Slip Additives for Plastic Film: Erucamide, Oleamide and 6 Types of Slip Agents

Slip additives for plastic film are additives that lower the coefficient of friction (COF) of a film surface, film to film and film to metal; the 6 types run from migrating fatty amides such as erucamide and oleamide to non-migrating silicones and beads, and the amides are dosed at 500 to 1,200 ppm (0.05 to 0.12 wt%) in polyethylene film. Most slip agents do their work only after they have bloomed to the surface, which takes 24 to 48 hours for most of the effect and 7 to 10 days for the final value, so which type suits which film, and how much is needed?

Slip agents make up 0.1 to 3 wt% of finished plastic products, in the additive tabulation published by John Hahladakis and colleagues at the University of Leeds in 2018 and reproduced by Chea and colleagues in 2025. Slip agents are one of the 43 families of plastic additives and belong to the processing-modifier group with lubricants, polymer processing aids and antiblock additives. They differ from the rest of that group in one respect: a slip agent of the migrating kind is useful only once it has left the bulk of the polymer.

This page defines a slip additive and separates it from antiblock, explains why film needs a low COF, works through blooming and the surface layers it builds, describes the 6 types in order, sets migrating amides against non-migrating silicone and bead systems, matches a slip agent to polyethylene film, to polypropylene and BOPP, to caps and closures, to extrusion coating, PVC film and nonwoven fibres, gives the dosage in ppm and wt%, covers the interactions with antiblock and antistatic agents, names the COF and blocking test methods, sets out the EU and US food-contact positions, names the producers and closes with the complete list of 10 substance pages.

The 6 types of slip agents differ in how fast they bloom, how much heat they tolerate and whether they migrate at all.

Bloom and stability rankings follow Ampacet and supplier comparison data; melting points are PubChem values unless marked "supplier".

What Is a Slip Additive for Plastic Film?#

A slip additive is an additive that lowers the coefficient of friction of a plastic surface, film to film or film to metal, and most slip additives reach that surface by blooming out of the polymer after extrusion. What does friction mean for a film? The coefficient of friction is the ratio of the force needed to slide one surface over another to the normal force pressing them together. Static COF is measured at the onset of motion and kinetic COF during steady sliding, and film data sheets report the two values separately.

The same function carries 5 names: slip additive, slip agent, slip aid, slip promoter and surface lubricant all describe a substance that lowers surface friction in a plastic. One term is a trap, because "anti-slip" appears in some published papers to mean a slip additive, while in the coatings trade an anti-slip additive raises friction instead. The safest form in a specification is the full phrase, slip additive for plastic film, with the polymer and the target COF beside it.

Slip agent vs antiblock: what is the difference?#

A slip agent lowers the friction between film surfaces, while an antiblock additive stops film layers from sticking together; slip works through a lubricating surface layer and antiblock through surface micro-roughness. Blocking is the unwanted adhesion of adjacent film layers in a roll or a stack, driven by van der Waals forces between the amorphous regions of the two surfaces and by low-molecular-weight species that reach those surfaces. An antiblock particle holds the layers a small distance apart, which cuts the real contact area and with it the adhesion, and it does nothing to lubricate the contact that remains.

Mineral particles such as diatomaceous earth and talc are covered on antiblock additives, and the two families are usually dosed together, at 2,500 to 10,000 ppm for the mineral antiblock against 500 to 1,200 ppm for the amide. The pairing is more than convenience: erucamide combined with silica lowers the COF of polypropylene film further than either additive alone. The boundary also runs through the amide class itself, because stearamide and behenamide act more as antiblock and release agents than as low-friction slip agents.

Why Does Plastic Film Need Slip Additives?#

Plastic film needs slip additives because polyethylene and polypropylene film surfaces have a high coefficient of friction, which makes them drag on converting equipment and stick to each other on packaging lines. Untreated polyolefin film is smooth enough for two layers to make intimate contact, and that contact is what friction and blocking are made of. The additive fixes 4 distinct problems.

