The
cold supply chain can be described as a non-interrupted flow of storage and
distribution activities which maintains a given temperature range of perishable
goods. It is used to help extend and
ensure the shelf life of products such as blood, confectionaries, fresh
agricultural produce, seafood, frozen foods, photographic films, chemicals and
pharmaceutical drugs.
It
is the unbroken chain that maintains the freshness of the products from the
farm or the production zone to the consumers.
This process requires refrigeration equipments like truck refrigerated
system, refrigerators, cold storage and reefers.
According to Wikipedia,
“cold chains
are common in the food and pharmaceutical industries and also some chemical
shipments. One common temperature range for a cold chain in pharmaceutical
industries is 2 to 8 °C. But the specific temperature (and time at
temperature) tolerances depend on the actual product being shipped.
This is important in the supply of vaccines to distant clinics in hot climates
served by poorly developed transport networks. Disruption of a cold chain due
to war may produce consequences similar to the smallpox outbreaks in the Philippines during
the Spanish-American War.
Traditionally all historical stability data developed for vaccines
were based on the temperature range of 2–8 °C. With recent development of
biological products by former vaccine developers, biologics has fallen into the same category of
storage at 2–8 °C due to the nature of the products and the lack of
testing these products at wider storage conditions.
The cold chain distribution process is an extension of the good manufacturing practice (GMP) environment that all drugs and
biological products are required to adhere to, enforced by the various health
regulatory bodies. As such, the distribution process must be validated to
ensure that there is no negative impact to the safety, efficacy or quality of
the drug substance. The GMP environment requires that all processes that might
impact the safety, efficacy or quality of the drug substance must be validated,
including storage and distribution of the drug substance.”
Now,
let’s explain the flow of the cold supply chain. We are going to use meat as our product to
explain the flow of the cold supply chain.
The
flow of the cold supply chain is from the production zone, to processing zone
to distribution zone, this includes the supermarkets and wholesalers. Next is
to the retailers and last is to consumers.
Production Zone
On
the production farms, meats are being slaughtered. From there, they store the meat into a cold
storage before their deliver it the processing zone. They use refrigerated trucks to deliver the
meats. This could maintain the
temperature and the freshness of the product.
Processing Zone
On
the processing zone, meats are being cuts, processed and packaged. They use refrigerated container and cold
storage to maintain the meats temperature and freshness. They will also use trucks powered by a
refrigeration system to deliver the processed meats to supermarkets and
wholesalers.
Distribution Zone
On
the supermarkets and wholesalers, they use refrigerated display cases and cold
storage to display and store the meats.
Retailers and Consumers
They
are also using refrigerated display cases and cold storage to display and store
the meats. The consumers buy the meats
from retailers or from the supermarkets.
The
whole cold supply chain process requires the refrigerated truck, refrigerated
container or reefer, cold storage, refrigerators, and refrigerated display
cases in order to maintain the freshness of the products from the harvest to
fork.
Coolaire
Consolidated, Inc.
is your partner in refrigeration such as truck refrigeration system refrigerated
truck body, reefers and air conditioning units.
