Farm, Foil, Feast

Mail-to-order fresh food, chilled packaging solutions!

Today, consumers have everything at their fingertips allowing them to make purchasing decisions much more easily and conveniently. The improved, ease of accessibility to the internet has enabled around-the-clock-shopping, allowing consumers to be in full control of their purchasing decisions and consume content 24/7.

Previously, mail-to-order food didn’t have a great reputation but with improved consumer accessibility, business turnaround times, and packaging innovations, mail-to-order fresh food has gained traction. As with selling any food produce, mail-to-order food, particularly fresh food comes with a number of guidelines.

What is the best approach to ensure food safety?

Any business handling food should apply Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, which requires carrying out simple risk assessments of your businesses policies and procedures. Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 sets out the basic hygiene requirements for businesses, including the need for a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP. If you do not handle or transport food you will only need to have very simple procedures and records, which includes what to do in the event of a food incident/recall.

What additional rules apply for selling food online?

You must:

• Ensure food is safe when it is delivered to consumers.
• Make the same level of information available online as on the food labelling to the consumer – before the purchase is made.
• You must also ensure that the legal name and address of the business are provided on the website.

When delivering foods that need refrigeration, you must assess the temperature control during delivery in order to ensure that the product is kept cool and safe. Perishable items such as meat, fish and dairy require further consideration.

For these reasons, we began working with a number of online butchers and mail-to-order food companies to ensure guidelines are met through packaging solutions. Bespoke Aluminium Foil Box Liners are swiftly becoming the most suitable and cost-effective fresh food packaging solution for this industry.

Our Aluminium Foil Box Liners increase storage time when kept at ambient temperature; With a cooling agent, produce can be stored for up to 36 hours. The Box Liners are also cost-effective compared to other packaging solutions and offer optimum warehousing. For example, 1 pallet of liners equates up to 7 pallets of competitor industry packaging, reducing the required storage space.

What does compliance look like?

• Safe to eat.
• Hygienically made, packaged, transported and stored.
• What it says it is.
• Labelled correctly.
• Made with the correct ingredients listed.
• Business is registered with the local authority for all its activities.
• Food safety management system based on HACCP principles and traceability.
• ‘HACCP aware’ person.

If you package food as part of your business then you must:

• Use material that will not be a source of contamination for wrapping and packaging.
• Store wrapping materials so they are not at risk of contamination.
• Wrap and package the food in a way that avoids contamination of products.
• Make sure that any containers are clean and not damaged.
• Be able to keep the wrapping or packaging material clean