Butter getting wet during shipment

So I am trying to figure out a new phenomenon that has happened within our distribution company.  We have been selling a SKU of salted butter for a while but recently, the packages and boxes have been arriving wet.  

 

The vendor delivery is to one of our warehouses and then we transfer a portion of the product to another warehouse location.  Teh vendor delivery is fine to the first warehouse.  The product when it arrives to the second warehouse is wet. 

 

This has happened twice in a row.  Product was in different areas of the refrigerated trailer each time.  There are other butter items on the trailer that were unaffected.  Condensation is significant enough that it saturates areas of the corrugate case, but also is within the wax paper wrapping of the butter.  You would think that cases were getting dripped on from an external source, but that would not translate into the product itself being wet/getting through the wax paper.  

 

Has anyone ever experienced this phenomenon?  I cannot think of any common thread for why only this one particular type of butter is affected and why now.

A couple questions I would ask during the investigation would be

1. Is there a hole in the trailer? Is it causing rain water to get in or increased condensation from the heat?
2. Are the pallets double stacked? Was there a liquid ingredient stored above the butter during transit?
3. What else is on the trailer with the butter? Could other pallets/ ingredients be affecting it? 
4. Is the butter being staged outside of refrigeration prior to loading? If so, for how long? 
5. Is the butter frozen originally and then thawed? There may be ice on the exterior of the packages prior to arriving at warehouse 1 that are being slowly thawed by the time it gets to warehouse 2. 

A couple questions I would ask during the investigation would be

1. Trailer is in good repair, no holes from what I could see.  
2. pallets were not double stacked.
3. Other refrigerated items were on the trailer included unsalted butter that was not affected.
4. No, Warehouse 1 is a completely refrigerated warehouse and dock.  Any staging would be done at proper temperature prior to loading.
5. No, that was my first question, and I was told the butter does not get frozen in storage at warehouse 1. Additionally, the product stored at warehouse 1 not transferred is dry.  

Is there a difference in temp between loading temp of butter and trailer temp. Could that be it.

Hi ddaniels316,

 

If you have photos it should be obvious if this is due to a leak as the top products would be affected more. It would be useful to know more, especially if the condensation is throughout the delivery (e.g. top, middle and bottom). Also are the deliveries chilled or frozen or both?

 

It does sound like it could be from temperature abuse, where condensation is formed in the wax paper and the case. I would tag the delivery with a data logger. In the past I have used Comark’s Diligence EV range of data loggers and they worked quite well: https://www.comarkin...e-data-loggers/

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony