Food storage facilities are an essential part of the supply chain between producer and consumer. Dry goods that spoil not only cost businesses money, they can also present a significant health concern. Keeping food safe and in quality condition depends on extensive climate-controlled warehousing that manages temperature, humidity, and sanitation.
Frozen, refrigerated, and dry storage are the common categories of food storage. Dry storage, in particular, is for dry foods that last without refrigeration in dehumidified conditions.
What Is Dry Goods Storage?
Dry goods storage in Minnesota consists of warehouses, rooms, and containers that manage temperature, lighting, and air-quality levels. Continual monitoring ensures a stable and contained environment free of moisture and contamination.
Temperature and Humidity
Even for dry goods, cooler temps increase storage time by limiting product respiratory activity and water loss and by reducing enzyme degradation and inhibiting bacterial growth.
Lowered humidity, however, is frequently a more important factor than temperature and also protects the quality and helps prevent bacteria. In the Upper Midwest, humidity control can be a challenge. Due to winter cold outside, humidity inside storage facilities can tend to elevate. Successful dry-goods storage in Minnesota depends on dedicated HVAC and airflow management systems.
Storage Allocation
Placement is also a concern. Rack storage separation between pallets and away from walls, floor and ceilings minimizes potential condensation between products and surfaces and avoids higher temperatures near ceilings. Well-prepared warehouses also store products elevated from floors in well-sealed environments to keep them clear of environmental contaminants.
Organic Foods
Because organic-certified dry foods, including beans, nuts or grains or even processed foods, lack preservatives, hormones or pesticides, products are more vulnerable to quality decline and microorganism contamination. Facilities with advanced climate control and organic-certified storage systems are key to maintaining organic dry goods.
Warehouse Capacity
Dry goods in Minnesota have seen a demand for greater storage capacity over recent decades. Millions of pounds of food move through storage facilities per year.
To maintain food security for high volumes of dry goods, AIB International certified facilities use computer-controlled temperature and inventory management systems. And they employ tens of thousands of pallet positions in millions of cubic feet of storage space while implementing Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, or HACCP, internationally recognized procedures.
As a part of cold chain logistics, dry goods storage in Minnesota maintains dedicated and controlled environments so that quality products make safe transit from producers to suppliers and consumers.
