The Importance of Transport Refrigeration In Food Safety

The Importance of Transport Refrigeration In Food Safety

In the age of globalization, perishable products such as foods need to be transported safely and fresh. However, it is quite a challenge for items from harvest or production to reach the consumer's end in good condition. The products can get spoiled, lose quality or even become unsafe to consume if not kept within a specific temperature range. This is where the importance of transport refrigeration in food safety comes into play.

Investing in transport refrigeration for food safety can be the ideal decision for a business handling large quantities of goods that are to be transported. In this blog, we explore transport refrigeration, its benefits, best practices, challenges and why it is important for food safety. With this in mind, let's get started!

What is Transport Refrigeration?

Before we go into the details regarding the importance of transport refrigeration, let's talk about what transport refrigeration means. In simple form, transport refrigeration is a process of keeping perishables at the appropriate temperature in which the vehicle or trailer is used for the transport of preserved food items. These can be everything from road-based to sea-based or air-based transportation.

Furthermore, transport refrigeration typically employs the usage of refrigerated units such as insulated cargo compartments and refrigerated systems. The walls of these units are highly insulated to prevent the influence of the outer environment. This system not only cools but also warms as necessary to provide a uniform transport temperature. With the transport refrigeration, everyone can now deliver the goods with a short life span efficiently. 

Role of Transport Refrigeration in Food Safety 

So far, we only discussed the general gist of transport refrigeration. But many of you might wonder about the role of transport refrigeration in food safety. In recent years, these transport refrigerators have grown in great demand as they allow precise control of temperature and humidity. Regardless, the breakdown of the points that highlight the role of transport refrigeration in food safety is as follows.

• Affordable shipping price
• Increased market area
• Compliance with regulation
• Usable for a variety of food products
• Helps in protecting global chain supply
• Contributes to customer satisfaction and trusts
• Emergency and disaster relief

As you might have guessed, these are some of the few roles that justify the importance of transport refrigeration in the cold chain subset of the supply chain. Do note that most of the transport refrigeration is designed to maintain a constant temperature rather than cooling the goods. Therefore, it is essential for products to pre-cool before loading them in.

Importance of Transport Refrigeration in Food Safety

Any food that isn't kept at optimal temperature, even for a while, could pose a risk to public health. Thus, transport refrigeration holds great value for keeping perishable fresh and safe throughout their journey from producers to consumers. Some of the key importance of transport refrigeration are given below.

1. Prevents Bacterial Growth

One of the major importance of transport refrigeration lies in preventing the development of bacteria, which keeps the products fresh for a long time. The spoiled food items such as lettuce, dairy products, and meat appear normal and have no bad smell. While bacterial growth is certainly there, it is not possible to detect from our naked eyes. But as the bacteria begins to flourish, you just cannot reverse the process by refrigeration or freezing the food. This scenario makes temperature control utilizing transport refrigeration essential during transit to slow down the bacteria increasing their numbers.

2. Compliance with Food Safety Standards

When transporting perishable food items, it is important to note that different products need a particular temperature range. This is important for businesses to act according to health and safety regulations as Food & Distributor Agencies (FDA) demand frozen perishable products to be stored at a minimum temperature of 0°F. At the same time, other fresh produce requires maintaining the temperature at 40°F. These steady low temperatures keep food safe and prevent the possibility of the development of bacteria. As a result, you comply with the food safety standards by providing the necessary environment for food storage. 

3. Prevents Food Waste and Cost

Food waste can cause businesses a lot of financial setbacks. Besides wastage, when the cargo shipment with no proper transport refrigeration is damaged, the company is held responsible for compensating the customers. This, in turn, affects the bottom line in case the insurance isn't in place. In order to resolve this issue, installing transport refrigeration improves efficiency, reducing electricity consumption while ensuring the product can be sold before it starts to spoil.

4. Reduces Risk of Contamination

The contamination in food is microscopic and undetectable to the senses of humans. With transport refrigeration logistics that are well-equipped with machinery and skilled personnel, you can move the goods quickly before exposure to the outside temperature. As a result, reliable transport of perishable foodstuff contributes to maintaining customer satisfaction and building trust in the food industry.  

5. Preserves Nutritional Value and Quality

It goes without saying transport refrigeration is not just about reducing the cost but also keeping the nutritional value of food products intact. This is specifically true during the delivery of goods using refrigerated trucks or reefers over long distances or globally.  Although transport refrigeration needs initial investment, in the long run, they ensure the preservation of the integrity as even a slight deviation could harm the texture, taste and nutrients.

Want to Know How Transport Refrigeration Work? Click Here: How Does Transport Refrigeration Work

Best Practice During Transport Refrigeration

Poor care for temperature-sensitive cargo results in temperature fluctuations. This could also disorganize international trading. So, in order to avoid this unpleasant scenario and the rejection of loads, you need to consider several best practices for transporting refrigerated. We have prepared some of the key points to ensure safety of foods at all times.

