What this is
What is a seal integrity test record?
What is a seal integrity test record?
A seal integrity test record is a record used in KnowQuality that captures seal strength, burst or dye testing on packs, with the result checked against specification. It is built against BRCGS cl.5.6 and forms part of the Labelling and Packaging programme.
When is a seal integrity test record completed?
It is completed at set intervals through the run, at the moment the test happens rather than reconstructed afterwards, and again whenever the sealer is adjusted or a fault is suspected.
Why does seal integrity get tested repeatedly instead of once per changeover?
A seal can drift within a run as a sealing head heats, wears or is knocked out of alignment, so a single check at changeover only proves the seal was sound at that moment. Testing at intervals catches drift while the affected product can still be traced and held.
Scope
When is a seal integrity test record required?
This record is one step in a larger programme. Using it to log packaging counts, weight checks or artwork sign-off produces a test log that says nothing about seal performance and duplicates work another template already does.
Use this template when
- A scheduled seal check is due at the interval set for the line, or a fault is suspected mid-run
- The sealer has just been adjusted, requalified or had maintenance and needs a fresh result before running again
- A complaint or shelf-life failure has come back and the seal history for that batch needs checking
- You are running the Labelling and Packaging programme and this is one of its steps
- A linked record needs this one to exist: links shelf life, complaints
Do not use it for
- Pack Weight Control Record, which checks fill and pack weight against target, not seal performance.
- Packaging Reconciliation Record, which reconciles packaging issued against packs produced and scrap, not seal quality.
- Shelf Life Study Record, which establishes the shelf life claim itself rather than confirming a seal held for one production run.
- Packaging Material Inspection, which checks the incoming film or tray before it ever reaches a sealing head.
- Anything outside KnowQuality, which belongs in the workspace that owns that process.
Compliance mapping
Which BRCGS cl.5.6 requirements does this satisfy?
BRCGS cl.5.6 sets the expectation that seal integrity is checked and evidenced at a frequency the site can justify. The clause does not prescribe a test method or a sampling pattern, so the template's judgement calls carry more weight than the citation itself.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Seal integrity is checked using a defined, repeatable test method at a set frequency. | Header |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Sealing parameters — temperature, pressure and dwell — are recorded and held within a validated range. | Test conditions |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Equipment used to test the seal is itself in calibration. | Test conditions |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Sampling covers every sealing head or lane rather than one convenient point. | Test conditions |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Each pack tested carries an individual pass, fail or marginal result with a failure mode where relevant. | Results |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Results are read as a trend against previous tests, not as an isolated pass or fail. | Outcome |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Product made since the last good test is traced and held while integrity is in doubt. | Outcome |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | The completed record is countersigned before the line is released to continue running. | Result |
What it does not cover
- Sampled Across All Heads Or Lanes, which shows One lane only rather than a genuine sweep across every sealing head.
- Test Equipment Calibrated, which is marked Overdue at the time of the test.
- Parameters Within Validated Range, which is marked No or Marginal with no linked deviation or hold.
- Product Back To Last Good Test At Risk, which is answered Yes with no Hold ID entered.
- Failure Mode, which is left blank on a lane recorded as Fail.
Global
Seal Integrity Test Record requirements by country
Seal integrity sits at the intersection of food safety and packaging law, and the instrument that actually gets checked in an audit depends on where the site sells.
BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, cl.5.6
the retailer-facing certification requirement most UK sites are actually audited against
Auditors expect a defined test method and frequency, not just a logbook of pass or fail entries — the record needs to show the method chosen was fit for the pack format tested.
FDA Food Safety Modernization Act — Preventive Controls for Human Food, 21 CFR Part 117
seal failure treated as a process preventive control rather than a quality nicety
Where seal integrity is identified as a preventive control, monitoring, corrective action and verification all need to trace to a specific test event, not a general seal check.
Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food
seal integrity intersects with food-contact compliance for vacuum and modified atmosphere packs
A seal that fails is also a food-contact material failure in transit — the packaging stopped doing the job the food-contact declaration assumed it would do.
How to complete it
How to complete a seal integrity test record, step by step
Filling in every field is the easy part. What decides whether the record would survive a challenge is a handful of judgement calls the form itself cannot make for you.
Visual is scored lowest of the test methods for a reason — it can catch a gross fault but says nothing about seal strength. Closing an integrity check on Visual alone when Burst, Peel, Dye penetration or Vacuum decay was available is the single most common way this record ends up worthless in a challenge.
Sampled Across All Heads Or Lanes is a self-report — nothing stops an operator answering Yes while testing the same accessible lane every time. The judgement call is whether a supervisor spot check or a rotation schedule actually confirms the answer rather than trusting it.
