Who doesn’t want their food to be fresh and safe? Food packaging is an important way to make sure wholesale food arrives in top condition. Wholesale food packaging should be created to withstand all parts of the food supply chain.
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If you’re a food distributor, you should prioritize learning the best methods of food packaging. Food safety and freshness is an essential part of the food and beverage industry.
From wholesale dairy to wholesale seafood, food packaging can make all the difference in the quality and freshness of your product.
Running a wholesale business can be complex. Learn more about wholesale food packaging techniques to help you navigate the industry.
Wholesale Food Packaging: Why Is It Important?
So, why is food packaging so important? There are many reasons you should read up on the best practices for food packaging for wholesale items.
Food requires high levels of care when you’re packaging and distributing it. There are many things that can negatively impact your wholesale food. Temperature, transport, and delivery time all need consideration when packaging food.
Food requires individual packaging, as well as industrial packaging for when it gets transported. You should put a lot of thought into all that packaging that goes into distributing your wholesale food offerings.
If your food packaging is poor quality, there are many consequences. Your food could be damaged or ruined in transport to its destination. It could arrive too damaged to sell, or even unsafe to eat.
There are a few key aspects of food packaging to consider when choosing your industrial food packaging options.
You need to keep your wholesale food safe from physical damage. This means your packaging needs to be strong and durable. It should be able to withstand transportation on trucks, trains, boats, or planes.
Contamination is another aspect of food packaging to keep in mind. It can be easy for food to get contaminated during wholesale distribution. Make sure food packaging is tightly sealed and food safe in order to protect your food and the consumers that eat it.
Food is often transported long distances. This can make it difficult to keep your food fresh. Food packaging can make all the difference in the freshness and quality of your product.
Wholesale food packaging is also important to make sure your items aren’t tampered with. Special breakaway closures or labels can help you make sure nobody tampers with your inventory.
Key Takeaway: It’s worth investing in your wholesale food packaging. Poor quality food packaging could result in ruined inventory, loss of money, and time.
5 Food Packaging Solutions
Different foods and transportation methods require different food packaging solutions. Find out which food packaging method works best for your wholesale products below.
1. Pallet Boxes
The first food packaging solution to consider is pallet boxes. Pallet boxes are commonly used to transport bulk food items. They are popular because they are quite versatile and are great for a wide range of items.
Cardboard and plastic are typically used to create pallet boxes. Which material you opt for depends on the type of food you’re transporting. For example, cardboard pallet boxes are more suited to dry goods. Plastic pallet boxes are a better option for liquids or beverages.
You can also find pallet boxes designed to be weather resistant. These are a good option if your products travel through rainy or humid areas, or if they are transported in open trucks.
Pallet boxes come in many shapes and sizes, and some are even customizable depending on your specific needs. They are also reusable, making them a sustainable choice for wholesale food packaging.
Pallet boxes are a great choice to keep your food products safe. They are strong and water resistant, so your inventory won’t get ruined during order fulfillment.
2. Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container (FIBC)
A flexible intermediate bulk container (FIBC) is essentially a bulk bag made out of flexible material, such as a softer plastic. Some common wholesale food items transported in FIBCs include dry foods like granulated sugar or salt, and many types of flour.
FIBCs are ideal to transport powdered foods. When you put something like sugar or salt in an FIBC, it tightly fills every inch of the container. FIBCs can hold a lot of weight and are densely packed. This makes them easy to stack and transport.
FIBCs are also a cost-effective industrial wholesale packaging solution. They come in many sizes, so you can find one that works well for your wholesale food needs.
FIBCs are great to ensure the freshness, safety, and quality of your food stock. They can withstand many different conditions and can protect your inventory.
3. Steel Drums
Steel drums are another food packaging solution for transporting wholesale food. Steel drums are made out of food-grade metal, which ensures the freshness and safety of your inventory. They are one of the most durable and secure food packaging items on the market.
