Cold Chain Management}

Submitted by: KJ Steinhoff

Cold chain management has been known as a way of distributing goods that need to be refrigerated. It generally helps extend the useful life of those perishable goods while they are transported: food, medicines, and anything that might spoil quickly. The objective is to preserve shipment integrity, or prevent spoilage. Cold-stored goods are typically held at 2-8 degrees Celsius, or 35.6-46.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Product begins to spoil as soon as it is harvested since it is no longer connected to a source of water from the plant. Thus, cold storage is necessary to ensure that the product does not spoil along the process each day. Cold chains are useful and practical when the quality is maintained throughout the transport process, from loading until final destination. This ensures that there is quality in the process.

Nowadays the focus has shift from perishables to high tech products. To be able to achieve such temperatures ValuTrack, a leading system integration and consultancy company, has come up with cold management solutions like ClimaTrack. ValuTrack is a technology software company that writes tracking software for various industries including: Food and Beverage, Life Sciences, Education, Healthcare, Government, and Manufacturing; including tracking software for cold chain management applications.

A cold chain should be unbroken. This simply means that there should be no change in temperature for any goods from the point of departure to the point of arrival. Documentation is also necessary to ensure that there is no break in the process.

Decisions on what method to use are based on:

1. The type of business. A pharmaceutical company will have different needs than a fruit company.

2. How safely and securely can the cold chain management procedures be used? Do the procedures promote safety and security?

3. Is the system user friendly and intuitive? Can lower-skilled employees understand how to use the systems in place?

4. Can this system be used optimally? Does the system consume an appropriate amount of energy?

5. Does this system fit in place with existing equipment and procedures, or is new and expensive equipment required?

6. Does this system comply with regulations from governmental agencies such as the FDA?

Cold chain management is simply controlling the logistics of a cold chain. Providing a temperature-controlled environment is important. This may occur with the use of technologies such as: dry ice, gel packs, eutectic plates, liquid nitrogen, quilts, or temperature-controlled containers.

A logistical process can be established to ensure shipment integrity. To do this, one must take into account the following: how the shipment will be prepared, how the shipment will travel, what types of customs procedures the shipment may have to clear, the actual delivery of the products to the customer, and recording of temperature anomalies.

Documentation of temperature in a cold chain is also necessary to establish confidence between shipper and receiver. This is to ensure that there was no change in temperature throughout the process.

Cold chains are useful and practical for many different purposes. Thus, to manage a cold chain takes time and effort to ensure that there is no degradation of quality throughout the process of transport, from shipping point to destination. With the right controls, it is possible to ensure that there is no degradation of quality in the shipment.

For additional information, please visit us at http://www.valutrack.com, or call 866-825-8382.

About the Author: KJ Steinhoff – marketing@valutrack.com |

valutrack.com

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=1151299&ca=Medicines+and+Remedies}