Product Back To Last Good Test At Risk should trace to the last test that actually passed, not just the current batch. If the previous test was also Marginal, the at-risk window is longer than the immediate run and Quantity Affected needs to reflect that.
Marginal scores 1 against a Pass score of 3 for a reason — it sits closer to a fail that happened not to fail this time. Rolling Marginal results into a headline pass rate without a note flattens exactly the signal this record exists to preserve.
What auditors find
Most common seal integrity test record findings
The same handful of gaps show up across sites running this template. None of them need a new field — they need the existing fields answered honestly.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Sample drawn from one lane only on a multi-lane sealer, cycle after cycle | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Rotate the sample point across every head or lane on a fixed schedule and record which one was checked in Lane Or Head. |
| Test equipment overdue calibration used to accept a seal as within range | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Block a Pass result whenever Test Equipment Calibrated shows Overdue, and requalify the equipment before the next test. |
| Visual check alone used to close out an integrity test | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Reserve Visual for interim checks between scheduled tests; require Burst, Peel, Dye penetration or Vacuum decay to formally close one. |
| Failure recorded with no failure mode captured | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Make Failure Mode mandatory whenever Pass Or Fail is recorded as Fail. |
| Trend marked Worsening with no maintenance action raised | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Tie a Worsening Trend Versus Previous Tests result to a mandatory Maintenance Raised entry and Work Order ID. |
| Product flagged at risk with no hold or location recorded | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Require Hold ID and Product Location whenever Product Back To Last Good Test At Risk is answered Yes. |
Case in point
Case in point: the pass rate that hid one lane.
A four-lane vacuum sealer had run for six weeks with every seal integrity test coming back Pass. The site's pass rate sat at 100%, and nobody had reason to look closer — until a chilled-warehouse complaint traced a swollen pack back to lane three.
The test log showed why: every recorded test had sampled lane one, the easiest to reach from the platform. Lane three's sealing head had been running cold since a changeover five weeks earlier, and the record that was supposed to catch that had never actually looked at it.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
6 sections
- Reference
- QUA-094
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- SIT-2026-000
- Scoring
- Pass rate
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- Yes
- Basis
- BRCGS cl.5.6
- Links
- Links Shelf life, Complaints
- Tags
- Packaging, Seals
- Sections
- 6
- Fields
- 51
- Follow up fields
- 6
- Repeating sections
- 1
- Links out
- 5
Header
16 fieldsTest ID*
Auto sequence. Format SIT-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Raised By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Line*
Shift*
Line Lead
Batch Number*
Numeric key joining to your ERP batch record.
Links to External system reference
Product*
Production Date*
A Weak Seal Fails Quietly
It does not fail on the line. It fails in a chilled warehouse three weeks later, and arrives as a complaint about spoilage that nobody connects back to the sealing head.
Pack Format*
Test Method*
Visual, burst, peel, dye penetration, vacuum decay or seal strength.
- Visual1 pt
- Burst3 pts
- Peel3 pts
- Dye penetration4 pts
- Vacuum decay4 pts
- Seal strength3 pts
Packs Tested*
Test conditions
6 fieldsSealing Head Reference
Seal Temperature
Seal Pressure And Dwell Recorded*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Parameters Within Validated Range*
- Yes3 pts
- Marginal1 pt
- No0 pts
Test Equipment Calibrated*
- Yes3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Sampled Across All Heads Or Lanes*
One weak lane on a multi lane sealer is invisible if you only sample from lane one.
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- One lane only0 pts
Results
Repeats5 fieldsLane Or Head*
Result Value
Pass Or Fail*
- Pass3 pts
- Marginal1 pt
- Fail0 pts
Failure Mode
Contamination in seal, wrinkle, insufficient temperature, misalignment, or material fault.
Photograph
Outcome
10 fieldsAll Packs Passed*
- Yes3 pts
- Some failed1 pt
- Many failed0 pts
Failure Rate Percent*
Trend Versus Previous Tests*
- Improving3 pts
- Stable2 pts
- Worsening0 pts
Sealer Adjusted
- Yes3 pts
- Not needed3 pts
- No0 pts
Maintenance Raised
Work Order ID
Links to MNT-002 Work Order ID
Product Back To Last Good Test At Risk*
- No3 pts
- Yes0 pts
Quantity Affected
Hold ID
Raise the hold record, then enter its reference.
Links to QUA-003 Hold ID
Product Location
Where the affected product physically is right now.
Related records
1 fieldPackaging Inspection ID
The material batch used on this run.
Links to QUA-092 Inspection ID
Result
13 fieldsItems Assessed*
Excludes anything marked N/A.
Items Failed*
Score Percent*
Calculated on submission. High is good. N/A items leave the denominator.
