Shipping food products—especially time- and temperature-sensitive goods like produce—requires extra skills and equipment. By investing in the right solutions, you can deliver vibrant, fresh, and delicious goods to your end users. Make sure your supply chain can handle food products with this quick rundown of what to know about shipping fresh produce.
Choose the Right Case Size
The first step is to find the right packaging for your products. You want product cases that are the perfect size for your produce.
If the box is too big, the produce will shift around and break during transit. You’ll also be paying to ship empty air—a waste of money that no one wants to deal with. But if your case is too small, you risk crushing the produce, leading to product loss and unhappy customers. Choose boxes that fit your produce snugly and securely without breaking products or wasting space.
Invest in Cold Shipping Solutions
A lot of produce is sensitive to temperature changes, which means you need to invest in cold storage and shipping solutions. This can include anything from cold gel packs within product cases to refrigerated trucks for transporting product loads.
Prioritize packaging materials that offer adequate insulation for your temperature-sensitive goods. Additionally, if you use cardboard cases, line them with plastic to prevent soaked, torn, or broken boxes.
Let Your Product Loads Breathe
While insulation and temperature control are important, ventilation is also a big part of what to know about shipping fresh produce. Excessive insulation can cause moisture to gather within your product load, creating its own set of issues for your goods. Proper ventilation offsets condensation to prevent excess water buildup and keep your produce fresh during transit.
The right stretch wrapping solutions can keep product loads ventilated. Instead of wrapping the entire pallet, try wrapping techniques like stretch film roping to allow the produce to breathe. “Netted” or “vented” machine stretch films are available to ensure that your produce on pallets is able to breathe while receiving the right amount of containment force. This reduces the likelihood of product damage during shipment.
Streamline Your Shipping Process With Robopac USA
Speedy, efficient shipping is crucial for delivering fresh produce to your customers. You can streamline the process with end-of-line packaging equipment from Robopac USA. Contact our team today or explore our options for semi-automatic pallet wrappers and other produce packaging solutions.
