Container fumigation? Start with a clean box.

No. Fumigating with restricted remedies is for a registered pest control operator, or someone under their direct supervision (Act 36 of 1947 and the Pest Control Operator Regulations). We wash, inspect and run pre-trip inspections on reefers at our PPECB-certified facility in Germiston, so the box is ready before food goes in.

It’s a newly built reefer workshop, washing and pre-trip inspection (PTI) facility at our Germiston container depot. It’s PPECB-certified and passed a 100% food-grade audit, and an IICL-certified team prepares, cleans and inspects the reefers, all on one site.

A pre-trip inspection of an empty reefer before it’s loaded: the box itself (walls, floor, roof, doors and seals), the refrigeration unit, the wiring, the controller and its alarms, the sensors against the temperature inside, and a cooling cycle. For an export, it’s done at the chilled or frozen temperature (reg 37(2)).

The box cleaned to its satisfaction and inspected by its representative before stuffing. Inside: clean, dry, no flaking or transferable rust, free of all odours, the T-bar floor and air deflector clear, Board-approved drain plugs. Outside: doors that seal airtight with sound rubber seals (reg 36). The air exchange vents work and are closed for the inspection (reg 37(3)).

Each approval of a container is valid for 60 days from the date the Board approves it (reg 36(7)).

For perishable exports, shipping lines must make sure the reefers they supply are clean, dry, taint free and technically and structurally sound, and a Board representative checks before any product is loaded (reg 36(5), (6)). For any container, the CTU Code says whoever provides the box provides it clean, free of cargo residues, noxious materials, plants and visible pests (4.2.1).

Pre-cool the cargo, not the empty box. Except ambient shipments, the Board loads only pre-cooled product it has approved (reg 62(5)). Shipping lines warn that pre-cooling the empty container brings condensation that can damage cartons, except where it’s loaded through a sealed cold tunnel.

A fumigated container carries a warning mark on its doors with the fumigant used and the date and time. Once it’s completely ventilated, the ventilation date goes on the mark; the mark comes off once it’s ventilated and unloaded. A box travelling unventilated is declared as UN 3359, fumigated cargo transport unit, class 9 (IMDG Code 5.5.2).

Treat it with care. The CTU Code advises opening the doors so the air settles, and even after ventilation treating the container as an enclosed space, ready to test the air before anyone goes in. If in doubt whether a box was fumigated, treat it as fumigated.

Keeping a product at a low temperature for a set time to kill quarantine pests, in a cold store or in the reefer in transit (reg 1). For in-transit cold treatment, the reefer’s probes are calibrated with the Board and/or the Department present, to the importing country’s specifications (reg 37(1)). Our site doesn’t state probe calibration, so ask us.

Our wash bay and PTI station are for reefers. Our depot handles dry containers too, so ask us about a dry box.

We stage them on 20 plug points at our depot, move them with 10 underslung gensets, and plan which perishables can share a box on perishabletransport.co.za. We don’t publish prices: answer the short questions and we quote on your boxes.