Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemafoodservice equipment & supply

Food Storage Containers Attributes

Rigid, reusable bulk storage for commercial kitchens: square, round and rectangular containers from roughly 0.2 qt to 22 qt, ingredient bins and pails up to 12 gal, plus the covers and drain trays that go with them. Buyers are chefs and purchasing managers standardizing a prep line or replacing cracked lids, and E&S dealers speccing a kitchen in AutoQuotes.

The data is hard for one structural reason: the container and its cover are separate SKUs with no relationship in the record. Fit is governed by footprint and product line — one 8 x 8 in. cover seats on the 2, 4, 6 and 8 qt bodies — and that mapping lives in a compatibility chart inside a brochure PDF, not in the feed.

Everything else compounds it. Capacity arrives as qt, L, gal and oz. Material arrives as "Polycarbonate", "PC" and "Camwear". Temperature rating — the number that decides whether hot product goes straight in — sits on the spec sheet while the catalog carries a "Dishwasher Safe" checkbox instead. And the same tooling ships under a national brand and two private labels with no cross-reference.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
identifier
8SFSCW135

The only key that survives across the manufacturer's spec sheet, the AutoQuotes record, the dealer quote and the NSF listing.

Brand / Product Line
text
Cambro CamSquares Classic

Lid fit, stacking lugs and rim geometry are properties of the line, not the brand. Cover compatibility is unresolvable without it.

Product Type
enum
Container (also: Lid, Container/Lid Combo, Drain Tray, Pail, Ingredient Bin)

Separates the body from the cover from the accessory. Buyers filtering for containers should not see 400 lids.

Material
enum
Polycarbonate (also: Polypropylene, Polyethylene, SAN, Stainless Steel)

Drives temperature rating, clarity, BPA status and price. The first facet almost every buyer touches.

Shape
enum
Square (also: Round, Rectangle)

Square maximizes shelf packing; round cools faster and pours cleaner. A genuine workflow decision, not cosmetics.

Capacity
number · qt
8

The primary numeric filter. Must be a number with a unit so the rail can band it, not a string in the title.

Exterior Dimensions (L x W x H)
text · in
8-3/8 x 8-11/16 x 9-1/8 in.

Decides whether it fits the reach-in, the 18 in. shelf and the walk-in rack. Checked before every multi-unit order.

Color
enum
Clear (also: Translucent, White, Purple, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow)

Color-coded stations and allergen segregation are bought by color. Also the largest variant axis in the category.

Case Pack / Sell UOM
text
6/Case

Price, stock and the buyer's expectation all hang on whether the number means one container or six.

GTIN (UPC-A / GTIN-14)
identifier
099511081356 (each); GTIN-14 for the case

Required by every marketplace and data pool. One per color/size, plus a case-level GTIN-14 for the pack.

Country of Origin
enum
United States

Drives duty, Buy American line items on government and school bids, and the 'Made in America' filter buyers use.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Temperature Rating (Min / Max)
range · °F
-40 °F to 210 °F (-40 °C to 99 °C)

Separates polycarbonate at 210 °F from polypropylene at 160 °F. Decides whether hot product can go straight in.

Lid / Cover Type
enum
Snap-On Cover (also: Seal Cover, Gasket-Sealed Cover, None)

A gasketed seal cover and a friction-fit snap cover are different purchases. Airtight is a claim only the former earns.

Compatible Lid MPN / Fits Container Family
identifier
Fits CamSquares Classic 2/4/6/8 qt (8 x 8 in. footprint)

The single highest-value link in the category. Covers fit a footprint and a line, across several capacities.

Graduation Markings
enum
Molded exterior, qt and L

Molded qt and L graduations let cooks portion without a measure. Printed markings wear off in a high-temp warewasher.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

NSF/ANSI Certification
enum
NSF/ANSI 2 and NSF/ANSI 51 listed

Health inspectors and institutional bids ask for it by standard number. Carry the standards, not a vague 'food grade'.

BPA Free
boolean
false (polycarbonate contains BPA)

Many school, hospital and childcare accounts exclude BPA outright. Polycarbonate contains it; the olefins do not.

FDA Food-Contact Resin Citation
text
21 CFR 177.1580 (polycarbonate resins)

The specific CFR clause the resin is cleared under. Requested on institutional and export documentation packages.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most food storage containers catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Supplier signal
+ Compatible Lid MPN / Fits Container Family

Manufacturer brochures publish a lid-to-container compatibility chart as a PDF table. Distributor catalogs carry the container and the cover as unrelated SKUs with no field linking them.

Buyer orders an 8 qt body and a cover that fits the 6 qt round. Cover comes back, the line is re-picked, and the freight on a $4 lid is not recoverable.

Supplier signal
+ Temperature Rating (min / max)

Cambro and Carlisle print -40 to 210 °F on the spec sheet. The catalog record drops the number and substitutes Freezer Safe and Dishwasher Safe checkboxes, so nothing is range-filterable.

A polypropylene container rated to 160 °F ships for a hot-fill application. It distorts on first use and returns as a warranty argument, not a clean return.

Competitor signal
+ Color-Code Designation (what the color means)

Purple means allergen-free across Cambro and Carlisle lines. Catalogs store Color: Purple as cosmetic with no field for the HACCP role, so an allergen search returns every purple SKU.

Allergen-program RFQs from school districts and hospitals can't be filtered or answered, and the line goes to whoever can list allergen SKUs directly.

