Cold Chain Regulations Are on The Rise

By Mary Vessele, Product Marketing Manager, Test & Measurement

Managing a cold chain can be daunting. We can help!

If you have products that you need to transport from point A to point B and they are temperature sensitive, then chances are you are familiar with the cold chain. The FDA has become heavily involved in keeping products safe along the cold chain. In the past, food manufacturers reacted to food contamination issues by holding mass product recalls protecting consumers. I am happy to say, times have changed. No longer is reacting to a food born illness enough to protect our cold chain. The FDA is now instilling strict demands upon manufacturers focusing on the cold chain, trying to be proactive and preventing product recalls.

FDA has the power to oversee the cold chain

In 2011, The Food Safety Modernization Act was passed into law requiring food manufacturers to have a food safety plan in place. The goal of the Food Safety Modernization Act is to prevent illness outbreaks resulting from human and animal food contamination by forcing food manufacturers to do a better job of instilling safe manufacturing practices that prevent food born illnesses. The Act gives the FDA more inspection authority and recall power, enticing food manufacturers to either improve their operations with safer processes or risk being fined or shut down due to a lack of compliance in safety measures. The rule expands the FDA’s reach so now they have the power to oversee the entire cold chain process from farm to fork.

Temperature monitoring enforced by regulations

The hot topic of compliance, regulation, safety and prevention applies to not only the food industry but also to the chemical, drug, clinical, laboratory and life science industries. They all must comply with regulations surrounding the cold chain. For example, the vaccine industry has regulations in place that mandate strict monitoring of temperature for vaccines throughout the entire cold chain. Even a small shift in acceptable temperature ranges can cause vaccines to become virtually ineffective. Regulatory organizations perform standard audits to examine procedures for vaccine storage to ensure the safety and quality of vaccines. Interested in learning more about vaccine regulations? Read more about it.

Sorting out the details

Just about every industry uses the cold chain at some point between the manufacturing process all the way through to distribution to the end user. New regulations seem to be popping up on a regular basis. The cold chain is a very intricate and sometimes complicated series of actions that can look different depending on your industry and products. To help you better understand the intricacies and regulations, we put together a resource page that highlights the important aspects of the cold chain and how Cole Parmer can help you optimize the process.  We hope you can take some time to check out our Cold Chain resource page.

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If you are outside of the US, please contact a Cole-Parmer representative in your region.