Pallets for food and nutrition

The plant and its pallets

Edesia Nutrition is one of more than 260 companies at Quonset Business Park, which Quonset says holds more than 15,000 jobs. What follows is how food plants in general specify pallets.

The conditions

Where used pallets fit

A food plant that accepts used pallets will usually accept only the best used grade. Many do not, and ask for new. The honest approach is for the buyer to write the rule down and the seller to describe the stock against it.

Ingredients and finished goods

Inbound ingredients often arrive on the supplier's pallets, which the plant then has to deal with. Outbound product leaves on pallets the plant chooses. The two streams have different rules, and a plant might use used stock for one and new for the other.

See food-grade pallets for what to write, and clean pallets for food lines to ask for stock.

Questions a purchasing manager might ask

• Can the supplier state the moisture of the stock?
• Are pallets stored under cover before delivery?
• Will the supplier replace a rejected stack?
• Is there a record of what the pallets carried before?

These are reasonable questions for any buyer to put in writing, and a supplier who cannot answer them is telling you something.

Seasonal and one-off lots

A plant that expands, as the Quonset nutrition maker has announced, may need many more pallets for a launch than it will need every week. Treat the launch as a separate request from the steady supply.

Allergens and cleanliness

Plants that handle allergenic ingredients, such as peanuts, keep strict rules about shared equipment. Pallets can carry residue, so these plants may refuse any used stock. If your plant has such a rule, say so in the request and ask for new pallets only.

Contact with product

Pallets rarely touch food directly, since cartons and wrap intervene. Even so, plants treat the pallet as part of the clean chain, because splinters and dust can fall on packaging. That is why many insist on inspected stock.