Good day all,
I was hoping to ask a couple questions about ESL products and the requirements they have when being transported from Canada to the United States. I work for a plant-based beverage manufacturing company with a UHT capable of making aseptic product (>139C) as well as, of course, ESL product, which is also a heat-treated product, but at lower temperatures. The packaging we utilize does not qualify as an FDA Low Acid Canned Food and thus has to be classified as ESL to be sold in retailer stores, which involves packaging, shipping and storing the product cold chain.
My question is, if we sell our product to a company that utilizes our products within their own products, making our product somewhat of an ingredient, do we still have to send our product as ESL cold-chain or are we able to send it down as an aseptic product and avoid cold chain?
I ask also in part because of the packaging my sales team would like to utilize. The packaging is 1L portions, but is capable of holding aseptic, or ESL products, but does not currently have NFTs or product labels other than what we can inkjet onto it. Picture it as a carton of milk that doesn't actually say milk and only has the brand name. Are we able to send these packages/products to this company, and simply provide them with a general NFT for all of the product on the pallet? Does it become their discretion?
I understand this may be somewhat of a confusing question, so I'd be happy to provide more detail, if needed. I am just trying to avoid us penning in a deal that can't happen until we get new packaging, and also to gauge what kind of freight my sales team can expect.
Thank-you and regards