New pallets for food and grocery

New pallets start clean, which is part of why food shippers buy them. Mold is the common complaint: wood below 20% moisture content won’t support it, and even slight air movement in storage helps. Heat-treated pallets loaded into a closed trailer while still warm are prone to it. Say if your pallets go into a plant with sanitation rules.

The FDA’s Food Traceability Rule asks food businesses to keep records for listed foods and share them within 24 hours of a request; enforcement is not expected before July 2028. A consistent pallet makes a consistent unit load, which is easier to track.

Food manufacturing employed 1,775,008 people in 2025, and grocery wholesale another 829,364. In Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa food plants make up more than 4.5% of all private jobs.

Do grocery distribution centers take any 48 x 40?

Many accept a range of builds but reject pallets that are broken, wet, moldy or out of square. Some publish their own receiving standards; if your customer has one, send it.

Should food pallets be heat-treated?

Domestic food freight doesn’t require it. Exports do, under ISPM 15. Heat treatment doesn’t prevent mold, so for food the more useful line is dried lumber.

Are food pallets inspected?

Receivers and auditors look for broken boards, protruding nails, mold, bark, stains and pests. A new pallet built from dried, clean lumber passes that inspection more easily, and the written sheet shows what was ordered.