Cold Chain is Growing: Improving food safety in the warehouses
With record high temperatures in the last few years it has come to no surprise that cold chain demand is growing.
According to Cold Chain Market Report, the global cold chain market is estimated at USD 203 billion in 2018 and is projected to grow at a CAGR(Compound annual growth rate) of 7.6% by 2023.
The global growth of the cold chain is due to many reasons, such as:
- Increasing consumer demand for higher quality and safe produce
- Growth of international trade for perishable food
- Increase in awareness about the prevention of food wastage before consumption
- A major increase in concerns about food borne illness that can be prevented or reduced by refrigeration
Increasing safety at one of the largest warehouses in northern Taiwan
As we deployed our TEMPHAWK solution in one of the largest warehouses in Northern Taiwan, we learned that there are three main challenges that cold chain face: data records, monitoring, and meeting regulations.
How is the products safety data is being recorded?
Writing down the temperature and humidity data of the warehouse isn’t an issue; the problem is, records show that the workers either forget to do it or make a typo. This leads to inaccuracy in record keeping and ultimately affect the quality of the food. The growing demand for imported goods
How are products being monitored?
How food is being monitored has plagued the food supply chain for years. Despite the fact that the existing technology nowadays seems to provide a solution for the cold chain industry, it is usually cost-prohibitive and ineffective in deployment. In addition to this, the computer skill of the employees at the warehouse level imposes a barrier for companies to adopt newer solutions as fast as the next shipment of food comes in.
How is cold chain meeting regulatory policies?
Complying food safety regulation is a continuous challenge for cold chain which means the quality of the product must meet the standard if they wish to continue offering their products to consumers and avoid substantial fines. In many countries they follow industry standards such as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), ISO 9,000 and ISO 22,000; among many other local and regional policies.
Solution
The TEMPHAWK solution can digitally transforms the temperature and humidity record into the cloud. This gives the warehouse an opportunity to optimize their operation; by providing visibility of the warehouse 3 temperature, behaviour. The quality assurance department needs to spend less than 30min generating the reports required for insurance claims.
By providing real time monitoring, not only did TEMPHAWK helped reduce the perishable goods loss, but also help workers be more aware of the situation in the warehouse allowing them to move the inventory faster. Furthermore, TEMPHAWK solution is easy-to-deploy. The total time of deploying a TEMPHAWK device was just about 5 minutes. This means it the total time required to deployed 100 units is less than 8 hours.
The most common regulation in the food supply chain is HACCP regulation. To follow HACCP regulation, the businesses are required to take records of temperature and humidity 6 time hourly. TEMPAHWK solution reads data every 10 minutes which helped the warehouse to comply with HACCP regulation in just a fingertip.
References
Cold Chain Market. (2019, October 17). Retrieved from https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cold-chains-frozen-food-market-811.html.
Author: Kaitlyn Wu
Editor: Yadia Colindres
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