Food Safety Focus | Wrap Care

News | 03-16-2022

Food Safety Focus

Hello All!

I hope this message finds all of you and your families safe and well.

This food safety focus will focus on wrap and its care.

What wrap is used for is no mystery in a warehouse setting, but how it should be cared for may not be as widely known. Wrap is used to keep products stable and in place while moving through the supply chain and it needs to be taken care of and respected just like every other piece of equipment used to move products through our sites. Selectors may not like it very much but lift operators and drivers learn quickly how needed it is and will come to appreciate having it as a useful tool.

To a selector, it’s a barrier in their way to keep the products they need for orders from being easy to get to. Wrap should be removed from products in the pick line in a safe way to keep wrap from getting under the feet of selectors. Removing wrap in the pick line can also keep wrap out of forklift wheels and prevent wheel bearings from wearing out prematurely.

To a lift operator or a driver, it holds products more secure and allows for more efficient movement. All products in storage should be wrapped. As a forklift trainer, I would teach new team members to listen for the sound of that wrap rubbing or catching anything unseen when moving products in and out of storage or during shipping and receiving.

Now, what if a server in a restaurant tried to wrap up your leftovers using a roll of wrap that was stored on its side, on a dirty and debris covered corner of the floor? Think of that each time you see a roll of wrap laying on its side on the bare warehouse floor. This wrap is used to wrap up food products that are sent out to our families and needs to be cared for and stored in a clean place. I understand that many products are packaged and sealed but that is still no reason to allow what we wrap food products up with to be handled this way. Many products, like most ice cream pints for example, only have a thin plastic sleeve as a case. Products cannot be stored on the floor for sanitary purposes and nothing that comes in direct contact with the case should be stored on the floor either.

Also, make sure there is nothing above stored rolls of wrap that could drip down onto it and cause cross contamination. This includes products in storage and equipment like refrigeration lines on the ceiling.

Thanks, for all that you do every Day!

Justin

Food Safety Manager

Food Safety Focus | Wrap Care

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