The challenges of properly respecting the cold chain

When building a quality cold chain, it is essential to understand the technical requirements, logistics circuits, transportation routes, shipping routes both domestically and abroad. To comply, learn the basic rules.

Who are the actors involved in the cold chain?

French and European legislation, which applies to all operators in the agri-food industry, provides important guarantees regarding compliance with the cold chain at all stages of manufacturing, storage, transport and distribution of products. products, among others.

The consumer is the final actor in the chain. He must be careful when purchasing and transporting items to his home, as well as managing his refrigerator and freezer, to keep food at the correct temperature until it is ready. are served on the plate. It must support the efforts made upstream by industry specialists such as refrigeration equipment manufacturers such as https://colddistribution.fr/ but also all the other actors.

True traceability must be ensured

When it comes to logistics, traceability is always a very important consideration, but it is even more critical when it comes to cold logistics. Refrigerated food and products must be stored and delivered in accordance with cold chain regulations.

You must be able to monitor and regulate the temperature in real time in your warehouses as well as in your vehicles and your management systems must allow you to do this. But, beyond temperature, you must ensure food safety by tracking dates, batches, risk classes, etc. All information regarding the goods you store and transport on behalf of your customers must be fully up to date.

Responsiveness and vigilance

First of all, receipt of cold goods cannot be delayed. Therefore, it is essential to treat it as quickly as possible. Even if you process the rest of the items afterwards, you must first check when receiving a package for the presence of heat-sensitive products.

It is important to remove any cold pack from the packaging before placing pallets or packages in the cold room to prevent excess cold from freezing your items. Check if any of the packaging has a temperature indication. If you notice that the cold chain has been broken, refuse the packages, as this break can cause significant risks to product quality.

Additionally, acceptance procedures must be meticulously documented and maintained to ensure accountability. Accurately recording the date and time a product is received is essential information.

The Internet of Things: effective solutions

You could make your life a lot easier by implementing connected objects to comply with cold chain requirements. Temperature sensors, for example, make it easy to track product temperatures. By setting alert thresholds, you will be notified as soon as the temperature changes, even by a tenth of a degree Celsius.

In addition to temperature sensors, light sensors can be used to limit the growth of germs in the environment. It is also possible to use geolocation devices to better understand how a breakdown in the cold chain occurred.