Steel drums are great for shipping and storing liquids, but are also a good idea for food items such as flour, beans, or oats.
Steel drums are strong and reusable. This makes them a popular choice for many wholesale food distributors because they are very protective. They are a great way to keep food fresh.
4. Fiberboard Containers
Fiberboard containers are made out of corrugated cardboard and lined with a waxy lining. The lining makes it food safe.
Fiberboard is often used for shipping fresh foods, such as wholesale produce. It is a lightweight and recyclable food packaging option. It’s also quite affordable compared to other wholesale food packaging options.
Fiberboard containers come in all shapes and sizes, so you can purchase one that’s designed for the food you’re shipping.
5. Plastic Drums
Plastic drums and barrels are another wholesale food packaging solution. Plastic drums are commonly used to ship bulk foods.
They can hold a wide range of food products, from wholesale spices to condiments to oils. This makes them a very popular choice.
You can find plastic drums ranging from 30 liters up to 220 liters. They also come in a variety of shapes. Plastic drums are a versatile option to ensure food freshness and safety because they are very durable and sturdy. You can rest assured that your product won’t spill or become contaminated.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Wholesale Food Packaging
Food packaging is a necessary thing to consider when selling wholesale food. Wholesale food packaging should protect your products from physical damage and contamination. It should also keep food fresh and high quality.
Make sure to review all the food packaging options on the market to choose the correct packaging for your product.
Whether you sell wholesale candy or wholesale meat, you will need to decide on food packaging at some point. Below are a few frequently asked questions and answers about wholesale food packaging.
Who regulates wholesale food packaging?
In the US, the Federal and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors and regulates wholesale food packaging. The FDA has many rules, procedures, and regulations about food packaging. These include the materials for specific food packages.
What are packaging options for wholesale food?
A few packaging options for wholesale food include pallet boxes, steel drums, and plastic drums. Each of these options, and many others, are best suited for specific foods and transport methods.
Some options, like fiberboard containers, are best for produce and fresh foods. Others, like steel drums, work best for liquids or high-value solid foods.
Why is it important to prioritize wholesale food packaging?
All of us interact with plastics, whether you’re cracking open a fresh bag of potato chips or diving into a crisply wrapped bushel of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Manufacturers use plastics to package each neatly wrapped food item. This is a wonderful thing!
After all, plastics ensure fresh ingredients stay well-preserved. They also protect our favorite products from contamination. Explore some of the different types of plastics commonly used in food packaging and coatings. Moreover, discover just how prominent these plastics are in our daily lives.
#1. PET Plastics
One of the most common types of plastic packaging for food is polyethylene terephthalate or polyester. Also referred to as PET, this plastic is known for its strength, lightweight build, and crystal-clear coloring.
The product is responsible for creating the shiny, smooth, and durable packaging coatings you’d find on many of your favorite food products, such as:
- Soft drink bottles
- Covers for prep meals
- Fruit juice containers
- Nut butter and cream jars
- Cooking oil and sauce bottles
Manufacturers easily mold PET into containers like sauce bottles, peanut butter jars, and the soft drink bottles that many of us would find in our pantries or kitchens.
#2. HDPE Plastics
If you’ve ever enjoyed a carton of ice cream or a splash of milk in your morning coffee, you’ve likely encountered high-density polyethylene plastics. On a chemical level, HDPE is a thermoplastic polymer comprised of petroleum.
It is one of the world’s most versatile plastics. As such, petroleum features in an impressive variety of applications. When it comes to food packaging, you can find this jack-of-all-trades plastic in your:
- Freezer bags
- Juice bottles
- Pouches & sachets
You can also find HDPE in products like water bottles, margarine and butter tubs, and box liners. Its high impact resistance and melting point are part of what make HDPE plastics so popular.
If that wasn’t enough, the durable plastic’s reputation for tensile strength and impressive density-to-strength ratio also contribute to the material’s incredible usability and longevity.