• Converting speed, where film has to run over rollers, dancers and forming collars without dragging.
• Packaging-line performance, above all on form-fill-seal machines, where the film must slide into the former at machine speed.
• Roll winding, where too little slip lets layers block and too early a bloom lets the roll telescope, which is why slow-blooming amides are preferred for roll stock.
• End use, where bags have to open, stack and slide against one another in the box.

How low does the COF have to go? Supplier guidance from additivesforpolymer.com puts the target for polyolefin film at around 0.2, and no numeric COF value for unslipped film is established in our sources, so the honest form of the target is a value to reach rather than a drop to quote. Slip is one part of the standard film package described on additives for packaging film, together with antiblock, polymer processing aids, antistatic and antifog agents, and the package is balanced as a whole rather than additive by additive.

How Do Slip Agents Work? Blooming and Surface Layers#

Migrating slip agents work in 3 steps: they dissolve in the melt, become supersaturated as the film cools, and then diffuse to the surface, where they self-assemble into lubricating layers only a few nanometres thick. Blooming depends on the solubility of the additive in the polymer and takes a time set by its diffusion coefficient, as Nouman and colleagues set out in Polymer Degradation and Stability in 2017. Fatty amides have deliberately limited solubility in polyolefins, so the driving force for the third step is built into the choice of substance.

The layer that forms is thin and ordered. Gubała and colleagues, writing in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science in 2020, measured erucamide bilayers about 4 nm thick on polypropylene fibre surfaces, and Dulal and colleagues in 2017 imaged the surface structures on HDPE closures, describing erucamide as forming placoid scale-like features and behenamide denticulate ones. Ramírez, Walters and Hirt at Clemson University related the erucamide concentration measured on LLDPE film surfaces directly to its coefficient of friction in the Journal of Vinyl and Additive Technology in 2005: COF falls as surface coverage builds, which is why time, not dose alone, governs the result.

How long does a slip agent take to work?#

Erucamide gives most of its COF reduction within 24 to 48 hours after extrusion and reaches its final COF after 7 to 10 days, while faster-blooming oleamide acts sooner. The exact figure depends on which amide is used, on the film thickness and on the storage temperature of the roll, and the range above is Ampacet's guidance for the common polyethylene film amides.

That timing changes how film is tested and how it is shipped. A COF measured on the winder is not the COF the customer will see, and a converter who qualifies a film on day 1 is measuring the bloom rate rather than the formulation. Bloom curves, storage temperature and layer effects are covered on slip agent migration and COF development.

Why does chain length change bloom speed?#

Shorter amide chains bloom faster but tolerate less heat: oleamide, with 18 carbon atoms, blooms faster than erucamide, with 22, and saturated amides such as behenamide bloom slowest of all. The rule holds across the amide family and is the single most useful thing to know when substituting one for another, because it couples the two properties a converter cares about, speed of effect and survival of the extruder.

Two structural features modify the rule. Saturated chains, in stearamide and behenamide, pack and crystallise at the surface rather than staying mobile, which slows both the migration and the lubrication. N-substitution, in the secondary amides, removes one N-H from the amide group, which lowers hydrogen bonding and volatility and slows migration again. The general rules of blooming in plastics apply to every migrating additive, not only to slip agents.

6 Types of Slip Agents for Plastic Film#

The 6 types of slip agents for plastic film are primary unsaturated fatty amides, primary saturated fatty amides, secondary amides, bis-amides, silicone slip additives and particulate slip additives; the first 4 migrate to the surface and the last 2 stay where they are placed. The most common slip agents used for plastic are the unsaturated amides erucamide and oleamide, and Chen, Li, Hu and Walther described erucamide in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A in 2007 as the most widely used slip agent in polyolefin film processing.

1. Primary unsaturated fatty amides: erucamide and oleamide#

Primary unsaturated fatty amides are long-chain amides with one cis double bond, erucamide and oleamide, that bloom to a film surface after extrusion and are the standard slip agents for polyolefin film at 500 to 1,200 ppm. The double bond is what keeps the chain from crystallising as readily as a saturated one, which is why these two amides are both the fastest movers and the most effective friction reducers of the amide classes.

Erucamide#

Erucamide, (Z)-docos-13-enamide (CAS 112-84-5, EC 204-009-2), is a C22 unsaturated primary amide of formula C22H43NO and 337.6 g/mol, used as a slow-blooming slip agent in polyethylene and polypropylene film, closures and fibres. It is also called erucylamide or erucic acid amide and is sold as Crodamide ER, Kemamide E, Armoslip E and Unislip 1753. It melts at 75 to 80 °C by PubChem, with 78 to 85 °C for commercial grades and a thermal stability of about 240 °C in supplier data.

What is erucamide used for? Beyond slip it serves as an antiblock and release aid in polyolefin film, and it is the amide of choice for polypropylene because of its higher melting point and heat resistance, studied in PP film at 500 to 5,000 ppm. Its food-contact position is settled on both sides of the Atlantic: FCM No 271 on the EU Union list with no specific migration limit, and listed in 21 CFR 178.3860 in the United States.

Oleamide#

Oleamide, (Z)-octadec-9-enamide (CAS 301-02-0, EC 206-103-9), is a C18 unsaturated primary amide of formula C18H35NO and 281.5 g/mol that blooms faster than erucamide and is used in polyethylene blown film where a low COF is needed soon after extrusion. It melts at 76 °C by PubChem, with commercial grades at about 68 to 76 °C, and it is sold as Crodamide O, Kemamide O and Armoslip CP. Struktol's technical data put its film level at about 0.05 % and above 0.5 % when it is used for mould release, so the dosage rather than the chemistry decides which job it is doing.

Erucamide and oleamide differ in 3 ways: erucamide has the longer chain, C22 against C18, blooms more slowly and tolerates more heat, which is why converters choose it for polypropylene and for roll stock, while oleamide is the lower-cost, faster option for polyethylene bags. The regulatory difference is sharper than the technical one, because oleamide is authorised in the EU as FCM No 335 with no specific migration limit but is not named in 21 CFR 178.3860. The full side-by-side data, including behenamide, is on erucamide vs oleamide vs behenamide.

2. Primary saturated fatty amides: stearamide, behenamide and branched alkanamides#

Primary saturated fatty amides, such as stearamide and behenamide, have no double bond, so they crystallise at the surface, bloom slowly and act more as antiblock and release agents than as low-friction slip agents. Stearamide (C18:0, CAS 124-26-5) melts at 107 to 109 °C, migrates at a slow to medium rate and carries high thermal stability, which suits it to compounds where antiblock or release rather than a low COF is the goal. Behenamide (C22:0, CAS 3061-75-4) melts at 110 to 113 °C and has the slowest bloom and the highest thermal stability of the primary amides, which is why it appears in closures.

A third member of this class is a mixture rather than a single substance. The branched and linear C14-C18 alkanamides authorised as FCM No 1065 (CAS 85711-28-0) carry an EU specific migration limit of 5 mg/kg, are restricted to polyolefins and may not be used for foods assigned simulant D2. Their EFSA intended-use levels run from 0.2 wt% in films to 1.0 wt% in injection-moulded articles, which places them at the high-dose end of the family.

3. Secondary amides: oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide#

Secondary amides, such as oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide, carry a second fatty chain on the nitrogen atom, which lowers their volatility and slows their migration, so they suit high-temperature extrusion coating and cast film. N-substitution removes one N-H from the amide group and with it part of the hydrogen bonding that drives fast bloom, and the result is controlled rather than rapid surface delivery.

Oleyl palmitamide (CAS 16260-09-6) is authorised in the EU as FCM No 622 with a specific migration limit of 5 mg/kg to which the fat reduction factor applies, and it is listed in 21 CFR 178.3860. Stearyl erucamide (CAS 10094-45-8) carries FCM No 587 under the EU name octadecylerucamide, the same 5 mg/kg limit with the fat reduction factor, and supplier data give it a thermal stability above 300 °C, the highest of the amides on this page. Both EU and FDA texts use the closed-up spellings octadecylerucamide and oleylpalmitamide, which matters when searching a positive list.

4. Bis-amides: EBO and EBS (slip, antiblock and lubricant)#

Bis-amides join two fatty chains through an ethylenediamine bridge; ethylene bis oleamide (EBO) works as a slow slip and antiblock agent in PVC film, while ethylene bis stearamide (EBS) is mainly a processing lubricant and dispersant. EBO (CAS 110-31-6) melts at 115 to 125 °C, has a supplier-quoted thermal stability above 280 °C and migrates slowly and internally rather than blooming quickly. It is FCM No 251 in the EU with no specific migration limit, and 21 CFR 178.3860 clears it, as N,N'-dioleoylethylenediamine, only in PVC films at a maximum of 0.055 mg per square inch of film.

EBS (CAS 110-30-5) is the higher-melting member at 135 to 146 °C and is not a classic film slip agent at all: it works as an internal and external lubricant, a pigment and filler dispersant, a release agent and an antiblock aid, and it is FCM No 250 with no specific migration limit. EBS belongs with the waxes and stearates covered on processing lubricants for plastics, and it is filed under that family on this site for exactly that reason.

5. Silicone slip additives#

Silicone slip additives are high-molecular-weight polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) masterbatches and siloxane-grafted polyolefins that lower COF without migrating, so the film can still be printed or metallized. Silicone concentrates for BOPP give a low COF while leaving the surface chemistry available for downstream treatment, which no bloomed fatty amide can do.

Two regulatory facts frame the class. PDMS is authorised in the EU as FCM No 575 for grades with a molecular weight above 6,800 Da and a viscosity of at least 100 cSt at 25 °C. Its residual cyclosiloxanes D4, D5 and D6 are restricted in mixtures at or above 0.1 % by weight after 6 June 2026 under REACH Annex XVII entry 70, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1328, which carries derogations; the restriction addresses those residues rather than the silicone slip masterbatch as a product.

6. Particulate slip additives: silicone resin and PMMA beads#

Particulate slip additives are hard spherical beads, such as silicone resin (methylsilsesquioxane) and crosslinked PMMA, that lower friction and blocking through surface micro-relief without migrating. The beads sit in a thin skin layer and hold the two film surfaces apart, so they combine slip and antiblock in one ingredient and neither bloom nor deplete.

Momentive's Tospearl silicone resin beads are the reference product: refractive index 1.42, specific gravity 1.32, grades of 1.8 to 2.3, 2.3 to 3.1, 4.0 to 5.0 and 8.5 to 10.5 µm, and stability to 400 °C. The supplier sizing rule for BOPP puts the bead diameter at about 40 % of the skin-layer thickness. The substance behind them, methylsilsesquioxane (CAS 68554-70-1), is authorised in the EU as FCM No 730 with a residual methyltrimethoxysilane limit below 1 mg/kg.

Migrating vs Non-Migrating Slip Additives: Which to Choose?#

Choose migrating amides for most polyethylene and polypropylene packaging film, and choose a non-migrating silicone or bead system when the film must be printed, metallized or laminated soon after extrusion. The decision is about what happens after the die, because both routes reach a usable friction level.

The layer question is not theoretical. Sankhe and Hirt at Clemson University showed in 2003 that erucamide planned at 1 wt% in one LLDPE layer of a coextruded film migrated substantially into the adjacent plastomer layer, ending up nearly uniform across a 50 µm structure, so a slip level written into one layer of a recipe is not a slip level delivered to one layer of the film. Tosaf markets non-migrating slip grades for stretch hood on the strength of the opposite property, a surface unaffected by corona treatment or lamination.

Which Slip Agent Suits Each Polymer and Application?#

The slip agent follows the processing temperature and the end use: oleamide or erucamide for polyethylene film, heat-stable erucamide or silicone for BOPP, behenamide for closures, secondary amides for extrusion coating and EBO for PVC film. The 8 rows below give the pairing and the one number that matters most in each case.

