Food-grade pallets: what to specify

What to write down

Conditions a food line can specify
Condition	What it rules out
Grade A or new	Patches and loose boards
Moisture under 20%	Wet wood that can grow mould
No odour	Mould, chemicals, spoiled product
No stains	Spills, oil, residue
No loose nails or splinters	Contamination from wood or metal

Wood below 20% moisture content will not support mould, mildew, decay or fungus. The rest are about cleanliness and the customer's own specification. Check yours.

Where it matters locally

Quonset hosts food and nutrition operations, including a 200,000 sq ft Edesia Nutrition expansion announced in the 2025 review and the Sea Fresh seafood facility. New Bedford's port supports a seafood processing sector. Each plant sets its own pallet rule; the receiving department is the one to ask.

The stamp is not a food rule

An ISPM 15 stamp says the wood was treated against pests. It says nothing about cleanliness. A heat-treated pallet can still be dirty or damp. See mould and moisture.

What to send

The size and grade you need.
Whether you need new stock.
The moisture limit your plant uses, if it has one.
Where the pallets will be stored before use.

Then see clean pallets for food lines and food and nutrition.

Documenting what you specified

Keep a one-page record of the pallet specification, the date, and the delivery it applied to. If an auditor asks why a pallet was on the floor, the page answers. Include photographs of a sample pallet, the moisture reading and the name of the person who accepted the delivery.

Cleaning and storing

Stack food-line pallets in a dedicated area away from chemicals, trash and pests. Keep them off the floor, cover them and avoid dragging them through spills. Sweep underneath before restacking. A pallet that spends a night in a loading yard may need to be inspected again before it goes back on a food line.

Rotate stock first in, first out, so older pallets do not sit for months. Record the date of delivery on the stack with a tag. These small habits take seconds and make an audit far easier to survive.