#3. PVC Plastics
You can find this next plastic near all your favorite goodies. Whether it’s fresh cookies from the school bake sale, those beautifully arranged brownies on your mom’s prized treat tray, or a jar of homemade raspberry preserves, polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is probably close by.
Like HDPE, PVC is also a thermoplastic with a long grocery list of applications. It’s popular among custom chemical manufacturing plants due to its unique formula, which allows it to be either flexible or rigid. PVC also has excellent dimensional stability, is oxygen permeable, and has a high impact strength.
Further, this plastic acts as an effective barrier to grease and oil. Perhaps this characteristic makes PVC an ideal choice for food products like tubing for beverage systems, blister packaging for gum, seals on metal lids, food foils, and cling wraps.
#4. LDPE Plastics
Low-density polyethylene is another plastic found in a variety of food packaging. Casually referred to as LDPE, this material is a thermoplastic. Its formula comprises a compound called ethylene monomer. Its chemical makeup makes LDPE:
- Translucent
- Flexible
- Durable
LDPE is a great material for a wide range of manufacturing applications. Manufacturers often use it to create various containers, wash, and dispense bottles, plastic computer parts, and molded lab equipment. However, this highly durable material is also a valuable asset in the creation of numerous types of food packaging materials.
Some of these products include:
- Squeeze bottles
- Cling and shrink wraps
- Pouches and plastic fruit cups
You can also find LDPE in bread and frozen foods packaging and flexible lids. In short, it’s a very versatile plastic that you can use for various purposes.
#5. PP Plastics
If you enjoy slapping a dollop of sour cream on all your ready-to-eat meals or making cheesecakes from scratch, you likely encounter polypropylene, or PP, plastics regularly. Similar to its counterparts, PP is a thermoplastic. It’s durable, shiny, and can withstand heat.
Chemically, PP is an addition polymer created through a combination of propylene monomers. Regarding food packaging, PP is in your sour cream and cream cheese tubs. You might also find it in your yogurt packets. You can thank PP plastics for keeping your food fresh with those vacuum-sealed skins.
It’s also a popular choice for the durable and convenient chip bags we love to stock our pantries with. With that said, this plastic rose to fame for its role in microwaveable plastics. Its ability to withstand harsher temperatures comes from its impressively high melting point.
#6. PS Plastics
Backyard BBQs, restaurant kitchens, and grocery stores have a purpose for polystyrene, or PS, plastics. Whether you’re drinking from a red plastic cup with your pals or packing to-go orders at your restaurant job, PS plastics are everywhere.
Like most of the other plastics mentioned in this guide, PS is a thermoplastic. It’s naturally transparent and can come in solid form or as a rigid foam material (think Styrofoam cups). PS is ideal for a variety of commercial purposes, so the list of food packaging that uses the plastic is extensive.
Here are a few of the PS products you might be familiar with:
- Disposable food containers (to-go boxes, cups, hinged takeout containers)
- Meat and poultry packaging or rigid food containers (grocery and restaurant meat containers)
- Food service containers (to-go coffee cups, plastic plates, and bowls, disposable cutlery)
- Egg cartons, medicine, and vitamin bottles
And the list goes on and on. Basically, PS is another commonly used plastic you’d find in most of your food packaging and containers.
#7. Other Plastics
There are other types of lesser-known food-safe plastics like the polycarbonate plastic Nalgene. These plastics are super hard and durable, making them the perfect ingredient for products like baby bottles and cooler jugs.
There are also cutting-edge plastic materials like polylactic acid or PLA, which derives from organic, renewable matter like sugar cane and cornstarch. You can find these plastic components in biodegradable and eco-friendly versions of products like straws, to-go packages, plates, and bowls.
In short, you will likely interact with at least one of these plastics, whether you’re eating an entire tub of ice cream, feeding your baby, or drinking an extra dry cappuccino from your favorite coffee house. Each plays a role in creating the food packaging that houses our most beloved snacks, beverages, and meals.
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