On a packaging line the belt is the part of the conveyor that touches the product, so it carries the hygiene argument. This guide works at belt level rather than system level. It separates direct-contact from indirect-contact duty, compares polyurethane, PVC and PVDF on hydrolysis, plasticiser loss and wash chemistry, and explains why a belt that survives a caustic wash at 70 °C can still be scraped off the specification by a migration test. Later sections cover detectable and antistatic grades, cleat and guide profiles, the splice options that hold up in a high-care area, and the fields a belt supplier should be able to fill in on a specification sheet.