From beer to tuna and everything in between, canned goods are a staple of American food retail and commerce.

Long gone are the days where people cracked jokes about all canned food being SPAM – these days, the convenience and ubiquity of cans have made them an attractive storage and distribution solution for products of all types.

As with all products though, there’s one question that needs to be answered: how are you going to store them before they get to the store or the customer?

Canned good storage in warehouses tends to require a lot of extra space, and a little imagination to keep everything safe, tidied, and ready to ship out. Sounds familiar? Here’s a few of our favorite tips:

Warehouse Canned Goods Storage

The first step with canned goods storage is to take stock of everything you carry. Does your warehouse primarily deal in products that have a longer shelf life, such as beverages, or do they need to get sent out the door more quickly to maintain freshness? Can they all be stored at room temperature or do you need to use a walk-in cooler for some of them?

From there, once you fully understand the sort of canned goods you need to carry, you should then designate areas for each item. Even with the safety of cans, you’ll still want to give them their own space separate from the other goods in your warehouse (be they food or otherwise) to prevent any kind of damage or cross-contamination. This can help with picking as well – if the canned goods are given their own corner or shelving, it can reduce confusion when trying to locate said items.

Speaking of shelving, you’ll want to choose specific shelving for storing perishables. No matter how far out the expiration date may be on most canned goods (particularly when it comes to produce or anything involving dairy), you’ll need to be able to prevent things like cross-contamination, or the risk of products spoiling on the shelf before they get the chance. Generally speaking, you should focus on more sterile shelving like MetroMax shelves or commercial kitchen shelving to help lessen the risk of germs or outside bacteria ruining your products before they can get shipped out.

Lastly, you’ll need to make sure your employees are trained on handling perishable products. While we know your team tries their best to make sure nothing gets damaged while it moves around the warehouse, food products tend to need a little more of the ‘kid gloves’ while getting moved around. Make sure your employees wear as much protective gear as possible to keep themselves AND the products safe, and remind everyone to not overload their pallets/forklifts/etc. to avoid damage, as the cans tend not to stand up to a lot of rougher treatment.

Hopefully, these quick guidelines will reduce the amount of loss you have in your warehouse, and keep everything fresh and tasty on their way to the customer!