Optimizing cold chain management is a crucial step for all companies that handle temperature-sensitive products such as fresh and frozen foods, medicines, cosmetics, and chemicals.
Especially In the food industry and large-scale retail trade, the impact of new consumer habits and the exponential growth in the movement of perishable goods require industry players to constantly monitor their performance in the cold logistics management and the need to constantly update strategies and technologies employed, always keeping fixed the primary goal of ensuring food quality and safety.
Optimizing cold logistics, however, is not always straightforward; there are many variables in the field as well as the players involved throughout the cold chain. Certainly each case is on its own, but we have prepared a list with 5 practical tips for improving cold chain management to meet consumers’ increasingly high expectations.
Cold chain in Italy and Europe, guarantee of food safety
Every practitioner in the industry is familiar with what is the cold chain and knows that Italian (and European) regulations impose timely and strict requirements to make sure that all the temperature-controlled supply chain Is conducted according to high standards to ensure the proper food storage, from production to final consumption, so much so that the interruption of the cold chain can lead to sanctions, also heavy.
Just to give a few examples, the cold chain of fresh produce like cheeses, various dairy products and some preparations of meat cannot rise above 4 degrees, while for the cold chain of frozen food such as fish and ground meats the limit is -18 degrees at the core of the product.
These parameters must be maintained throughout the cold supply chain:
- Production and first storage
- Manufacturer’s storage
- Transportation and storage in distribution centers
- Transportation to outlets
- Storage and point-of-sale display
- Possible home delivery
For each product the cold chain must be maintained according to the specific temperature, it is the guarantee of food safety, allows the organoleptic properties of food to remain intact and prevents the proliferation of bacteria and microorganisms harmful to health.
But not only that, optimized cold logistics management also means avoiding substantial economic losses, optimizing energy costs and reducing the impact on the environment.
How to improve cold chain management
To ensure food safety and optimize cold chain management, it is essential to adopt some best practices.
Warehouse optimization
The first step to better manage cold logistics is to make warehouse performance perfect, at all levels of the supply chain.
Working in temperatures often below freezing can compromise the productivity of the human resources employed, in this the support of technology is crucial, so the advice is to equip yourself with automation systems efficient and innovative that speed up and facilitate handling, an example being pallet stacker cranes, various horizontal conveyor systems, or voice picking that allows machinery to be operated by voice alone when the use of gloves would make this more problematic.
In warehouses, the racking system can also affect performance, so equipping yourself with compactable shelves on mobile bases to optimize space and energy consumption and not only that, also use compressors, evaporators and ventilation systems promotes the maintenance of moisture levels required by the maintaining the cold chain.
Refrigerated transport efficiency
Often the concrete needs of small carriers, couriers, logistics operators, and large-scale retailers clash with currently popular solutions.
The refrigerated transport industry, however, is changing fast, and for the future (and present) the path is set and marks the course toward flexibility and simplification with the use of increasingly smaller vehicles and energy-optimizing technologies.
This is the case with COOOL® FreeToGo, the innovative green solution developed by our Group, which is revolutionizing refrigerated road transport by harnessing the refrigeration power of CO2 R-744 for last-mile transportation. This solution makes it possible to convert transport vehicles into efficient refrigeration systems that can bring down temperatures 10 times faster than conventional vehicles, and maintain them consistently throughout the journey, for both fresh and frozen food.
Find out in more detail how it works.
On the other hand, for refrigerated transport in roll containers, our solution is COOOL® RollBox, a modern system that is more versatile and efficient than systems adopting eutectic plates, providing higher frigorifications and consistency in cold release due to the cooling power of solid CO2. Thanks to this technology, cold chain management is simplified: there is no need to pre-cool or handle heavy loads, simply recharge the system via the injector, refrigeration is immediately available.
Find out in more detail how it works.
Store optimization
For the large-scale retail trade, it is also necessary (and recommended) to intervene at the store, where the refrigerated counter represents the asset par excellence of cold logistics, but at the same time also one of the elements that needs the most energy.
In order to comply with European compliance and in particular the F-GAS Regulation, retail operators must equip their stores with next-generation refrigeration systems, facing a crossroads:
- Maintain existing refrigeration units and replace the most impactful gases with specially developed retrofit fluids.
- Replace completely with new installations with lower environmental impact. The choice, for new openings or renovations, is increasingly to rely on natural refrigerant gases.
What makes the difference, however, again is definitely the choice of the system, the installation company, but also from the raw material used by the latter, since refrigerant gases are not all the same. Even among natural refrigerants themselves, CO2 above all, the origin determines their quality.
Constant monitoring of temperatures
To be sure that the cold chain is best managed, it is necessary to provide systems for constant monitoring of temperature and humidity at all stages
This is possible thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) and modern sensor systems that can detect all the necessary parameters in real time and communicate the data to connected centralized management systems.
In case of problems, having everything under control markedly affects the ability to intervene faster, repair emergencies, and plan structural optimization interventions.
Human resources training
But technology alone is not enough, because human intervention in cold weather logistics management remains ever important and crucial.
Therefore, the last piece of advice is to put a lot of emphasis on continuous training of employees to improve the quality and results of work.
From the worker to the manager, a qualified and up-to-date resource ensures efficiency, is able to interact more confidently with new technologies, and minimizes risks to the company and itself, because when it comes to logistics and particularly in the cold chain, any mistake can be very significant.
Cold logistics: relying on qualified partners always pays off
A large part of consumer satisfaction, a brand’s reputation, and consequently a company’s success can depend on proper cold chain management.
This is why it is crucial to choose the right partners or suppliers who guarantee experience and maximum vertical expertise in managing one or more stages of the supply chain.
Thanks to almost a century of experience in the field of technical gases, at SIAD we have developed specific solutions in the field of refrigerated transport for the food industry with environmentally friendly technologies that contain consumption, are flexible, quiet and suitable for every urban center.
Learn more about our offer or to find out more write to: foodandbeverage@siad.eu
