Food safety is an incredibly important issue in the food and beverage industry. Potential contaminants are everywhere along the supply chain, and if any of them get into your product, the consequences can be disastrous. This is why those responsible for the storage and transport of food and beverage material goods need to be extremely diligent about the products they use.
Food-Grade Plastic Pallets
Food-grade pallets from Polymer Solutions International, Inc. help keep your food and beverage industry goods protected. Using a plastic pallet for food is a hygienic alternative to pallets made from other materials. Food grade plastic pallets are a sanitary solution for the handling and transportation of consumable goods.
Browse Our Selection of Plastic Pallets
We are known for safe and expertly engineered products. Our food-grade pallets work for all kinds of food and beverage industry facilities, including the following:
- Bakeries
- Cafeterias
- Dairies
- Food manufacturing plants
What Is Food-Grade Plastic?
Food-grade plastic is safe for use with food and beverage products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requirements for materials that contact food through one or more of the following:
- Manufacturing
- Packing
- Packaging
- Storage
- Transportation
The FDA has approved food-grade plastics, categorized by the following:
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET): Code 1
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE): Code 2
- Polyvinyl chloride (PVC): Code 3
- Low-density polyethylene (LDPE): Code 4
- Polypropylene (PP): Code 5
- Polystyrene (PS): Code 6
The Importance of FDA-Approved Pallets
While you may have seen plastic pallets in different colors and made from different materials, only some are approved by the FDA. The FDA considers pallets to be transportation equipment and requires any food grade plastic pallets used for food to be kept in sanitary conditions. Whether the pallets are holding food or are stored, they need to be kept in hygienic environments that prevent contamination and pests from interacting with them.
The care and maintenance of food pallets are important to the FDA. In 2011, President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law. FSMA was created to prevent food safety problems and minimize the spread of foodborne illnesses. Part of prevention is ensuring food grade pallets can be sanitized and are safe for food. If pallets for food are not adequately maintained, the FDA can respond by doing one or more of the following:
- Mandatory recalls
- Administration detention
- Suspension of registration
Industries Supported by Food Pallets
Many industries rely on pallets to transport their products. Food grade pallets are essential for grocery and food distribution, as both of these industries require hygienic pallets for handling food under FDA regulation.
Grocery
Millions of people depend on grocery stores for their family’s food from week to week. They put their trust in these stores and often assume the products they toss into their shopping carts are safe to eat. This is why many grocery stores rely on plastic grocery pallets for transporting food products from delivery trucks to the store shelves.
Using plastic pallets has many benefits for grocery stores, including the following:
- Less moisture: Plastic does not absorb water and other moisture, reducing damp buildup that can cause bacterial and fungi growth.
- Temperature control: Because plastic is poreless, it is better than wood in cold temperatures or humidity.
- Easy sanitation: Plastic surfaces are easy to clean and maintain, which is extremely important in a grocery store setting, as there are many people interacting with the pallet daily.
- Durability: Pallet manufacturers use a hard plastic that is resilient, even when used repeatedly.
- Tracking: For grocery stores, tracing the exact path of products is extremely important. Plastic pallets are easy to tag and track than wooden options that can easily lose tags through transportation.
Food Distribution
Before food products make their way onto grocery store shelves, a distributor transports them. Food distributors take the following steps:
- Purchase food from wholesalers.
- Store the products in warehouses and other distribution centers.
- Sell the products to retailers.
- Deliver those products to retailers.
All that movement requires reliable, sanitary pallets for transporting food products safely from one location to the next. Distributors rely on plastic food pallets for moving large quantities of products. Wooden alternatives are not as durable and have additional problems associated with them that are especially worrisome for food products, including:
- Splintering
- Wood dust
- Nails and screws
The food distribution industry relies on food grade pallets to handle food efficiently and cleanly.
Benefits of Polymer Solutions International, Inc.’s Food-Grade Plastic Pallets
Our food-grade plastic pallets feature superior chemical, bacterial and general contamination resistance. This kind of protection is an absolute must for food and beverage industry operations. It takes very little contamination to ruin a food or beverage industry product and put end-users at risk. This can severely damage your company’s reputation and endanger the health of your consumers.
Our food industry plastic are hygienic and reusable. You can easily clean them between uses to maintain a cost-efficient supply chain without risking contamination. We can also provide food pallets with antimicrobial additives for additional protection.
Why Our Pallets Are Better Than Conventional Wood Pallets
The importance of hygienic pallets aside, our food grade plastic pallets are superior to conventional wood pallets for many reasons, such as:
- Heat resistant: Our plastic pallet is more heat-resistant than conventional wood pallets. Food and beverage industry operations often operate at high heat. When you use our plastic pallets, you won’t have the kind of concerns you have with wood — with respect to fire or warping/splintering under very humid conditions.
- Strong and lightweight: The superior strength-to-weight ratio means food grade plastic pallets are easy to take in and out of operation for cleaning, easier to move and manipulate by your workers, and less likely to damage other equipment in your facility.
- More durable: Wood pallets are usually only good for a few uses before they become damaged or unusable. You can use our plastic pallets repeatedly and protect the environment by selling them back to us when they’re finally done rather than tossing them out. That’s part of our strong commitment to sustainability.
- Convenient: Our plastic pallets are compliant with industry regulations in accordance with FSMA and the Consumer Brands Association (CBA). In addition, compared to wood pallets, plastic pallets improve supply chain costs and transportation time.
Order Your Plastic Pallets Now
At Polymer Solutions International, Inc., we are a leading global supplier of material handling products for the food and beverage industries. Our food grade pallets are made of FDA-approved plastic that is hygienic and sustainable. Our expert engineering and strong customer focus make for high-quality products. We design our pallets to be innovative, and we offer custom solutions for finding the best fit for your business’s handling needs.
Visit our individual product pages to find the food grade plastic pallets that are right for you and your food and beverage business. Or, for more information about how our food-grade plastic pallets can best help you, or to order pallets right away, contact us today!