askralph

Reul asks,

We recently had a batch of doublewall boxes held at the port because it was mishandled by the shippers and delayed for about two weeks. The dry container van was stored at the Customs Yard. Maybe the two weeks of exposure to cyclic condition, high humidity at night time and occasional rainfall may have resulted in a favorable condition for spore to develop into molds.

Do you know a standard or allowance of presence of yeast/molds in a corrugated box? We have this analysis of 1500 CFU from the swab test conducted on the samples coming from a certain batch of corrugated boxes that we produce.

This has been a concern for us since one of our customers complained the boxes they received had some dusty matter on its surfaces. We sent samples to an independent lab for microbial analysis and it was confirm to have that reading mentioned above. Is this value alarming?

That’s a tough question. We have no threshold count for molds and yeasts. It would not come with the containerboard except where the relative humidity or liquid water is present with the spores. Certainly the conditions you described could have had an impact on the condition of the boxes and the growth of molds if spores were present. Depending on what the contents are and what the end user environment is these conditions could very well be unacceptable.

— Ralph

Tim asks,

Ralph, are you aware of any regulations regarding the storage of secondary packaging for food related boxes? We make secondary packaging for a customer and they received some of our boxes that were covered with stink bugs. Apparently there was a small hole in the wall, which we have repaired, where the boxes were stored. Being that they are secondary boxes it does not required us to be AIB certified.

Those little insects get everywhere! There should not be any regulations for reasonable storage of secondary packaging. Below is a link for recommended practices for the storage of corrugated. https://www.pmmi.org/sites/default/files/PMMI-B155-TR2.3.pdf

I would also suggest that you walk through 21 CFR 110 for the “Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Packing, or Holding Human Food.”  You may also consider an overview of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

However, regardless of whether there are regulations or not, your customers don’t want any little six-legged stowaways in their shipments. Perhaps you could bag or stretch wrap the entire pallet to protect against further infiltration or contamination from dust or other elements that me be present in the atmosphere.

– Ralph