InterBulk boxes clever for food grade materials

The food industry is becoming increasingly complex and competitive. Across a wide variety of food ingredients from grains to malt, to sugar and starches, more and more materials are now going ‘in-bulk’ as ‘big bags’ and ‘super sacs’ are phased out due to the increased scale of food production facilities driven by ongoing industry consolidation.

InterBulk is one of Europe’s leading intermodal logistics companies, offering door to door transport of many different chemicals and food industry materials.

InterBulk’s dry bulk logistics business (until recently known as UBC) has a fleet of over 14,000 specialised 30’ containers. InterBulk still Europe’s single largest dry bulk container operating company. UBC were instrumental in developing innovations and pioneering procedures which have now become standard practice within the industry.

Prior to filling containers are fitted with a disposable plastic liner. One liner per trip is used to ensure product integrity is maintained throughout transit, without risk of contamination from a previous cargo.

Manufacturers and processors of food ingredients have developed their processes, plant and handling/discharge equipment to fit with InterBulk’s intermodal ‘bag-in-box’ method of dry bulk transportation and storage.

These companies recognise the inherent environmental and economic benefits that intermodal deliveries provide.

Intermodal transport takes the most efficient route comprising road, rail and sea, where the contents of the material are secured within the container for the duration of the journey. This is much more efficient compared to say road tankers that would require several discharges between modes of transport – from silo to road tanker, from road tanker to silo, from silo to rail wagon, etc. With intermodal transport, standard containers are transferred from one mode to another with the material secured and protected within the container. Silos are not required at any point in the chain and the container can also be used as a stackable storage device on the quayside, terminal or end customer location.

Containers are filled through top hatches which can take place on rail, skeletal road trailer and short sea shipping journeys. The fact that the material is never handled, significantly reduces the potential for contamination, material degradation and ensures the most efficient transport method is chosen, helping to reduce CO2 emission, carbon footprints and also reducing road congestion as more freight is transferred to rail, sea and waterways.