3 replies to this topic

[cmarchand]

Dear all,
Would greatly appreciate some input on my challenge to convince the owner of a fragrance/flavor company that Food Grade materials used for flavor manufacturing should be on pallet at all times. Major side of the business is on fragrance side, where the GMPs are more or less ignored (should say more THAN less...). His point is that the pallets are not less contaminated than the floor because they are not cleaned and we don't know where they have been before showing up at our dock; that this rule is a ''one size fits all'' one but cannot be applied to his company, because 1- the germs that are potentially ON the containers will not get INTO the containers (we all know that germs are well educated little animals that know where they belong to and never spread where they are not desired to go...) and 2- if they were, it wouldn't really matter because no micro growth is sustainable in flavor chemicals (on this point I must admit he is right : pure chemicals, no water activity and no nutrient...)
Coming from the Food Industry it would never occur to me to challenge this common practice but on the other hand this left me completely speechless, due to the nature of the raw materials we use.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts,

Carole

[D-D]

This may be a bit simplistic but part of the reason to keep things on pallets may be so that pests running by (not that there should be any...) are less likely to interfere.
It also makes it easier for cleaning as you can move pallets out and clean the floor and it will avoid contaminating the items during cleaning if they are off the floor. With larger containers, keeping them on pallets might make moving them easier anyway.
Other than that, it tends to be standard food industry practice and good practice anyway to adopt for the fragrance side so you have one rule for all. Depending on your food certification they probably won't accept the argument that they are "just chemicals" if they are going into food and should be off the floor. Also, dirty / heavily contaminated or damaged pallets should be replaced with better ones. If you are moving them into a production area for blending, say, it would be better to keep the raw materials on plastic pallets designated for this use, if possible.

[cmarchand]

This may be a bit simplistic but part of the reason to keep things on pallets may be so that pests running by (not that there should be any...) are less likely to interfere.
It also makes it easier for cleaning as you can move pallets out and clean the floor and it will avoid contaminating the items during cleaning if they are off the floor. With larger containers, keeping them on pallets might make moving them easier anyway.
Other than that, it tends to be standard food industry practice and good practice anyway to adopt for the fragrance side so you have one rule for all. Depending on your food certification they probably won't accept the argument that they are "just chemicals" if they are going into food and should be off the floor. Also, dirty / heavily contaminated or damaged pallets should be replaced with better ones. If you are moving them into a production area for blending, say, it would be better to keep the raw materials on plastic pallets designated for this use, if possible.

Thank you D-D.
I guess this is the same thinking process for packaging right ? we currently receive bulk trailers of HDPE drums, and they are just rolled one by one in the plant and stored directly on the floor....

[moskito]

Dear Carol,

there is a general role that containers (small one's and large) never should have contact to the floor. In our company (Fine Bakery Wares) we switch from external pallets to internal pallets (alumina - stable, easy to clean, nop foreign body risk) in the goods receiving area prior storage. Before entering the production area debagging/deboxing is perform, i.e. transport packaging is removed.

moskito

Dear all,
Would greatly appreciate some input on my challenge to convince the owner of a fragrance/flavor company that Food Grade materials used for flavor manufacturing should be on pallet at all times. Major side of the business is on fragrance side, where the GMPs are more or less ignored (should say more THAN less...). His point is that the pallets are not less contaminated than the floor because they are not cleaned and we don't know where they have been before showing up at our dock; that this rule is a ''one size fits all'' one but cannot be applied to his company, because 1- the germs that are potentially ON the containers will not get INTO the containers (we all know that germs are well educated little animals that know where they belong to and never spread where they are not desired to go...) and 2- if they were, it wouldn't really matter because no micro growth is sustainable in flavor chemicals (on this point I must admit he is right : pure chemicals, no water activity and no nutrient...)
Coming from the Food Industry it would never occur to me to challenge this common practice but on the other hand this left me completely speechless, due to the nature of the raw materials we use.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts,

Carole