IFCO Turns To Sealed Air To Ensure Global Food Safety For Reusable Containers

IFCO Partners with Sealed Air in Effort to Implement Most Rigorous Food Safety Program in the Industry

IFCO’s Director of Food Safety, Paul Pederson, leads a group of retailers, customers, and vendors on a tour of the new Portland wash center. — IFCO’s Director of Food Safety, Paul Pederson, shown leading a group of retailers, customers, and vendors on a tour of the Portland wash center, at its official opening in 2012. Pederson will be a guest speaker at the Reusables Packaging Pavilion at PACK EXPO 2014.

Leading RPC rental provider IFCO SYSTEMS has embarked upon a unique partnership with Sealed Air, the leading provider of Diversey™ cleaning and hygiene solutions and supplier of the detergents and disinfectants IFCO uses to clean its reusable plastic containers. Through this partnership, Sealed Air ensures the hygiene of all IFCO RPCs washed with Diversey detergents and disinfectants through an integral cleaning and sanitation program. Sealed Air also provides on-line monitoring of IFCO’s cleaning process globally. This development is the latest effort by IFCO to implement the most rigorous food safety program in the industry.

“As the global leader in reusable plastic containers for the shipment of fresh products, IFCO is also a leader in food safety,” said Wolfgang Orgeldinger, CEO of IFCO. “IFCO employs the most rigorous and stringent standards in the selection of its cleaning agent and equipment suppliers in order to ensure top performance.”

With more than 200 million RPCs in circulation, IFCO is the leading provider of reusable containers to the fresh food sector worldwide. IFCO handles all RPC logistics, from distributions to cleaning to re-entry into the supply chain. After retail use, IFCO RPCs are folded, collected and shipped back to one of IFCO’s service facilities, where they are sanitized and prepared for re-use.

IFCO states that it is committed to food safety and knows that, because standards and risks are always changing, the company must continuously monitor changes in the industry to ensure use of the best available cleaning and quality control processes, materials, and technology. The company has established best practices and implemented at each of IFCO’s 48 service centers in 19 countries. These best practices ensure adherence to strict standards around the world and include:

Global detergent and equipment standards and guarantees
Cleanliness and quality standards which exceed regulatory requirements
Maintenance of critical wash process parameter data with pallet level traceability
Use of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems
Third-party auditing in accordance with ISO
Retailer and producer handling best practices
Product withdrawal and recall procedures
Continuous improvement programs

IFCO Systems will be making a presentation at the Reusable Packaging Pavilion in conjunction with PACK EXPO 2014. Paul Pederson, Director of Food Safety for IFO will discuss “RPC Wash Cycle Efficiency and Sanitation: Exceed current quality and cleanliness standards in your wash cycle – how to improve your processes.” The presentation will take place on Tuesday Nov. 4 from 11:00 – 11:45 am.