Do you ever find yourself wondering whether you should be purchasing plastic or steel drums? Or what the difference between them really is? Some food manufacturers prefer steel drums, and some prefer plastic — most can take a mix of both.

Let’s break it down and really find out how much of a difference is there really between the two drum materials.

Centra Foods receives questions from hundreds of manufacturers each year on the best ways to select specialty oil ingredients that fit their many different corporate goals -- one being cost savings, particularly for manufacturers using natural oils.

There are many components that can affect the total price of your oil ingredients, including the different quality kinds of oil available, the type of bulk packaging you opt for, the volume of your orders, the distance of the shipping point and the experience or business model of your bulk supplier(s).  

In this part two of the series, we're going to weigh in about how the different bulk packaging choices can affect your final edible oil pricing.

If you use IBC caged aluminum totes in your food production, you may not have the space to keep them once they have been emptied of edible oil inside. We often get questions from customers about what do to with these totes once they are emptied. 

Empty totes can take up a lot of space in a warehouse or plant facility. You may be asking yourself, “What can I do to get rid of these empty totes and have room to continue doing business and pack jobs that need to be done”?

Here a just a few helpful ideas and suggestions if you find yourself wondering what to do with your IBC tote. 

So you’ve recently bought a shipment of bulk oil in some sort of bulk packaging.

Perhaps it was delivered in 275 Gallon Totes. Or perhaps you use the 55 Gallon Drums, or even smaller 35 Lb. Containers (also called JIBs). Once you’ve used the oil in your production, what do you do with the packaging remaining?

Depending on what you specifically bought, there’s a few things you can do with it. We will review.

This last year the FDA officially updated the nutrition fact label requirements for all retail products. This means that if you manufacture a food product, your design and quality assurance teams will have to update the information that you include in the nutrition facts on the back of your product package.

If you are buying a solid oil like organic coconut or organic palm oil and you’re getting it in a 55 gallon drum, you may encounter a predicament when you begin your production: how do you get this solid oil (often the consistency of butter) out of it’s packaging?

Unless you are buying smaller pails with a lid that you can pull off completely, “scooping” the oil out isn’t always an option. Many drums that have a solid oil inside require that you heat the oil first to melt it and turn it into a liquid to get it out.

What’s the best way to heat it? There are many different options, and I met with our production manager, Kevin Smith, who made a number of good suggestions. Here is what he recommends for those of you trying to melt your solid oil for the first time.

Are you new to industrial oil totes? If you’ve only worked with smaller sizes like drums or jugs before, industrial totes can feel both large and overwhelming.

In light of that, I’d like to show you a few videos, filmed in our warehouse in Kent, WA. In the video, you’ll see our Production Manager, Kevin Smith show you how to attach the dispensing valves, how the cardboard and plastic totes may dispense differently and other details on how to set up totes in your facility.

Kevin is the king when it comes to knowing how to use these totes: he runs all of our packing and production in-house and knows this type of packaging inside and out.

If you are a food service distributor (or a customer of a distributor) you may have wondered if there’s an easier way to dispense from your 35 Lb. Containers, other than picking up the jug and pouring it.

I’ve tried to do that, and it’s always an awkward ordeal — you’ve got to muscle the box up to your measuring bowl, and your arms are straining to control the flow. After just a few days, this system can get tiresome and may have you searching for a better process.

The good news is that there IS a better way, and it’s really quite simple.

If you’ve ever debated about switching from small cubes (or 35 Lb. Containers) to bulk totes — these are big big ones, 275-330 gallons — this article is for you. Today we will weigh the pros and cons to decide if they will work for your plant.

I’ve personally written a lot about how to use the bulk totes over the last couple of years. You’ll learn bits of information in each one. But I wanted to create an ultimate guide to making this decision — that way, you can understand how everything goes together, what you’ll need in your facility and how you can make the final call.

Just picture it: you’re walking the aisles of Whole Foods Market… How many natural and organic foods are touting green packaging? A lot, right?

That’s the new trend (and thank goodness for it!): biodegradable, recyclable, and green packaging.

But retail products are not the only category looking for green packaging options.

Procurement managers in the industrial manufacturing realm are also looking for ways to increase their positive impact -- both on their community and the world. If you don’t care about doing good, chances are that your customers do.

Whether green buying is a part of your business strategy or if it's simply a PR exercise, we have the tips you need to make the switch to greener, more environmentally-friendly packaging options for industrial healthy oil ingredients.

35 lb. containers are one of the most common edible oil packaging sizes. Also known as jug-in-box containers or carboys, they’re ideal for small manufacturing plants and restaurants. Anyone using hands-on production or who has limited storage space will find that they’re an ideal size.

Many customers ask us about the best ways to dispense from this packaging. Each box has a screw-on lid (about 2” wide) that, once removed, reveals a hole you can pour out of.

But sometimes that can be a messy and awkward way to get the oil out, so many use some sort of attachment to dispense from.

Here’s our two favorite ways to dispense from these 35 lb. containers, depending on what you’re doing with the oil.

When I was little, I remember grocery shopping with my mother. I always wanted the small bags of pre-packaged crackers, perfect for boxed lunches. But she taught me quickly – “See this little box? It’s $2.00 per ounce. See this big box? It’s $1.00 per ounce for the same exact thing.”

Surprise, surprise… We bought the big box.

Many of us have memories like this. And as adults, if we want to lower the cost of ingredients for our company, what’s the first thing that you think comes to mind? That’s right. We want to save money by switching to a larger packaging size.

Finding an easy way to dispense out of your industrial totes can be a challenge.  It's one of the #1 questions we get from manufacturers who are considering this new packaging size.

We've seen a whole variety of things that are used as pumps, from home-made to professional:  PVC piping to hoses to automatic pumps.  Some food manufacturers actually make the switch to totes, but still never quite find a dispensing attachment that they like.

Because of this, we built a dispenser that we knew would work great for our customers.  Luckily, we have a president who likes to "tinker"-- if you have a problem, he'll find a way to fix it!  

The packaging you choose for your raw manufacturing ingredients affects how smoothly and efficiently your production process will run.

If you’re debating between drums or totes, there are 3 parts to decision, and they have to do with how your packaging and production team will interact. If you consider these 3 components thoroughly with your team, you’ll almost automatically walk away with a smart decision.  

You wouldn't use a riding lawnmower to mow a tiny front lawn.

Why not? The equipment is too big for that space, which makes it difficult to use. For that sort of job, it's much better to have something smaller and simpler to use.

As a small food manufacturer, you may have experienced this same dilemma already relating to your ingredient packaging. As you begin your edible oil sourcing process, you’ll need to choose a packaging size that fits into your work space and will be easy to use. You don’t want to feel like you’re on a riding lawn mower trying to do a 10 point turn!

You’ll need to choose the packaging for your oil ingredients that fits your production line and matches your available storage space. The best way to decide is to start looking closer at some key characteristics about your space. These details will guide you right to the packaging you should choose.