Result Band*
- Pass3 pts
- Caution1 pt
- Fail0 pts
Completeness Percent*
How much of the template was actually answered. A high score on a half completed form is not a high score.
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Quality*
Signature*
Line Lead*
Second Signature*
QUA-094 · record IDs look like SIT-2026-000 · Links Shelf life, Complaints
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The form is the easy part. Keeping the test honest — walking the sample across every head, tying a worsening trend to a work order — is the work that actually slips.
Holds the seal integrity test library against your test schedule, flags when a lane hasn't been sampled in a set number of cycles, and keeps the result trail tied to the batch it tested.
Picks up Work Order ID the moment a sealer is adjusted or flagged, so a Worsening trend turns into scheduled maintenance instead of a note nobody actions.
Watches Product Back To Last Good Test At Risk and the linked Hold ID, so product that might carry a weak seal is physically located and held, not just flagged on a form.
Coordinates the crew across quality and maintenance, rolls completion and exceptions into one view, and holds every write for your approval before it touches a record.
This template lives in KnowQuality — quality and food safety. HACCP, nonconformance, traceability, laboratory and customer complaints.
Meet KnowQuality→Glossary
Seal Integrity Test Record definitions and key terms
- Seal integrity
- The extent to which a pack's seal remains intact and free of channels or weak points that would let air, moisture or contaminants pass, tested by physically or chemically challenging the seal rather than just looking at it.
- Dye penetration test
- A destructive seal test where a dye solution is applied to one side of a seal under pressure; if the dye passes through, the seal has a channel that would also let contamination or spoilage organisms through.
- Vacuum decay test
- A non-destructive test that seals a pack in a chamber and monitors pressure change over time; a leaking pack shows a measurable decay curve, catching pinhole leaks that a visual or burst test would miss.
- Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)
- Packaging where the internal atmosphere is replaced with a gas mix chosen to extend shelf life; seal integrity is what keeps that atmosphere from equalising with the outside air.
- Burst test
- A destructive test that pressurises a sealed pack until the seal or the film fails, recording the pressure at failure as a proxy for seal strength.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about seal integrity test record
What is the seal integrity test record template based on?+
It is built against BRCGS cl.5.6. BRCGS is Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standards, a family of GFSI-recognised certification schemes covering food, packaging and storage and distribution.
What sections does the seal integrity test record contain?+
There are 6 sections: Header, Test conditions, Results, Outcome, Related records, Result. Together they hold 51 fields, 34 of which are required, with Results repeating for each lane or head tested.
How many seal integrity test records should we have?+
This is a singleton — one record per workspace, set up once and maintained, rather than one per test event. Shelf Life and Complaints records refer back to it, and it in turn refers back to Packaging Material Inspection.
Which programme does the seal integrity test record belong to?+
It is part of Labelling and Packaging — the leading cause of recalls caught by a two-person check at every changeover.
How is a seal integrity test record scored?+
Scoring is pass rate, where high is good, but the score is only as honest as the sampling behind it — testing one lane repeatedly produces a high score that means nothing for the lanes never checked.
Can the seal integrity test record template be changed?+
Yes. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to Shelf Life, Complaints and Packaging Material Inspection come with it. Most sites install it as it is, run it for a cycle, then adjust the test method options to match their own equipment.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Labelling and Packaging
Product and SKU Register
Holds every product and pack format you make, with its specification, allergens, shelf life and customer
Label Verification Record
Verifies that the label on the line matches the specification for that product, covering allergens, claims, dates and barcodes
Artwork Approval Record
Records approval of new or amended artwork before it is printed, with each checker named
Date Coding Verification
Verifies date and batch coding is present, legible, correct and in the right position
Packaging Material Inspection
Inspects incoming packaging for damage, contamination, correct print and food contact compliance
Packaging Reconciliation Record
Reconciles packaging and label quantities issued, used and returned at the end of a run
More in Packaging and Labelling
Label Verification Record
Verifies that the label on the line matches the specification for that product, covering allergens, claims, dates and barcodes
Artwork Approval Record
Records approval of new or amended artwork before it is printed, with each checker named
Date Coding Verification
Verifies date and batch coding is present, legible, correct and in the right position
Packaging Material Inspection
Inspects incoming packaging for damage, contamination, correct print and food contact compliance
Packaging Reconciliation Record
Reconciles packaging and label quantities issued, used and returned at the end of a run
Pack Weight Control Record
Records average and individual pack weights against legal and specification limits
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- BRCGS — Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standards, cl.5.6
- BRC — BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety
- FDA Food Safety Modernization Act — Preventive Controls for Human Food, 21 CFR Part 117
- Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 — materials and articles intended to come into contact with food
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.