As the demand for perishable products grows worldwide, efficient and effective cold chain management requires strong partnerships and quick reactions.
Shippers have been managing the challenge of transporting temperature-sensitive goods since the 1700s when British fishermen began using ice to preserve their catch while at sea. The current global market for cold chain products is rapidly expanding.
Georgia Ports Authority executive director Curtis Foltz noted that even with the economic downturn, overall quality of life is improving globally. Along with this, the popularity of the home amateur cook and cooking programmes in general is giving new life to regular ingredients. More than ever, we are becoming aware of what is available to us.
Correctly maintaining the temperature of perishable products is necessary for preserving the quality and safety of food from the point of harvest to the consumer. Failing to maintain the proper shipment temperature of food products can result in textural degradation, discoloring, bruising and microbial growth.
Key considerations and best practices
Since cold chain logistics requires maintained temperature integrity, controlling all of the involved processes means high levels of integration and coordination. From farmer, harvester or producer to the ultimate seller, each supply chain step and partner share responsibility, meaning that there are multiple phases and facilities along the way which contribute to keeping products fresh.
There are a number of speciality doors available for both on-site facilities and transport vehicles which help to maintain temperatures. Multiple times a day a forklift / vehicle operator may be required to exit their vehicle to open a regular manual facility door, then return to their vehicle, drive through the opening and exit the vehicle once again to close the door behind them. The facility loses valuable temperature conditioend air every second that the door remains open longer than it needs to.
The automated High-Speed Rapid Door offers a solution for this by only opening when required and automatically closing once the person, forklift or vehicle has passed through.
Guarding against vulnerabilities
The entire cold chain process should be about minimising the time it takes to move a product through the system. Efficiency is key and vulnerabilities occur if there are delays in moving products from one facility or stage to another.
To manage cold chain shipments well, all parties must foster a strong partnership. A good working knowledge of the best practices for cold chain handling and transportation is required. Food products have to move as fast as possible to give consumers the most valuable, nutritious, wholesome product, with the highest possible shelf life.
Divide and conquer temperature ranges
It is more expensive to cool air than to heat it, making energy savings a recurring theme in cold storage. At the same time, different products require different temperatures: vegetables can be stored at 55°F, dairy products are stored just above freezing at 34°F, meat is stored just below freezing at 28°F and ice cream is stored at –10°F.
For warehouses that require multiple temperature zones or where the mix of products being stored changes with the season, a Temporary Flexwall Dividing wall system is recommended as a flexible, low-risk option that can go up, come down and be moved from building to building as business needs change.
A huge advantage of the Flexwall system is that Rapid Doors can be installed within due to a bespoke supportive frame, so larger vehicles still have access to all areas of the site.
Automate for savings
As the cost of energy, land and labour climbs, operators of cold storage warehouses are increasingly looking to automation to control costs.
Dematic’s director of business development Jeff Hedges said: “There are a growing number of automated point solutions that can drastically reduce escalating operational costs.”
In some instances, automation can reduce space requirements by as much as 50%, energy consumption by 80% and labour as much as 70%.
Those savings are realised in a variety of ways, including automated storage and retrieval systems and automated palletising.
