Wood Vs
Disadvantages:
- Wood spacers have sharp edges and corners, which cab cause tears in the boxes containing the frozen products.
- Spacers may damage the boxes by snagging the boxes on protruding nails or staples used to keep the pallet together.
- Spacers are relatively thick and heavy to provide the required compression strength to support the heavy frozen products
- Spacers tend to deteriorate rapidly due to wear, warping and breakage, requiring not only frequent repairs but also large maintenance expenses.
- Spacers are good insulators and thus, increase the time required to freeze the boxed food products
- Spacers are difficult to clean which can lead to growth of bacteria.
- Spacers in the meat industry due to the fact that wood absorbs blood from meat that may leak through the box. If a good wooden spacer is stained with blood, the pallet must be buried or burned, neither if which is particularly an environmentally sound practice.
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Plastic
Advantages:
- Durable
- Cleanable
- Recyclable
- Support containers within the temperature regulated environment.
- Shatter proof and sufficiently stable to support heavy loads with minimal deformation of its shape.
- Does not absorb any liquid materials that might leak from products.
- Increases cold conductivity, which decreases the time required to cool the product.
- Capable of withstanding the environment of meat processing and freezer operations.
- Readily formed by a variety of plastic processes.
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