Hygiene highlighted

Hygienic plastic pallets can help businesses run a safer and cleaner logistics operation, says Jim Hardisty,md of Goplasticpallets.com

Until recently, pallets have mostly been overlooked, but new sanitary tests have revealed that certain types of pallets could be harbouring potentially harmful bacteria.

In the United States, the safety of wooden pallets for transporting food has been put in question by the National Consumers League following an examination in which wooden pallets tested positive for food-borne pathogens, including E. coli and Listeria.

In May, the National Consumers League examined 140 wooden and plastic pallets stored behind grocery stores.

Approximately 33 per cent of the wooden pallets showed signs of unsanitary conditions where bacteria could easily grow, 10 per cent tested positive for E. coli, which can cause food poisoning, and 2.9 per cent tested positive for the potentially deadly bug Listeria.

Similar incidents have recently occurred in the pharmaceutical industry, where a number of major medicine manufacturers have been forced to recall products because of contamination caused by a chemical used to treat wooden pallets. The National Wooden Pallet and Container Association maintains that wooden pallets are a safe method for transporting food and pharmaceutical products.We would argue, however, that plastic pallets are a more hygienic alternative to wooden pallets.

Enhancing hygiene standards Hygienic plastic pallets are not new to the market.We introduced our first hygienic pallet to our range in 1995.

Since then, we have been working closely with IPS, the Belgian pallet manufacturer for which we are the sole distributor in the UK, to enhance the pallet to achieve the optimum hygiene standards. Although other manufacturers have imitated the IPS Hygienic pallet, none have equalled the IPS pallet in quality, which classes our hygienic pallet 'top of the range'.

Of course, all plastic pallets are hygienic when compared to traditional wooden pallets but, for transporting food and pharmaceutical goods, there are many advantages to using the IPS Hygienic pallet. The pallet is manufactured using the finest quality food grade virgin HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and complies with EU safety legislation. It has smooth, sealed surfaces - unlike wooden pallets, which are susceptible to cross contamination issues caused by mould and dust - and can therefore be easily cleaned, manually or with an automated system. There are no nails, sharp edges or splinters and no risk of loose component parts breaking free under manual lifting conditions and causing injury to operatives.

Goplasticpallets.com has received orders for the IPS Hygienic pallet from a number of major food manufacturers, including Nestlé UK, which recently ordered a total of 2,350 hygienic pallets for handling raw materials in pre-production areas.

The IPS Hygienic pallet is available from stock in two styles - a 1,200mm (L) x 800mm (W) non perimeter version and a 1,200mm (L) x 1,000mm full perimeter version.

Colour coding Two-colour plastic pallets can help businesses more easily identify their pallets and track them during transit.With approximately 45 million pallets in circulation in the UK, it is inevitable that some pallets get lost in transit, but this number can be significantly reduced by using two-colour plastic pallets. Businesses can colour their pallets in two shades of their choice and, to enhance identification, company logos can be moulded into the design or screenprinted on the pallets. To improve pallet traceability and security, Goplasticpallets.com offers both screenprinting and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.

In automation, plastic pallets clearly hold the advantage over wooden alternatives because of their consistent size and weight. Variances in the dimensions of wooden pallets can cause them to twist and become stuck when used in automated systems, the results of which can be costly.

Keith Washington, senior project development manager of leading international logistics automation specialists, systemlogistics.com, says: "We have worked with Goplasticpallets.com on a number of projects that have involved using plastic pallets in automated systems. The team at Goplasticpallets.com is very knowledgeable and takes care in recommending the best pallet to suit each application."