Hypothetical Questions - Allergen Controls for Secondary Packaging

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've been on here. I've got some hypothetical questions regarding a potential issue, and i'd greatly appreciate any feedback!. First of all, here is a quick rundown of our operation. We're a paperboard packaging manufacturer of various (pharma, food, beverage, auto, etc.) industries. Currently we only produce secondary (non-direct) packaging for food, pharma & beverage products. A question came up recently from one of our customers regarding Non-Conforming Materials, more specifically what our protocol is, if they have to send non-conforming product back to our facility that may have been exposed to Allergens (in this case nuts). Basically, they asked if we can accept materials back into our plant if they've been "exposed" to nuts at their plant? We ship our cartons to customers in corrugate cases that are palletized & stretch wrapped. My mind is churning right now, and based off of that, i've got some questions.

1. Is there a general way (protocol) to handle this from a packaging standpoint? (Re-work, Reject, etc.)

2.. Would you consider "exposed" to be an open corrugate case, which contains our cartons, or a finished pallet, which hasn't yet been worked at their facility? Or both?

3. Are we "packaging manufacturer's" taking things too lightly in some regard, even when it comes to secondary packaging? I'd be interested to see the cross contamination risk level of allergens & pathogens, in regards to returned materials, etc.

Thank You in Advance,

Well... I'm no expert but if it were my plant I'd suggest having the customer destroy/recycle it without sending it back or have it destroyed/recycled in house.  In house at least you know 100% it was destroyed/recycled properly.