What's In Your Pallet?

Wood pallets used to ship food in Washington DC Area tested positive for three types of deadly food poisoning bacteria. The discovery was made in a new test commissioned by Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS), operator of the world's first pallet rental service that provides all-plastic pallets with embedded RFID tags. iGPS gathered samples from wood pallets located at markets and food retailers in the Washington DC, and Baltimore areas, and submitted them to an outside scientific laboratory for testing.

In a random sample, over one-third of the pallets tested positive for one or more of Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and extremely high bacteria counts that also could pose a food-safety risk. iGPS sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calling for the agency to launch a full investigation into the use of wood pallets used in the storage and shipment of food. iGPS said that wood easily absorbs bacteria and fluids, so the wood pallets in circulation could be a breeding ground for harmful bacteria that can contaminate food. The issue of wood pallet safety now very relevant as Congress considers new legislation that would require the FDA to create a better system for tracing food due to a number of high-profile recalls of contaminated food.

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