How does Ambient Profile Affect the Taste of Fresh Food in Southeast Asia?

Southeast Asia is a major trading region for not only the Asia Pacific Region but also serves as the bridge between America and Europe. When food travels hundreds of miles to its final table it is important to ensure its flavor freshness is maintained till the last mile.

FOX-TECH CO.

Published in

FOX-TECH CO

5 min readJul 16, 2020

Author: Yadia Colindres

In Southeast Asia (SEA) exports account for a large percent of the SEA countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In Thailand, 60% of the 2017 GDP. [NIKKEI Review]
In Singapore, 176% of the 2018 GDP [The Global Economy]
In Malaysia, 68.76% of the 2018 GDP [The Global Economy]
In Indonesia, 20.97% of the 2018 GDP[The Global Economy]

Exporting fresh food (fruits, vegetables, and meats) to other SEA countries

Thailand is one of the world leaders in the exportation of rice, seafood, and sugar. As of Q1'2020 Thailand has exported over USD 1.18B in goods. Thailand plays a key role in exporting foods to Europe and America, but also in the inter Asia trade. The exporters in Asia are highly competitive. It allows for fresh goods shipments from Malaysia to arrive in Singapore in half a day. In 2 days they can arrive from Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand. Exporters need to be able to guarantee the quality and freshness of the goods to give them a competitive edge.

What is a temperature ambient profile?

It is the air temperature of any product in the environment where its stored. This environment can be the cargo container, chiller, cardboard/wooden boxes. This profile is important to any perishable goods for its shipment and storage. A well maintained ambient profile can help extend the shelf life of the product.

What does a detailed thermal profile do for logistics and warehouses?

A detailed ambient profile may help optimize the logistics procedure to help extend the shelf life of the goods. By using the environmental data with geolocation, businesses can get the temperatures at which the goods transported. Then the collected data can be compared to the required safety temperatures dictated by the local and international authorities. Using this information businesses can pinpoint which routes and periods their goods are over expose to temperature.

Take for example the Thai mango and bananas which come into season from April through June. They are popular among consumers around the world. When the consumer goes to their local supermarket in Malaysia, Hong Kong or even the USA they are expecting to shop for a fresh juicy mango. But before they arrive to the Hong Kong supermarket they must undergo a series of safety and logistic procedures.

When the mango is harvested it must undergo a Vapor Heat Treatment (VHT) to kill fruit fly larvae and pathogens. The VHT is at 47ºC for 20 min with a humidity between 50–80%. Ensuring the proper temperature during this process takes care of the safety of the fruit and prepares it for export.

Once the fruit undergoes VHT it is then packed on a safety net (to prevent bruises) and shipped to a local distribution site. In the local distribution site they are placed in chillers which help suspend the maturity of the fruit. The temperature must not fall below 10ºC to prevent frostbite. The logistics company then moves the fruit from the chiller to a refrigerated truck to transport it internationally.

Singapore Food Agency Recommended Safe Temperature by type

How does it impact the fresh food flavor?

What makes great fruit standout from others? Its the richness in its flavor. This is achieved by a combination of genomics, biochemistry, and biotechnology. Ambient profile post harvest and best safety practices can help preserve this flavor.

A data analytics platform for the industry

FOX-TECH enables f&b business owners to streamline the supply chain process through a combination of high-tech tools and data analytics. They have helped farms, logistics, and warehouse owners to monitor, track, and improve their risk management and policy compliance . FOX-TECH empowers business owners to have the required data alerts when needed, while also providing global monitoring coverage.

Temphawk, an industrial grade temperature and humidity monitor designed by FOX-TECH is meant for a variety of industries, of which includes warehouse and logistics. Warehouses and logistic customers in the SEA region can see a reduction of least 5% of food waste and a saving of at least US$ 100,000 per year. Ensuring optimal operations in an export warehouse and logistics is critical for the business. The real time updates on the ambient profile of the goods leads to faster response time by the workers. Thus, ensuring less goods are damaged and become food waste.

Full value chain integration: deploy one solution from farm to last-mile delivery in the APAC region.
Real-time alerts: proactively monitor your supply chain and reduce up to 30% of the food waste.
Cloud base data analytic: take the data with you whenever you need them and reduce the time of policy compliance by over 33%
Food Safety Compliance Report Ready: Platform can provide HACCP and ISO2200 compliant reports for temperature-sensitive perishable goods. Reduce the time spent by 80%.

As Southeast Asia’s export sector continues to flourish, an investment into smart technology such as FOX-TECH’s Temphawk would help save time and energy, while making efficient use of resources. This device could potentially be a boom to the region’s fresh goods production.

Learn More about TEMPHAWK www.temphawk.net

More articles on the impact of temperature in the supply chain