Slip agents for polyethylene film#

Polyethylene film uses erucamide or oleamide at 0.05 to 0.12 wt% (500 to 1,200 ppm): oleamide for bags that need a low COF quickly and erucamide for roll stock that must not telescope. The bloom rate, not the COF value, decides whether the roll is stable on the winder and whether the bag opens on the packing bench. Grades, gauges and COF targets are set out on slip agents for polyethylene film.

Gauge is the second variable. The slip level falls as the film gets thicker for the same COF target, which is Ampacet's rule and the reason a single ppm figure cannot be carried from a 25 µm liner to a 100 µm sack.

Slip never travels alone in a PE film recipe. The standard package puts it beside mineral antiblock at 2,500 to 10,000 ppm, a polymer processing aid, an antistatic agent and, in fresh-produce film, an antifog additive. The full package, from antioxidants to processing aids, is on additives for polyethylene.

Slip agents for polypropylene and BOPP film#

Polypropylene and BOPP film use erucamide rather than oleamide, because erucamide tolerates the higher processing temperature, and BOPP often adds silicone or bead slip in its thin skin layers. The studied range for erucamide in PP film runs from 500 to 5,000 ppm, wider than the polyethylene window, and the combination of erucamide with silica lowers COF further than either component alone. Skin-layer design and grade selection are covered on slip agents for polypropylene and BOPP.

Biaxially oriented film splits the job across the structure: the migrating amide can sit in the core or in a skin, while the non-migrating antiblock and the bead or silicone slip sit in the skin layers, which keeps the printable side available and the metallizable side clean.

The whole PP package, including nucleators, clarifiers and antistats, is set out in additives for polypropylene, and slip is the part of it that is specified last, because it is the part that has to survive orientation.

Slip agents for caps and closures#

Caps and closures use slip agents to lower the torque needed to apply and remove the cap, and behenamide needs about 9 times less surface coverage than erucamide to do it, 1.7 against 15.7 µg/cm² in HDPE closures. Dulal and colleagues at RMIT University, working with CSIRO and Coca-Cola Amatil, measured in 2017 how much amide had to reach the closure surface before application torque fell, and the two amides reached that point at very different surface loads.

Surface coverage, not bulk concentration, is the closure variable. Torque data, odour control and nucleator interactions are covered on slip agents for caps and closures, where the two amides are compared grade by grade.

The mixed C14-C18 alkanamides of FCM 1065 are the third option in this application, with an EFSA intended use of 0.5 wt% in closures, twice the level intended for films. Their EU specific migration limit of 5 mg/kg and the restriction to polyolefins are the constraints that decide whether they can be used at all in a given pack.

Odour is the counterweight to all of this, because erucamide oxidises to aldehydes that can be tasted in still water, and the full closure package is on additives for caps and closures.

Extrusion coating, PVC film and nonwoven fibres#

Three niche uses call for specific slip agents: secondary amides for high-temperature extrusion coating, ethylene bis oleamide for PVC film and erucamide for soft polypropylene nonwovens.

• Extrusion coating and high-melt-temperature cast film take oleyl palmitamide or stearyl erucamide, whose low volatility survives the melt temperature that would strip a primary amide.
• PVC film takes ethylene bis oleamide, cleared in the United States only for PVC film and only up to 0.055 mg per square inch of film under 21 CFR 178.3860.
• Polypropylene nonwoven fibres take erucamide, which forms bilayers about 4 nm thick on the fibre surface and changes the softness and hand of the web.

Fibre additive packages are covered in additives for synthetic fibres, textiles and nonwovens.

How to select a slip additive in 6 steps#

Select a slip additive in 6 steps: define the COF target and timing, identify the polymer and melt temperature, check the downstream converting steps, match the film structure, screen the food-contact rules and confirm the level by testing. The order matters, because steps 1 and 3 together rule out whole classes before any dosage is discussed.

