01
Asking for FDA-certified pallets
No such certification exists. What exists is your documented control.
FixBuild a specification and keep the conformance records. That is what passes an audit.
01What auditors actually look for
- Visible mould or staining on the top deck. This is the number one finding and it is cosmetic in origin, structural in nobody's opinion, and fatal to an audit.
- Protruding fasteners that could puncture packaging or migrate into product.
- Splinters and loose boards in areas where product is handled open.
- Documented supplier control — can you show where the pallets came from and what happened to them?
- Pest evidence — frass, exit holes, live insects. Rare in treated wood, common in wood stored outdoors.
- Segregation between raw and finished-goods pallets in some schemes.
02Mould: the real problem, and the real fix
Wood mould needs moisture above roughly 20% and a temperature between 4°C and 38°C. A pallet stored outside in a humid climate hits both within days. The mould that results is almost always surface-level and structurally irrelevant — and it will still fail your audit.
- Heat treatment drops moisture to 15–20%, below the growth threshold.
- Kiln-dried stock starts below the threshold and stays there if stored dry.
- Indoor storage on both sides of the supply chain matters more than any treatment.
- Appearance sorting catches historic mould shadow that treatment has already killed but not removed.
- Plastic removes the question entirely where the budget allows.
03Specifying for a food operation
| Environment | Specification |
|---|---|
| Dry goods warehouse | Grade A recycled, indoor stored |
| Beverage production | Grade A recycled or new SYP, heat treated |
| Chilled distribution | Heat treated or kiln dried, moisture documented |
| Wash-down processing area | Plastic, HDPE, open deck |
| Open food contact | Plastic only |
| Retail display | A-clean recycled or new, appearance specified |
| Export | Heat treated and IPPC marked |
By the numbers
The figures worth remembering
Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.
- US agencies that certify a wood pallet as food-grade
- 0US agencies that certify a wood pallet as food-grade
- Wood moisture above which mould grows
- 20%Wood moisture above which mould grows
- Moisture after heat treatment
- 15–20%Moisture after heat treatment
- Cost of an A-clean appearance sort
- $1.40Cost of an A-clean appearance sort
Rules of thumb
Carry these in your head
- 01There is no FDA-certified pallet. There is your documented control.
- 02Mould needs moisture above 20%. Everything else follows from that.
- 03Visible staining fails more audits than any structural defect.
- 04Open food contact means plastic. That decision is not economic.
Before you order
The decisions we will ask you to make
A quote turnaround is limited by how many follow-up questions we have to ask. Working through this list removes nearly all of them.
- 01
Written pallet specification
Dimensions, tolerance, moisture, treatment, appearance criteria. This is what an auditor is actually testing for.
- 02
Supplier declaration per delivery
Evidence of conformance, not just a promise of it.
- 03
Moisture control
Heat treated or kiln dried, with a certificate where a customer requires one.
- 04
Appearance clause
No stain, mould shadow, paint or raised splinters on the top deck.
- 05
Covered storage at both ends
In writing. Most mould we investigate is a storage problem, not a supply one.
- 06
Zone map
Which areas permit wood and which require plastic. Draw the line before the audit does.
What goes wrong
Expensive mistakes, and the fix for each
Every one of these turns up in ordinary purchase orders. All of them cost multiples of whatever they appeared to save.
02
Arguing that mould shadow is cosmetic
It is cosmetic, and no auditor has ever accepted the argument.
FixSpecify an A-clean sort and heat-treated stock, and store under cover.
03
Using wood in a wash-down zone
Wood absorbs and holds moisture, which is the whole problem.
FixPlastic inside wash-down and open-food-contact areas, without exception.
Side by side
Specification by zone
| Environment | Specification |
|---|---|
| Dry goods warehouse | Grade A recycled, indoor stored |
| Beverage production | Grade A recycled or new SYP, heat treated |
| Chilled distribution | Heat treated or kiln dried, moisture documented |
| Wash-down processing area | Plastic, HDPE, open deck |
| Open food contact | Plastic only |
| Retail display | A-clean recycled or new |
| Export | Heat treated and IPPC marked |
Against our interest
When this is the wrong answer
We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong thing. These are the situations where this page is not what you need.
- 01
Anyone waiting for an FDA-certified pallet
No such certification exists in the United States. What exists is your documented control — a specification, a conforming supplier, and records proving it.
- 02
Wood in wash-down or open food contact areas
Wood absorbs and holds moisture. This is not a risk-tolerance judgement; it is why plastic exists in these zones.
- 03
Arguing that mould shadow is cosmetic
It is cosmetic. No auditor has ever accepted the argument, and a receiving dock is a bad place to test it.
