What are Pharmaceutical Bulk Bags Used For?

Posted on - 20th February 2020

FIBCs can carry fine powder, liquids and various pharmaceutical materials. Pharmaceutical materials often carry small and easily-contaminations which means getting a container that allows sterile management without losing materials to corners and awkward loading angles is essential.

Centurion Packaging is one of the UK's leading suppliers of pharmaceutical bulk bags and for our latest blog, we are going to explain more about what you can use them for.

Beware of Cross-Contamination

Cross-contamination, moisture damage, accelerated degradation and rot can compromise pharmaceutical materials faster than other bulk materials and can prove quite expensive.
This isn't just because of certain materials are more sensitive than others or reactions which happen in unprotected environments. Precision is necessary to produce a high-quality and accurate product meaning that impurities and contamination at microscopic levels will not be allowed.

All pharmaceutical components must be paired with a pharmaceutical-grade bulk bag option which is because certain materials could be susceptible to specific contaminants in different bag types or have higher standards than your standard container.

Maintaining a Sterile Environment

While certain pharmaceutical-grade containers can handle a large number of different products and materials, you may have particular materials that require special liners, bags or storage conditions.
Knowing your materials standards is the key to sterility, for most pharmaceutical materials following the food safety and ISO standards below is vital -

• GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) Standards
• ISO 9001:2008
• ISO 22000:2005

Food standards cover a number of needs such as manufacturer personnel hygiene, ventilation, pest control standard operating procedures and metal detection. These standards cover similar needs to pharmaceutical standards, but it is still important to review and compare your standards for compliance.

Managing the Risk of Static Electricity

When dealing with capsules, pills, fine powders, coarse filler or other pharmaceutical materials there are static charge risks to consider.
Build-up can happen at multiple stages of material handling, whether it is filling to unloading, movement of materials with the storage equipment and the outside environment which can lead to a dangerous static charge which can ruin your supply, or personnel if not handled.
Particular static risks depend it on the material, whether this is a simple shock and burn which could break a container's seal or a flammable material that could lead to a catastrophic reaction.

We would recommend inspecting your source, destination and transport vehicles for static risks. Mitigating these risks can be done at each separate area which helps to fine-tune safety. Different types of bulk installations can be arranged by their static potential.

Bulk Bags available from Centurion Packaging

If you need bulk bags for pharmaceutical or food needs, please contact us today.

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