1. Define the COF target and when it must be reached, at winding, at packing or at the customer, since a migrating amide cannot deliver a value it has not had time to build.
2. Identify the polymer and the processing temperature, which separates polyethylene film from polypropylene and BOPP and both from extrusion coating.
3. Check what happens after extrusion: corona treatment, printing, metallization, lamination and sealing all argue for a non-migrating system, because excess migrating slip impairs every one of them.
4. Match the film structure, including the gauge, the skin-layer thickness where beads are used and the adjacent layers into which an amide can migrate.
5. Screen the food-contact status in each market of sale, against the EU Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and against 21 CFR 178.3860 in the United States.
6. Set the level, balance it against the antiblock and antistatic agents that share the surface, and confirm the result by ASTM D1894 after 24 hours and again after 7 to 10 days.

The same logic for every family is laid out in how to select plastic additives, and a converter should run steps 1 to 3 before asking a supplier for a recommendation, because the answer changes completely between a printed laminate and a plain liner.

How Much Slip Additive Is Needed? Dosage in ppm and wt%#

Polyethylene film needs 500 to 1,200 ppm (0.05 to 0.12 wt%) of erucamide or oleamide, while closures and moulded parts use more, up to about 1 wt% for injection-moulded articles. One thousand ppm equals 0.1 wt%, and the two units are used side by side in this family because the supplier guidance is written in ppm and the regulatory intended-use levels in weight percent.

Slip is usually supplied as additive masterbatch, because a few hundred ppm cannot be weighed accurately at the extruder hopper and because the amide has to be dispersed rather than merely mixed.

EFSA intended-use levels are the levels assessed in the authorisation of FCM 1065, not supplier recommendations; supplier guidelines are starting points for trials.

The masterbatch route adds one arithmetic step, and it is the step where slip dosing goes wrong. A concentrate carries the amide at a known percentage, the let-down ratio sets how much concentrate goes into the polymer, and only the product of the two is the level in the film.

Check any masterbatch dose against the target ppm with the let-down ratio calculator, and confirm it on the finished film rather than on the recipe, because the analytical methods in the testing section measure what actually arrived.

Why does thicker film need less slip additive?#

Thicker film needs a lower slip concentration for the same COF, because each square centimetre of surface is fed by a deeper reservoir of dissolved amide. The rule itself is Ampacet's: reduce the slip level as the gauge increases if the COF target stays the same.

The reservoir picture explains it qualitatively. Slip acts only at the surface, and the surface area per unit mass falls as the film gets thicker, so the same weight fraction delivers more amide to each unit of surface. No published conversion factor between gauge and slip level is established in our sources, which makes this a trial rule rather than a calculation.

How Do Slip Agents Interact with Antiblock, Antistatic and Other Additives?#

Slip agents interact with 3 additives and 3 converting steps: they combine with silica antiblock, compete with migrating antistatic agents, oxidise to odorous aldehydes, and in excess they hinder corona treatment, printing and sealing. Every one of those interactions happens at the same place, the first few nanometres of the film surface, which is the reason they cannot be tuned independently.

Glycerol monostearate and ethoxylated amines, described on antistatic agents for plastics, need the same surface, and synthetic silica adsorbs both antistats and slip agents, which retards the migration of each.

Every documented pair is listed in the additive interactions matrix, and the practical rule that follows from the table is to dose slip last and lowest, because it is the additive whose excess damages the most downstream steps.

How Is Slip Performance Tested? COF, Blocking, Haze and Amide Analysis#

Slip performance is tested with 4 kinds of methods: coefficient of friction (ASTM D1894 or ISO 8295), blocking force (ASTM D3354), haze (ASTM D1003) and liquid-chromatography analysis of the amide content (ASTM D6953 for PE, ASTM D6042 for PP). Every method on this site is indexed under testing plastic additives, with the current edition of each standard.

ASTM D1894 itself notes that slip additives bloom to the surface, so a COF value means little without the time since extrusion: test after 24 hours and again after 7 to 10 days, and record both. Garrido-López and colleagues published a gas-chromatographic route in the Journal of Chromatography A in 2007, using pressurised liquid extraction with isopropanol at 105 °C followed by GC with flame-ionisation, thermionic or mass-spectrometric detection for oleamide and erucamide. Test methods and sled set-ups are on coefficient of friction and blocking of plastic film.

