Tips for Food Grade Warehousing
Hopkins Distribution Company knows that it can be difficult for food manufactures to rely on third-party warehouses to properly adhere to food storage warehouse standards. We realize that a food storage warehouse must comply with strict guidelines to which other warehouses are not subject. Although our facility cannot currently accommodate food storage, we wanted to pass along the wisdom we gained while we were accepting food products into our warehouse.
What Qualifies a Warehouse As Food Grade?
Food grade warehouses must ensure that the temperature within the given storage area complies with the standards set for the food product. For example, a frozen product cannot be allowed to thaw during storage.
Additionally, this type of warehouse must take extra measures to ensure that storage areas always stay sanitized. Some of the measures used to ensure sanitation include:
- Regular inspection of flooring, walls, windows, doors, and roof to ensure that there are not holes that would allow for excessive microbial growth, standing water, leaks, or pests.
- Warehouse cleaning products must be tightly regulated and stored away from food storage areas.
- Pest control must be structured, regulated, and auditable.
- The sanitation of the warehouse must also be structured, regulated, and auditable.
- Warehouse employees must confirm to handwashing procedures that are structured, regulated, and auditable.
- The warehouse must maintain lot and date codes that allow all stored and shipped products to be traced within a specified time frame.
Which Products Are Prohibited in Food Grade Warehouses?
Every third-party food grade warehouse must carefully consider what types of products it will store for clients and what types of products it will not. Food grade warehouses should only accept only certain types of hazardous materials into their facilities to ensure that food products remain free from cross contamination.
Just a few of the goods we advise to prohibit include:
- Explosives
- Flammable Gas
- Non-Flammable Gas
- Poisonous Gas
- Flammable Liquid
- Spontaneously Combustible Material
- Dangerous When Wet Materials
- Oxidizers
- Organic Peroxides
- Poisonous Materials (Inhalation Hazards)
- Poisonous Materials (Non-Inhalation Hazards)
- Infectious Substances
- Radioactive Materials
- Corrosive Materials
- And more