Search signal
+ Nested and Stacked Height

Buyers ask how many stack under a 21 in. shelf clearance and how tall a nested case ships. Records carry one overall height, which answers neither question.

Wrong stack count on a reach-in or walk-in spec. The shelf plan changes at install and the dealer absorbs the swap and the freight.

Marketplace signal
+ Sell UOM vs Case Pack

Case quantity appears only inside the product title as '6/Case' while the price field is per each. Nothing structured says which unit price and stock refer to.

Marketplace listings get suppressed for pack-quantity mismatch, or the customer is billed six times the expected line. Both end in a credit memo.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way foodservice equipment & supply suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Material
PolycarbonatePCPolycarbCamwear PolycarbonateClear Plastic (PC)Poly-carbonate
Polycarbonate

Material drives temperature rating, clarity and BPA status. Camwear is a product line, not a resin.

Capacity
8 qt.8QT8 Qt7.6 L8 quart256 oz
8 qt (7.57 L)

Store one canonical number plus unit. EU suppliers such as Araven publish litres; the North American trade filters in quarts.

Temperature Rating
-40 - 210 Degrees F-40°F to 210°F-40/210F-40 to 99 CTemp: -40-210
-40 °F to 210 °F

Split into min and max numerics with a unit so the rail can range-filter. A single string can't answer 'will it hold 200 °F soup'.

Lid / Cover Type
Seal CoverSeal LidSealed CoverGasket LidAirtight CoverSeal Cvr
Gasket-Sealed Cover

Suppliers say 'seal' for a gasketed cover and 'snap' for a friction fit. Collapsing both to 'Lid' destroys the airtight filter.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • Which cover fits the 8 qt CamSquare — and does that same cover fit the 6 and the 4?
  • Can I put 200 °F soup straight in this, or does it have to cool first?
  • How many of these fit across a 21 in. deep wire shelf, and how high do they stack?
  • Is this the purple allergen container, or just a purple lid on a standard body?
  • Is the 8 qt sold each or six to a case? The price looks wrong either way.
  • Is it BPA free? My hospital account won't take polycarbonate.
  • Does it have both quart and liter graduations, and are they molded or printed?
  • Is it NSF listed, and under which standard? The inspector asked for the number.

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

AutoQuotes (Revalize)
Manufacturer model numberBrand and product lineList price with effective dateSpec sheet PDFProduct imageWarranty terms
Amazon Business
GTIN (UPC-A or EAN-13)BrandMaterial and colorItem and package dimensionsUnit count / case packCountry of origin
GS1 US / GDSN via 1WorldSync
GTIN-12 each, GTIN-14 caseBrand owner GLNGPC brick codeNet content and unit of measurePackaging hierarchyCountry of origin
Distributor's own faceted search
MaterialShapeCapacity with unitColorTemperature rating min/maxNSF listed flag

Food Storage Containers data, in practice

Is NSF certification a flag or a document?

Both, and they aren't interchangeable. The listing is granted against the manufacturer's model number under NSF/ANSI 2 (food equipment — section 5.30 covers food and flatware containers) and NSF/ANSI 51 (food equipment materials, including plastics). Carry three things: a boolean for the rail, the standard numbers, and the listed model number — because the listing follows the manufacturer's model, not your SKU, and one listing usually spans every color and case pack in the family. Don't infer NSF from 'food grade' or 'FDA compliant'; those are material claims and say nothing about design, construction or cleanability.

Why can't lid fit be derived from capacity?

Because covers fit a footprint, not a volume. One 8 x 8 in. CamSquares cover seats on the 2, 4, 6 and 8 qt bodies — same rim, four depths. Round covers behave the same way, fitting by rim diameter across several quart sizes. Capacity therefore predicts nothing about lid fit, and the relationship exists only in the manufacturer's compatibility chart. Cross-brand fit is worse: a Cambro and a Carlisle square of the same nominal capacity can differ in rim geometry and stacking lugs. Model it as an explicit reference from the cover SKU to the container family plus footprint, and keep capacity out of the join.

Should capacity be stored in quarts or litres?

One canonical numeric with a unit, and quarts is the North American trade unit — the filter rails band it as 0.188-3 qt, 4-6 qt, 8-18 qt, 19-23.2 qt. European suppliers such as Araven publish litres, so convert on ingest rather than dual-storing a text string; 8 qt is 7.57 L. Keep the printed graduation scale as its own attribute, since a container can carry both qt and L markings and rated capacity is measured to the fill line, not the rim. Gallon-rated ingredient bins and pails belong on the same quart numeric with a display override, not in a second field.

What changes in the record between polycarbonate, polypropylene and polyethylene?

Four fields. Temperature rating: polycarbonate runs -40 to 210 °F; polypropylene and polyethylene stop at 160 °F. Clarity: clear, translucent, opaque white. BPA: polycarbonate contains it, the olefins don't — which decides whether the SKU can be quoted to a school or hospital account at all. FDA resin citation: 21 CFR 177.1580 for polycarbonate resins, 21 CFR 177.1520 for olefin polymers, covering both PP and PE. Everything else — shape, capacity, footprint, lid fit — can be identical across all three, which is precisely why material has to be a governed enum rather than free text in the product title.

More foodservice equipment & supply schemas

Commercial CookwareCommercial DishwashersCommercial OvensCommercial RefrigeratorsFood Prep Equipment

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