Does Your Food Product Require Cold Chain Management?

By Melissa Lind, contributing writer

Not all the products you think require cold chain shipping and storage actually do. However, determining if your products should utilize cold chain logistics isn’t just a guessing game, it entails controlled, science-based analysis.

Obviously, transporting and storing food products through the cold chain is considerably more expensive and has a higher environmental footprint than traditional shipping and storing. Understandably, some products — fresh produce, meat, poultry, dairy, and frozen foods — require cold chain management. However, other factors, such as package integrity, should be considered to determine if the cold chain is the right choice for your food product.

Deciding whether your food product can arrive on grocers shelves safely can be tricky and may require testing. While some food manufacturers and processors may feel that testing may be unnecessary and using traditional shipping may suffice, an external study based on scientific methods will give you a much better, predictable, and accurate view of your food product’s shipping and storage requirements.

Laboratory service companies offer services for the food industry in determining logistics requirements. By conducting controlled, scientific studies, these labs can study the utilization of   cold chain logistics in comparison to traditional shipping methods and determine if your products are safe in non-refrigerated transportation methods and storage. Controlled testing compares captured data from one method to the same type of data to another. It is then analyzed through statistical methods to identify any real-world differences in a quantitative and qualitative manner.

A professional organization specializing in this type of testing can closely mimic a variety of conditions, allowing for an accurate assessment and can likely do it more efficiently than the food maker. Most food companies do not have the time, resources, or expertise to conduct internal testing and analyze resulting data in an accurate, unbiased, and scientific manner.

When considering the safety of your food product, science and statistical measurements are necessary. Asking “Is the packaging enough to preserve the product?” won’t do. Not only can you not easily identify minute degradation of the package or product, you can’t even be certain what impact that may have on expiration date, quality of the product, or its safety.