How Are Slip Agents Regulated for Food Contact?#

Slip agents are regulated mainly through food-contact positive lists: the EU Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, which authorises the common amides with or without a specific migration limit, and 21 CFR 178.3860 in the United States, which lists them as release agents. Both routes start from the same premise, that a migrating additive in a food-contact plastic will reach the food, and both answer it with a limit rather than a prohibition.

Other instruments are summarised in plastic additive regulations, and for this family the third route, REACH, is a registration duty rather than a restriction, because no slip amide is currently restricted under it.

EU 10/2011: FCM numbers and SMLs of slip agents#

All common slip amides are on the EU Union list: erucamide (FCM 271), oleamide (FCM 335), stearamide (FCM 306) and behenamide (FCM 458) have no specific migration limit, while oleyl palmitamide (FCM 622), stearyl erucamide (FCM 587) and the branched C14-C18 alkanamides (FCM 1065) are limited to 5 mg/kg. The migration-limit system itself, including how the generic limit applies where no specific one is set, is explained on EU 10/2011.

Where no specific SML is listed, the generic SML of 60 mg/kg and the overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm² apply.

Two of these rows carry a factor that changes the arithmetic. The fat reduction factor applies to oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide, which means that migration into fatty food simulants is divided by a factor before it is compared with the 5 mg/kg limit. Every additive SML is listed on specific migration limits (SML) of plastic additives, where the generic and specific systems are set against each other.

FDA: why slip agents are listed as release agents (21 CFR 178.3860)#

The FDA lists erucamide, oleyl palmitamide, stearyl erucamide and saturated fatty acid amides such as stearamide and behenamide in 21 CFR 178.3860 as release agents for food-contact polymers, used at good-manufacturing-practice levels. The section covers release agents in polymeric resins that contact food, and the amide that stops a film sticking to itself is chemically the same substance that stops a polymer sticking to metal. The FDA groups them with the mold release agents for that reason, and the classification is functional rather than chemical.

Oleamide is the exception that a formulator has to know. It is not named in 21 CFR 178.3860; its CFR listings cover adhesives under 175.105 and, under 178.3910, only a surface lubricant for the manufacture of metallic food-contact articles, so a food-contact film using oleamide needs its clearance checked separately. Which other US route applies is not established in our sources, and two pages that currently rank for this query treat oleamide and erucamide as having the same status.

The wording matters in a specification as much as the substance does. No amide on this page is "FDA approved"; the correct formulation is that it is listed in 21 CFR 178.3860 for use as a release agent at GMP levels. The relevant 21 CFR sections are mapped on FDA food contact rules.

REACH, CLP and SVHC status of slip agents#

No slip agent is a substance of very high concern: erucamide, oleamide, stearamide, behenamide and the secondary and bis-amides are REACH-registered and absent from the Candidate List, Annex XIV and Annex XVII as of September 2026. None of them appears on the POPs lists either, which puts this family among the least restricted groups of plastic additives.

• Registration: erucamide carries 36 active REACH registrations with a lead dossier from 2010; oleamide is registered as "Amides, C18 (unsaturated)" under EC 931-801-1 with 15 active registrations, while the single-constituent entry EC 206-103-9 has none; stearamide has 9, behenamide 7, EBO 9, and oleyl palmitamide and stearyl erucamide 4 each.
• Classification: the CLP data for this family are notifier aggregates on PubChem rather than harmonised classifications, so they describe what registrants have notified, not what the EU has decided.
• Notified hazards: about one third of notifiers give erucamide H315, H319 and H335, about 60 % give stearyl erucamide the same three, about 40 % give oleamide H413, and stearamide, behenamide and oleyl palmitamide are not classified.

Registration duties are explained in REACH and plastic additives, and the compliance work for this family sits in the food-contact file rather than in the REACH file.

Who Makes Slip Additives? Suppliers and Trade Names#

Slip agents are made mainly by oleochemical producers, including Croda (Crodamide), Nouryon (Armoslip), PMC Biogenix (Kemamide) and Fine Organics, while silicone bead slip comes from silicone makers such as Momentive (Tospearl). The trade name is usually the fastest route to the substance, because a Crodamide, Kemamide or Armoslip code names the amide and its form rather than a proprietary blend.

