earlier. Epoxy is a thermoset. Once it cures, it doesn't re-flow or re-melt. Buffing just abraded the top layer unevenly, leaving swirl marks and a hazy film. I made the patch look worse than the original scuffs (which, honestly, took some skill).
Maybe a specialty polished-epoxy system works differently. I'm sure there are pros doing exactly that. But a standard coating and a floor machine? No. The repair cost about $3,200 for grinding, refilling, and re-coating the section. The maintenance log entry for that week still says "resident epoxy expert" in quotation marks.
The 10-Minute Pre-Buy Review
After the epoxy incident, I wrote a checklist. It takes about ten minutes per chemical order, and I don't skip it anymore. Since October 2024, it's caught eleven potential issues—wrong grades, missing paperwork, incompatible storage. Plus one product that wasn't approved for food facilities at all.
- Open the SDS before you buy it, not after. Read the storage section, the incompatibility list, and the PPE requirements. If your facility can't meet those conditions, buy a different product.
- Name the grade out loud. If the application is near food, put "USP-grade" or "food-contact certified" in every email. If the quote doesn't include a lot certificate, don't pay the invoice.
- Ask for technical data on any adhesive or sealant. If the manufacturer doesn't publish chemical resistance data, assume the product can't handle your washdown chemistry. Check FDA 21 CFR 175.105 for anything near food.
- Don't buff a scratched epoxy floor. It's a thermoset. The scratch is in the cured resin. Recoat it properly or call someone who knows what they're doing.
I still buy Virkon S from Lanxess. The product was never the problem. The Lanxess chemical company publishes thorough SDS documents, technical data sheets, and support channels that would have answered every question I had—if I'd asked them before ordering instead of after getting caught.
That's the point of telling all this. Every mistake was preventable. Each one came down to skipping a check that takes less time than a coffee refill. Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction. If you handle chemical purchasing in any kind of facility, do the ten-minute review. You'll probably be glad you did.