Wholesale Packaging Distributor Introduction

Good Day all,

   We are Saveway Supplies Inc, based in Southern California.  We specialize in fresh vegetable packaging like twist ties, rubber bands, etc.  We decided to join this group to learn more about the requirements for food safety for suppliers like ours.  We are constantly being asked for documentation that would only be relevant for manufactures of packaging or food handling suppliers.   We want to ensure we are implementing all the appropriate processes and procedures for suppliers like us, however, we seem to fall in a slight grey area when we consult auditors and texts.  

  We look forward to interacting with the group to learn more and improve our quality control systems.  

 We will be reviewing all the helpful links and resources on this site before asking questions to the group.  

Welcome to the forum!

Not really a grey area considering (and I imagine this is the use) that rubber bands to hold stems together (such as broccoli, Asparagus, etc.) are in fact considered food contact packaging.

If you are looking at the possibility of getting GFSI certified under one of the schemes such as SQF, BRC, IFS, etc your classification would be packaging.

Hi Glenn, thank you for your response.  I guess what I meant by "grey area" is that we do not manufacture anything.  We simply purchase and resell packaging.  In my research around "packaging" I seem to run into lots of requirements for manufactures of packaging but, not much for distributors of packaging.  

Hi Glenn, thank you for your response.  I guess what I meant by "grey area" is that we do not manufacture anything.  We simply purchase and resell packaging.  In my research around "packaging" I seem to run into lots of requirements for manufactures of packaging but, not much for distributors of packaging.  

I have a client that also distributes packaging products to the food industry as well as other industries.

After about five years of warehousing and shipping all the packaging they were approached by some of their customers and asked if they would consider storage and shipping their food, produce, drinks, etc.

So, they turned into a logistics business and pass-thru 50 or so trailers of food and packaging everyday now.

One day along comes a customer that has been buying packaging from them and tells them they need to get SQF certified if they want to continue supplying the customer.

They contacted us and they said they needed to get the packaging part of their business certified.

There is really no clear choice for certification on just distributing packaging... but - drumroll --

Because they were acting as a logistics/storage facility now for a growing number of food companies we got them moving towards SQF logistics and food storage.  As an aside we included packaging under the scope of the certification along with the various categories that are food and food related.

So, now they are SQF certified and satisfy several customers that required the certification and are just packaging customers.

Thus, if your company  is also storage and distributing food products (just not opening or processing food) you could get GFSI certified under a logistics/storage certification.

The SQF certification greatly enhanced their business with new customers for both packaging and food storage.

Thanks again Glenn, We do not currently, and do not plan to ever store or distribute any actual food.  We are continually improving our supplier approval process, intake, storage, and shipping procedures.

I have some background in ISO auditing for manufacturing so all this is not foreign to me.  It is also why I may be struggling a bit.  I keep digging to find a set of standards for our specific part of the supply chain.  

Thanks again Glenn, We do not currently, and do not plan to ever store or distribute any actual food.  We are continually improving our supplier approval process, intake, storage, and shipping procedures.

 

I have some background in ISO auditing for manufacturing so all this is not foreign to me.  It is also why I may be struggling a bit.  I keep digging to find a set of standards for our specific part of the supply chain.  

Take a look at IFS (under the GFSI umbrella) --- International Feature Standards.

Will do!  Thank you!