Nouryon took its present name on 9 October 2018, when AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals was renamed after its sale, and Fine Organics has worked in oleochemistry since 1971, which is why both appear across the amide range rather than in one grade. No market size, growth rate or price for slip additives is established in our sources, so this page names producers without ranking them and quotes no value for the segment. A comparison of grades and certifications is on slip agent and erucamide suppliers.

Masterbatchers form the second supply layer, because most converters buy slip as a concentrate and the concentrate maker chooses the amide.

Oleochemistry is also why India is a centre of this family: the amides are made from vegetable oil feedstocks, and Fine Organics and other Indian producers are listed with plastic additive manufacturers and suppliers in India.

Complete List of Slip Agent Substances (10 Pages)#

The complete list below gives all 10 slip-agent substance pages, 7 fatty amides of this family and 3 related substances filed under lubricants and antiblock, with type, CAS number, main use and EU FCM number.

Every other additive, from antioxidants to pigments, is searchable in the plastic additives database.

Are Slip Agents Safe? Migration, Odour and Recycling#

Slip agents are among the least restricted plastic additives, with no SVHC, Annex XVII or POP listing, but they are designed to migrate, so they reach food, medicines and recycling streams more readily than bound additives. That is the trade-off written into the function: an additive chosen for its limited solubility in the polymer is an additive chosen for its willingness to leave. Diffusion models for every migrating additive are on additive migration in plastics.

Do slip agents migrate into food and medical products?#

Yes, slip agents migrate into food and medical products because they are built to leave the polymer: a 2020 study in the journal Foods found oleamide at 12 to 23 ng/mL in leachates of non-PET baby bottles. The same work reported oleamide at 21,984 ng/mL in insulin-syringe extracts, a level that reflects the extraction conditions of the study rather than a dietary intake.

Those values sit far below the limits that govern the family. Erucamide and oleamide have no specific migration limit in the EU, so the generic 60 mg/kg applies, and the secondary amides carry a specific limit of 5 mg/kg. Migration can still matter below a limit, which is why analytical work on these amides continues.

Is oleamide biologically active?#

Yes: oleamide is also an endogenous sleep-inducing lipid that acts on the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, which is why researchers track how much of it leaches from plastic labware and containers. Its presence in an extract can therefore confound a biological assay run in plastic vessels, independently of any question about food packaging.

Why can erucamide cause odour and taste in closures?#

Erucamide can cause off-odour and off-taste in closures because its double bond oxidises, forming peroxides that break down into aldehydes. The aldehydes, not the amide, are what a taste panel detects, and still water in a PET bottle with an HDPE closure is the classic case, because there is nothing in the product to mask them.

Those oxidation products are not on any positive list, since nobody adds them on purpose. They are assessed instead as NIAS: non-intentionally added substances, and erucamide aldehydes appear among the standard examples of that category.

Do slip agents affect film recycling?#

Slip agents do not block film recycling: the Association of Plastic Recyclers lists slip and antiblock among the preferred additives for PE film, although it asks that all additives be minimised. Preferred is the highest of the APR categories, and it means the additive has no known effect on the recycling process at normal levels.

Slip can even help the recyclate. Ampacet's BIAX4CE masterbatches for biaxially oriented polyethylene include both migrating and non-migrating slip, which supports all-polyethylene laminates in place of mixed-material structures and so raises the quality of the PE recyclate; see design for recycling.

Is an anti-slip or limited-slip additive the same thing?#

No: an anti-slip additive is a grit that raises friction on painted floors, and a limited-slip additive is a gear-oil friction modifier, while a slip additive for plastic film lowers friction on a polymer surface. The three products share a word and nothing else, and none of the first two is a plastics additive.

Is a cling agent the opposite of a slip agent?#

In function, yes: a cling agent such as polyisobutylene makes stretch film stick to itself, which is the opposite of what a slip agent does. The tackifiers used for that job are covered on cling agents for stretch film.

---