Food and beverage fulfillment for ambient products
This service is for products that can be stored at ambient temperature. Ecom does not offer chilled or frozen storage. Share your storage specification and shelf-life requirements so product suitability can be confirmed before onboarding.
What changes here
Ambient products still need clear storage specifications, date-code requirements and packaging that protects the order. Confirm those details before sending stock to the warehouse.
- What ambient covers
- Shelf-stable goods that are happy at warehouse temperature: dry goods, packaged snacks, sealed beverages, supplements and anything else that does not need a set temperature to stay safe or saleable.
- What it does not
- No chilled zone, no frozen zone, no temperature-controlled trailer. If your product needs two to eight degrees, or minus eighteen, or a validated temperature record end to end, we are the wrong building and you should stop reading here.
- Rotation runs on the date code, not the receipt date
- Dated stock is picked by the date on the pack rather than the day it arrived, which is the same first-expired-first-out rule that governs supplements. Picking by receipt date on dated goods sends the wrong unit and shortens the life your customer gets.
- A parcel network is a rougher ride than a pallet
- Packaging that survives palletised distribution is not automatically packaging that survives being sorted, tipped and stacked in a parcel stream. Glass, liquids and anything crushable want testing before the first campaign rather than after the first complaints.
Check yourself against this before you call
A product labelled shelf-stable may still have handling or storage limits. Send the specification for review. If your stock requires a controlled temperature, it needs a cold-chain provider rather than this service.
- Shelf-stable at warehouse temperature, and it is a conversation worth having.
- Needs chilled, frozen or a validated temperature record, and it is not. Tell us and we will say so on the first call.
- Not sure which, because the product sits near the line, and that is exactly the call to make early rather than late.
Four questions worth asking any provider
Use these questions to compare providers, including Ecom. Ask for the process and documentation that apply to your products.
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01
Is my product genuinely shelf stable at warehouse temperature, all year, in every building it would sit in?
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02
Who is responsible for the date code being right at receiving, and how is it checked?
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03
Has my packaging been through a parcel network, or only palletised distribution?
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04
What happens to stock that reaches its date on the shelf?
Where this goes next
Other sectors
Ambient, or not?
Tell us what the product is and how it has to be stored. If it is ambient we will take it from there, and if it is not we will say so in the first reply.