In Wisconsin, a food warehouse is any building, room or structure used to store food, and it needs its own state license from the agriculture department, DATCP. The exceptions are narrow: a grain-only warehouse, a store or restaurant holding food on its way to being sold or served there, and storage inside a licensed food plant, dairy plant or meat establishment used mainly for its own ingredients and products. So a food maker's plant license covers the back room, but not a rented storage bay across town. The license costs $80 a year for dry storage under 50,000 square feet, $120 if it holds food that needs refrigeration for safety, and up to $320 for large cold storage; each location has its own license, and every license runs out June 30. It comes with record rules a small maker can keep: each lot received with who shipped it and the carrier, each lot removed with where it went, kept two years, and each lot marked "Rec'd" with the date. FDA counts the warehouse as its own facility, with its own registration. In the example below, an Appleton cookie maker rents storage for its grocery orders.
The short version
- A food warehouse is any place used to store food; Wisconsin licenses each one.
- Storage inside your licensed plant, for your own products, is covered by the plant license; a separate building isn't.
- $80 a year for dry storage under 50,000 sq ft; $120 for refrigerated food; $160 and $320 for big ones.
- Licenses expire June 30; a new one issued between March 30 and June 30 runs to June 30 of the next year.
- Record each lot in and out, with shipper, carrier, destination, units, quantity and dates; keep them two years.
- Mark each lot with the warehouse's name and address and "Rec'd" with the date.
- TaroStack records each lot in and out, by date and customer. More below.
Does your storage need a license?
| Storage | License? |
|---|---|
| A back room or cooler in your licensed food plant, for your own products | No: the plant license covers it |
| A rented storage bay or second building | Yes |
| A grocery store's stockroom | No: it's retail |
| A barn holding only grain or raw crops | No |
| A building where you store food for other companies | Yes; storing for hire can also need a public warehouse license |
Other states handle storage in their wholesale or distributor licenses, such as Minnesota's in food distributor license. The plant license itself is in food processing license.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| What a food warehouse is | Any warehouse used to store food, with the exceptions above (Wis. Stat. 97.27(1)) |
| The license | A license for each food warehouse, expiring June 30, not transferable (97.27(2)) |
| Fees | $120 or $320 for potentially hazardous food, $80 or $160 for others, under or at least 50,000 sq ft; reinspection $115, $300, $100 or $200; $100 surcharge plus past fees for running without a license (ATCP 71.02) |
| Receiving and marking | Inspect deliveries; mark each lot with the warehouse's name and address and Rec'd with the date (ATCP 71.05) |
| Rotation and cold | Stock rotation with records adequate for it; refrigerated potentially hazardous food at 40°F or below (71.05(6), (7)) |
| Records | Each lot received, in storage and removed, with shipper, carrier, owner, destination, units, quantity and dates, kept 2 years (ATCP 71.06) |
| FDA | A separate location is its own facility (21 CFR 1.227); storing only packaged food skips the preventive controls, except temperature controls for refrigerated food (21 CFR 117.7) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a storage bay for cookies
Fox River Cookie Co., the made-up cookie maker in Appleton, Wisconsin, I use in these examples, ships about 210 cases of chocolate chip cookies a week to a regional grocery chain and ran out of room at its licensed plant. In October it rented an 1,800 square foot dry storage bay across town for finished cases and flour, and found the plant license didn't reach it:
| Step | What it took |
|---|---|
| Food warehouse license | $80: dry food, under 50,000 sq ft; runs to June 30, 2027 |
| FDA registration | The bay registered as its own facility |
| Marking | A tag on each pallet: the warehouse, Appleton, Wisconsin, Rec'd 10-12-26 |
| Records | Each lot in, from the plant or the flour mill; each lot out, to the chain's warehouse or back to the plant |
On October 18 the bay held 30 cases of the October 14 cookies, 70 of the October 16, and 30 bags of flour. The oldest cases go out first, which the state's rotation rule asks for and the chain wants anyway. Lot numbers on the cases are in how to create lot numbers, and what the FDA registration takes in FDA food facility registration.
Get the workbook
Download the food warehouse workbook. Four sheets. License: whether a storage place needs a license, and the yearly, reinspection and late fees. Received: each lot with its shipper, carrier, units, quantity and owner; the Rec'd marking fills in. Removed: each lot out with its destination. On hand: what's left of each lot and how long it's been there, the oldest shaded. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
A log in the bay and the plant's own records are two books for the same cookies. When a case goes from the bay to the chain and nobody writes it down, the on-hand count is wrong, and a recall has to start with a walk through the pallets.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records each lot in and out, by date and customer.
Sites. The plant and the storage bay are two sites, and moving cases between them is a transfer, so each site's stock is its own.
Lots in and out. Each lot comes in with its supplier and date, and goes out on an order with its customer and date.
Oldest first. First-expired-first-out is the default, so the oldest cases go out first.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Each lot received | The log in the bay | Receiving by supplier and lot |
| What's in the bay | A walk through the pallets | Stock by site |
| Where a lot went | The log, if written | Orders by lot and customer |
Lots and first-expired-first-out are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard, at $99 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.