Plastic crates and bins for food processing

Where containers work inside a food plant

Ingredients arrive at the receiving dock in totes, IBCs or bins. They are staged by line, tipped into a hopper by a dumper, and the product that comes out moves between steps in hand-held totes or solid bins before it is packed. Some of it sits in a cooler or freezer on the way. Every hand-off is a chance for dust, splinters or residue to reach food, and that is the argument makers make for plastic over fiber and wood.

ORBIS makes that case plainly: it says moving away from fiber-corrugated cases "eliminates dust", and that plastic pallets prevent downtime caused by wood chips lodging in equipment. It sells reusables with ventilated walls and open decks so they clean easily and dry fast, including HDR4048 bulk bins at 47.2 x 39.4 in. and 34.3 or 25 in. tall.

The dumper is the fussiest piece of equipment on the floor. Send us its cradle width, clamp style and the rim or lip profile it grabs, and we match bins that seat properly instead of guessing by footprint.

Bins, IBCs and totes by job

Food-contact resin, and what washing looks like

The federal rule for polyethylene and polypropylene in contact with food is 21 CFR 177.1520, Olefin polymers. It says the listed polymers "may be safely used as articles or components of articles intended for use in contact with food", subject to the rule's specifications. Makers then describe their bins in their own words, and we quote those words rather than add our own claim. IPL Schoeller states: "All food-grade resins we use are FDA-approved and naturally BPA-free." Buckhorn says its IBCs are "Molded of FDA-compliant materials".

Cleaning is your plant's step, run under your SOPs. The Reusable Packaging Association says reusable food containers are made mainly of PP and HDPE and are cleaned and sanitized between uses with industrial wash procedures; as an alternative to chemicals, heat sanitation runs at 160 to 180°F, and tunnel washers handle 6,000 units an hour or more. For its solid one-piece bins, IPL suggests "a high-pressure wash or nonabrasive brush".

Check the container's listed temperature range against your wash, freezer and blast cell before you commit.

New or used, and the food-contact question

For anything that touches exposed product, plants often specify new containers in documented resin, because the paperwork follows the part number. Used bins can still be the right call for packaging materials, sealed ingredients, waste streams or dry storage. When a used lot comes from food service, we tell you what it held as far as we know: brine, oils, allergens, nothing at all. When we don't know, we say that too.

Never take a reseller's word that a used container is food safe, ours included. Ask for the maker's documents for that model, and run it through your own wash and sanitation before it sees product. If you want bins cleaned before they ship, say so in the request; it depends on the lot and where it ships from. See food contact for the long version.

Folding containers earn their price on the empty trip. ORBIS lists its BulkPak GP4048-34 at 34.1 in. tall and 13.5 in. collapsed, a 2.7:1 return ratio, 90 assembled or 240 folded per 53-foot trailer. If your bins come back from a co-packer across the country, that ratio matters; if they never leave the building, a rigid bin is simpler.

Selling surplus bins from a plant

Plants that change dumpers, retire a product or switch to a new bin height often hold dozens of good containers. We buy them. Tell us the maker and model, count, condition, any lids, and what the bins carried, including allergens and chemicals. That history decides who can reuse them. Start at sell your containers.