Bringing home the bacon in plastic pallet boxes

“They range from the good to the most ridiculous. Sometimes things are just good the way they are and they don’t really need improving. However, the Dolav Ace box, with strength in the legs and the corners, is a great step forward. Dolav has kept the design concept the same and basically improved what was already a very good pallet box,” he said.

Quality Foods provides own label and branded bacon, in packets to precise weights for major retailers and food service companies throughout the UK and Europe. The company started in Aberdeen in 1967 and today with substantial investment in the latest high-tech equipment this ‘lean-processor’ has a total staff of just 100 people.

With well-trained staff and top-end, computerised, high speed bacon slicing, Quality Foods processes 300 tonnes of bacon each week. That totals over 15,000 tonnes a year. In this highly competitive, and very price-sensitive industry, Quality Foods’ ultra-modern equipment ensures the product is sliced and packed as efficiently as possible.

Quality Foods’ success in avoiding contamination is very important to them. For that they select the only box made as a one-piece single moulding that is also easy to clean, the Dolav plastic pallet box. ” With other boxes where the runners are clipped to the bottom you run the risk of contamination where the two bits of plastic meet. You just don’t have that with a Dolav as it is a single unit,” said Keith Rataj.

“We knew exactly what we wanted. The new style Dolav Ace is a great improvement on our previous Dolavs, much stronger and harder wearing. There is nothing else on the market that comes close. It was not even an option to look elsewhere” he said.

In Quality Foods’ deep freeze store, each Dolav holds 500 kilos of bacon, stacked eight boxes high, at minus-22 degrees Celsius. Other ‘tempered’ sides are held at minus-12 degrees. “At the very low temperatures Dolavs do not go brittle – unlike other boxes. There is nothing to touch the durability of the Dolav box, and we’ve seen them all.” concluded Keith Rataj who knows he can buy cheaper boxes which won’t last. His first 400 Dolavs have already lasted ten years and are still as good as new. The newly bought Dolav Ace boxes are part of continued investment, growth and success at Quality Foods.