What moves the price
Cost drivers, and roughly how much each one is worth
A quote is not a list price with a discount applied. It is these variables added up, which is why two quotes for nominally the same thing can differ so widely.
| Driver | What it is | Rough effect |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance sorting | A cosmetic screen layered on the structural grade. | +$1.40 per pallet |
| Moisture control | Heat treatment or kiln drying, plus documentation where required. | +$1.10 to +25% |
| Zone segregation | Plastic inside classified and wash-down space, wood outside it. | 5–15× on the plastic portion |
| Rejection risk | The cost the appearance sort is actually buying down. | Freight both ways plus chargeback |
Due diligence
Questions to ask any supplier
Us included. The answers tell you a great deal, and so does how quickly they arrive — a yard that has these documents ready is a yard that has thought about them.
- 01
“What is your receiver's written appearance standard?”
- 02
“Can the supplier provide a per-delivery declaration against our specification?”
- 03
“What moisture content, and can it be certified?”
- 04
“Where exactly does our wood-to-plastic boundary sit, and is it documented?”
- 05
“How are pallets stored at both ends, and is that written down?”
The rulebook
Standards and authorities that actually apply
Plenty of pallet marketing invokes standards loosely. These are the real documents behind this subject, and what each one does and does not cover.
- BRCGS and SQF
GFSI-benchmarked food safety schemes. They set requirements on your process and documented control, not on a pallet certification.
- FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act)
US legislation covering preventive controls, including the condition of packaging and transport surfaces.
- 21 CFR Part 110 / 117
FDA current good manufacturing practice regulations for food, which drive plant hygiene requirements.
- No food-grade pallet certification
There is no US agency certifying a wood pallet as food-grade. Anyone selling one is selling a story.
Your specification and records are the control.
Vocabulary
The terms used on this page
Defined the way the trade uses them, not the way a dictionary would.
- A-clean
- A Grade A structural sort with an added appearance screen — no stain, mould shadow, paint or raised splinters on the top deck. Costs roughly $1.40 more per pallet and eliminates most retail rejections.
- Kiln dried (KD)
- Lumber dried in a controlled kiln to a specified moisture content, typically ≤19%. Not the same as heat treatment, though the processes overlap.
- Heat treatment (HT)
- Raising the core temperature of wood to 56°C for 30 continuous minutes to satisfy ISPM-15. Also drops moisture to 15–20%.
- Grade A
- Our top recycled tier: no companion stringers, two or fewer replaced deck boards, one plug maximum, squareness within 0.5 inch.
From the journal
Longer reading on this subject
Written by the people who grade, repair and haul the wood — including the articles that argue against buying from us.
Materials7 min readMarcus Ellery
Wood moisture and the mould problem nobody specifies against
Mould on a pallet is almost never a structural problem and almost always an audit problem. The fix is moisture, and moisture is a storage question as much as a supply one.
Read
- moisture
- mould
- food safety
Industry6 min readPriya Raghunathan
What a pallet audit finding looks like in a food plant
There is no such thing as an FDA-certified pallet. What exists is your documented control, and an auditor is testing whether you have one.
Read
- food safety
- audit
- specification
Compliance6 min readPriya Raghunathan
Heat treatment records, and the day a border agency asks
The mark on the wood is the declaration. The record behind it is the evidence. Most of the time nobody asks for the second one, and then somebody does.
Read
- ISPM-15
- records
- audit
Questions
Answers to what buyers actually ask
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.
Are wood pallets allowed in food plants?
Yes, in the great majority of food environments, provided they are controlled: clean, dry, structurally sound and documented. What is generally not permitted is wood in open food contact areas or in wash-down zones, where plastic is the compliant choice.
How do I stop pallets going mouldy?
Control moisture. Heat treated or kiln-dried wood starts below the growth threshold; indoor storage keeps it there. Most mould problems we investigate turn out to be a storage problem at one end of the chain rather than a supply problem.
Do you supply pallets that meet BRC or SQF requirements?
Those schemes set requirements on your process, not on a pallet certification. We supply to a written specification — grade, treatment, appearance criteria, storage — and provide the records that let you demonstrate control during an audit.
How often should pallets in a food plant be replaced?
On condition, not on a calendar. That means an inbound check for mould, staining, loose boards and protruding fasteners, with a documented rejection route for anything that fails. Scheduled replacement either discards serviceable decks or keeps failing ones in service, and usually does both.
Should we switch to plastic pallets in wash-down areas?
In genuine wash-down zones, yes — plastic cleans completely and holds no moisture. Elsewhere the economics rarely work. Break-even sits around 25 to 40 controlled round trips, and pallets that leave on outbound freight almost never return often enough to get there.