Contact: Salimetrics (USA)
A saliva sample is only as good as the condition it arrives in. Samples that thaw, leak, or arrive without a matching roster can compromise your results or delay testing. Following the packing and shipping steps below keeps your cold chain intact from your freezer to ours.
Packing and Shipping Saliva Samples for CoreLab+ Testing
Watch this walkthrough for a full demonstration of how to organize, pack, and ship frozen saliva samples for analysis. Covers sample rosters, dry ice packing, labeling, and carrier requirements.
Saliva Packing & Shipping FAQs
Before packing, fill out your sample roster that records each sample’s order number and sample ID as you place it into the storage box. Don’t leave empty spaces in the box, and save your finished roster as an Excel spreadsheet. Label the front of each box with sequential box numbers.
Swab storage tube boxes use a 7 x 7 divider (49 samples per box); cryovial storage boxes use a 9 x 9 divider (81 samples per box). In both cases, start with sample 1 in the upper left corner and fill left to right, row by row, ending in the lower right corner. Mark the upper left corner of the box and lid to show the starting point, and mark the box number on both the box and the lid.
- A bioshipper: a corrugated cardboard box with an insulating styrofoam insert (1-2″ wall thickness), available from scientific supply companies or Salimetrics
- Cryostorage boxes and dividers (9 x 9 for cryovials, 7 x 7 for swabs)
- Large Ziploc freezer bags (gallon size)
- Newspaper or other packing material
- Paper towels or other absorbent material
- Your Testing Services Order Form and Sample Roster Form
- Dry ice: 5 lbs (2.5 kg) minimum for a small shipment, 10 lbs preferred; larger shipments need more
- Place cryovials into the 9 x 9 grid freezer box, or swabs into the 7 x 7 grid box.
- Secure the freezer box with a rubber band and place it inside a large Ziploc freezer bag with a paper towel, in case of leaks.
- Layer the bottom of the styrofoam container with dry ice.
- Cover the dry ice with a few layers of newspaper.
- Place the bagged sample box on top of the newspaper.
- Place the remaining dry ice on top of the sample box, keeping every box in close contact with dry ice.
- Add another thin layer of newspaper over everything.
- Fill any remaining space with packing material so samples don’t shift as the dry ice sublimates. Pack loosely to the top rather than tightly, and avoid cracking the styrofoam box.
- Place your Testing Services Order Form and Sample Manifest Form inside a Ziploc bag and lay it in the box before closing the styrofoam lid.
- Seal the outer cardboard box with packing tape. Leave the styrofoam box itself unsealed, since trapped CO₂ can crack it during shipping.
If you’re shipping more than one container, number each one and label which boxes are inside it, so container #1 holds the first series of boxes, container #2 the next, and so on. Arrange samples according to the box and grid locations noted on your manifest form to help us process them faster.
Affix a black-and-white dry ice label (UN 1845) to a vertical side of the box, not the top or bottom, and cover it with clear plastic tape so it doesn’t run if exposed to moisture. If shipping FedEx, check “Yes” in the Dangerous Goods box and write in the dry ice weight.
Most saliva samples are Exempt Human Specimens and only need “Exempt Human Specimens” written on the outside of the box. If a donor is known to have HIV, HBV, or another highly infectious pathogen, the sample must ship as an infectious substance (UN 3373, Biological Substance, Category B), which requires additional steps. Contact us ahead of time if this applies.
We recommend FedEx Priority Overnight. If you use a different carrier, confirm their dry ice policy first; UPS does not accept boxes with more than 5.5 lbs of dry ice. Schedule a pickup rather than dropping off, since not every FedEx location accepts dry ice.
Ship Monday through Wednesday so samples don’t sit in transit over the weekend while our lab is closed. Expect more delays during summer and the two weeks before Christmas. Notify the lab before you ship, and note that a weather closure at your institution means we won’t receive your shipment that day.
Our shipping address will be included in the confirmation email sent to you once your study is set up. If you can’t find it, contact your project coordinator or reach out through the Ask an Expert link below.
- Shipping samples that aren’t fully frozen
- Using rubber bands to group bags or tubes, which become brittle and break at cold temperatures
- Sticking labels to the outside of bags, where they fall off
- Placing sample bags directly on dry ice, which can split the bag open
- Overpacking the styrofoam container, which can crack it
These packing steps follow CDC guidelines for transporting biological specimens within the United States, along with US DOT and IATA regulations. Anyone who packages, labels, or prepares shipping declarations for dangerous goods must complete transportation/shipping training every two years and follow DOT/IATA regulations. Many universities have a shipping department or trained staff who can handle this if you’re not personally certified.