The hidden value behind the cold chain process

cold chain process

By Mary Vessele, Product Marketing Manager, Test & Measurement, Cole-Parmer

What is a cold chain?

Cold chain is a universal term used by just about every industry but carries many unique qualities depending on the user. It is the process of transporting goods from the point of harvest to the point of the consumer and ensuring the product is maintained within a specified temperature range along the route. The definition makes me think of the food industry. It is obvious how important it is to the food industry to keep items cold. In actuality, this process is used by all industries that need to keep their products in a specific temperature range. This chain can look different from industry to industry. It can also have different levels of importance to the products being transported based on what the product is, what regulations are involved, and where the products are traveling. Cold chain is a current “hot” topic. The market is expected to grow 15% by the year 2025, it is a $167.99 billion industry!1

How the cold chain process works today

The cold chain industry has become much more than just keeping products cold from point A to point B. It is an integral process involving science and technology working together to ensure temperature-sensitive items are kept at a specific temperature range from the time they are placed into cold storage through to their destination points. The cold chain has evolved with new technology and tracking capabilities that enhance the quality, safety, and efficiency of products. How would a manufacturer improve the safety of their temperature-sensitive products during all of the different phases of the manufacturing and distribution process without having to invest in a time-consuming, costly hard-wired system? It would be ideal if the same technology could be used for all phases of the manufacturing process to monitor the temperature and humidity of their goods.

With the ability of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to audit the cold chain at any time, it would be ideal if your process was monitored with a system that would allow you to pull data showing a history of data to track the temperature of products. Having your products monitored around the clock and being able to check the data to see that the correct temperature is being maintained would give you great peace of mind, especially when the FDA is involved. Today’s technologies are providing options to industries that are not only helping them provide reliable monitoring solutions along the cold chain but also giving them the capabilities and the benefits of IoT to improve record keeping, trend analysis and accountability.

The value Cole-Parmer brings to the cold chain

We play a very important role in helping industries optimize the cold chain so I would like to take some time to discuss the value we bring to this important process. Cole-Parmer can help optimize your specific cold chain by providing temperature monitoring devices to help monitor the temperature of products at any stage in your cold chain process. The devices can provide a record of temperature ranges throughout the journey ensuring that the products are adhering to regulations, providing peace of mind and compliance. Our products can not only monitor temperature ranges during a shipment or while being stored in a warehouse or facility, but the data can be downloaded and stored for analysis to determine out-of-range conditions. This can be very important to industries that need to ensure products are sustained at the quality level needed to provide optimal performance.

Cole-Parmer can enhance the cold chain by providing a number of different solutions to help all industries adhere to regulations, and quality control and compliance ensuring that goods are optimally traveling through the cold chain safely. Not only do we have the products to support the cold chain industry, but we have the expertise as well. Our team of scientific experts has the knowledge and the experience to make recommendations as to what is the best products to use at different stages of the cold chain. We are committed to our customers and would like to enhance the quality of your goods no matter if you are in the upstream or downstream phase of the cold chain.

Reference:

  1. Grandview Research, (March, 2019) Cold Chain Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Transportation, Monitoring Components, Storage), By Packaging, By Equipment, By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 – 2025, Retrieved from (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cold-chain-market, Accessed August 12, 2019.

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