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The craze for artisanal and handmade food products shows no signs of slowing, and it seems a new entrepreneurial endeavour is born every week. If you are considering making a business out of your homemade jam or liqueur, you need to first learn what and where you can ship and then make sure it's ready for the voyage.
Within the UK there are few restrictions on shipping food and alcohol, with the key measurement being alcohol by volume. Wines and beers do not represent a problem but other types of spirits are restricted. Ask any potential courier about products over 24 percent alcohol by volume. The higher the percentage, the greater the risk of an explosion. As you can see in our Help Centre, you cannot ship any type of pure alcohols, but please enquire about a product you are interested in sending – we have years of experience. If you are preparing a shipment of bottles, we also need to know the exact number, size, and value of every one.
If you are wondering how to send your foodstuffs, know that if you are sending shipments of more than 100 kilos, pallet delivery will be the most cost-effective method. With that amount of weight, post or other types of courier service will be quite expensive. Jams and other types of preserved products are good candidates for pallet shipping – the glass adds weight and the products do not need refrigeration.
Things get more complicated when shipping to the EU, of course, with complicated trade regulations concerning food. Again, our help page is a good place to start, but if you get in touch, we can inform you as to what is allowable and in what quantities. In addition, food and drink trade groups and local chambers of commerce can provide helpful information.
Prepare Your Items to the Utmost
Purchase packing boxes in sizes that will allow for efficient palletising; standard pallets are 120 by 100 centimetres and can be packed up to 220 centimetres high. But if your goods overhang the edges, the shipment is considered to be oversized. If you are loading boxes of different sizes, be sure to use lining material between them. When finished, the stack should look like a solid block, not a Jenga game. And, as always, if you have different weights, put the heaviest boxes on the bottom. Add supports for corners, edges, and straps to avoid any crushing.
Pallet delivery remains one of the best ways for small businesses to ship their products. National pallets can provide you with thorough information to help you plan for a smooth journey.