Supply Chain & Logistics Basics:Maintaining End-to-End Cold Chain Integrity

By Angela Carver

Importance of Cold Chain Integrity

• Refrigerated and frozen inventory such as food or pharmaceuticals are often consumed directly by the end-customer. Any impropriety or mistake in temperature integrity can lead to widespread sickness or death.

• According to the text about 10% of drugs are temperature sensitive. Any variation in temperature during delivery can cause these drugs to be ineffective or harmful. There have been reported cases of death due to the mishandling of these types of cold chain pharmaceuticals.

• 2015 alone saw record numbers of food product recalls due to bacterial contamination that could be derived from improper temperature maintenance including

Cold Chain Globalization Challenges

reported that the US FDA estimates 10-15% of all food consumed in the U.S. is imported. Food exports are also on the rise.

• The globalization of the supply chain presents new challenges for cold chain operators in that they must meet the stringent regulatory requirements, not only for the U.S., but those of the final destination.

• Maintaining regulatory compliance for the extended global supply chain creates more opportunities for failure and/or complications.

Regulation Impacting Cold Chain Operations

• In order to prevent illnesses and death related to improper temperature regulation, many governmental bodies have intervened creating new legislation or making changes to existing statutes.

• Some of the most notable regulations impacting cold chain operations include:– Sanitary Food Transportation Act

– Food Safety Modernization Act

– EU Good Distribution Practices

• These regulations require all parties involved in the manufacture, storage, transportation and sale of refrigerated and frozen products to closely monitor and track all temperature and handling related inventory data.

How Can You Solve These Challenges?

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Inventory Pre-Cooling – Continuous cooling of a trailer or reefer can be hard on the refrigeration equipment and cause more frequent break downs that result in inventory spoilage.

• To reduce wear and tear on refrigeration equipment and guarantee temperature consistency, many refrigerated and frozen warehouse and distribution facilities pre-cool inventory before shipment preparation.

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Trailer Condition Monitoring – Due to the globalization of the cold chain, inventory can be in transit for weeks rather than days, presenting many opportunities to create an unfit cold storage environment.

• Monitoring devices are often installed inside trailer units to monitor temperature. These devices can send automated alerts for any temperature variations outside of designated acceptable limits.

• Manual checks are also recommended in order to verify cleanliness between use and condition of insulation and refrigeration equipment. Often times contracts are required to guarantee trailers have not previously been used to carry less than desirable inventory loads that could potentially cause contamination.

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Packaging Optimization – Every cold chain shipment has a different set of variables that can impact the condition of inventory and its shelf life. Packaging manufacturers have developed a variety of solutions to meet every cold chain packaging need. Some of the top cold chain packaging technologies include:

– Dry ice – often used to manage temp of air cargo

– Gel packs – can be used frozen or refrigerated, but maintain internal temperature for long periods

– Eutectic plates – similar to gel packs, but can be reused

– Liquid nitrogen – often used to cool biologics, stay cool for long periods

– Quilts – acts as a buffer to keep temperature constant by insulating inventory

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Packaging Optimization – details an advancement in temperature sensitive packaging that is often more efficient than traditional shipping products.

• These vacuum insulated panels provide highly reliable thermal protection, allows for longer shipping duration and requires less material for manufacture.

• Although initially this is a more costly solution, some manufacturers offer refurbishment programs that reuse materials and sell back to shippers at a fraction of the price.

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Inventory Temperature Monitoring – Trailer temperature monitors do not have the capability to record inventory condition on a piece by piece or pallet by pallet basis. Many shippers often opt to utilize inventory temperature monitors to take the guess work out of determining cold chain inventory quality.

• These devices can monitor the condition of inventory not only through transportation stages, but also during loading/unloading, storage and receiving.

• There are many areas for potential cold chain integrity breaches and inventory temperature monitors assist in identifying these breaches before they become issues.

Cold Chain Best Practices & Tools

• Standard Operating Procedures (Receiving) – During transport and storage is not the only instance in the cold chain where integrity breaches can occur. Retailers also have a responsibility to ensure the quality and safety of products they accept into their stores.

• In order to prevent hazardous items from reaching the hands of consumers many retailers have developed standard operating

procedures for receiving and inspecting inbound shipments.

• Many retailers also require transporters to utilize trailer seals to ensure no tampering or contamination occurs during shipping. These seals are only opened upon delivery to the retailer.

Conclusion

• The released their Global Cold Storage Capacity Report that showed cold storage capacity has experienced steady growth since 2014.

• With increases in storage capacity comes increases in refrigerated logistics making these best practices a more critical focus than ever before.

• Do not let your cold chain fall behind in an industry providing significant growth opportunities.

To learn more about cold chain best practices and how to integrate them into your supply chain operation

contact Datex experts today.

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