1. Installing Door Switches

It is a good idea to allow the trailer to shut off before the opening of the doors in the loading cargo. If the refrigerated unit is turned on and the door is open then the hot air enters the trailer area that can deviate the temperature in the cargo area. The trailer with door switches has an automatic switch-off mechanism that turns off the unit as soon as the driver opens the door. Most companies find it useful as a driver often forgets to switch off the cargo during unloading. After installing door switches, you can meet the needs and expectations of the taste, quality and freshness of foods during the loading and unloading process.

2. Promote Airflow and Circulation

Maintaining the steady airflow from the front to the back of the trailer has proven to be crucial in the transport refrigeration system. To do this, installing the chute becomes important as it directs the cold air towards the back before it circulates back to the front. Also, it is advisable not to stack the items close to walls or doors and leave space between the products.

3. Properly loading and Packaging Goods

Good loading and packaging contribute much to the safety and retaining natural quality of the stored food products. Also, mishandling and storage of the food come with economic consequences, such as shortening the shelf life of the products. So you can utilise strong, water-resistant material to protect your goods from damage. It is also a good idea to pile up and stock the products correctly to promote proper airflow and maintain a uniform temperature within the storage space.  

4. Temperature Tracking and Monitoring

Last but not least, to sustain the correct temperature throughout the trailer, you can benefit from an advanced telematics system. By doing this, you equip the trailer with automated sensors that instantly send alerts to the mobile device through Bluetooth connectivity for the driver. Utilising cutting-edge telematics allows us to take swift action for any fluctuation in temperature while minimising downtime and cutting down the expenses of refrigerated transport. 

By now you should be familiar that unusual temperatures can damage food products within the cold storage refrigeration. So, if you follow the above-mentioned steps, then you can be sure to maintain the temperature required from the point of produce to warehouse to distributor to consumers without losing its shelf-life. 

Recommended Blog: Factors Affecting Refrigerated Truck Cost in Nepal

Challenges of Transport Refrigeration

Although refrigeration transport is helpful in food safety, they are, without a doubt, one of the most challenging aspects of commercial refrigeration. These refrigerated systems should be able to handle different types and sizes of loads under various environmental exposures to extreme conditions. That said, let's take a look at the refrigerated transport challenges. 

1. Loading and Unloading operations

One of the major challenges is the operation of loading and unloading of the products. It is clear that refrigerated trucks cannot remain inside the cold storage facility throughout this process. That’s why rather goods are transferred between the refrigerated trucks and the cold storage warehouse. This period of time for perishable goods transfer could be risky in case they are exposed for too long in unsuitable conditions. So, the material used for packaging should be able to withstand the moisture and vertical airflow to keep the desired temperature. 

2. Proper Maintenance of Units

The refrigerated transport needs regular maintenance and constant monitoring to keep the temperature stable. This is because they are designed to transport food products such as dairy products, processed meats, sea foods and vegetables that can spoil if they are not kept at the right temperature. Even the slightest problem in the process could break the cold chain and affect the sales of the particular products. That’s why the companies responsible for the transport of temperature-sensitive goods must operate their units with less or no disruption of any sort. Overall, maintaining the units remains a challenge.

3. Access to a constant and dependable workforce

Nowadays, most companies come across a shortage of truck drivers and qualified workers at cold storage warehouses. This means staff started prioritizing work-life balance. In response, the employees might be ready to leave the full-time job within the transport refrigeration setting mainly due to their family commitments. As a result, the business faces a higher turnover rate, thereby creating further challenges to the seamless transportation chain.

4. Rising fuel prices and operational costs

The companies in transport refrigeration and logistics face common issues in managing the expenses incurred in labour, fuel and operation costs. To put it into perspective, continuously growing uncertainty and fluctuation of the fuel present a budget problem. Getting specialised units for the equipment and container, once again, requires spending a lot of money upfront adds more to price tags.

These are key challenges of refrigerated transport that can directly influence the quality of food stored in the cargo. Therefore, it's not surprising that transport refrigeration requires a high level of system performance in most harsh conditions to find the balance to keep everything fresh during transport.

Conclusion

In conclusion, transportation refrigeration is a key part of modern industries with the objective of supplying consumers with safe and high-quality perishable foods. They have easily connected remote production sites with the larger population. Also, they support sustainable environmental practices as long as the best refrigeration considerations are met. Overall, the transport refrigeration system has greatly advanced with improved efficiency, allowing businesses to expand their market area. 

In this blog, we discussed the importance of transport refrigeration in food safety. We hope you find this helpful. If you seek further insight into other aspects of transport refrigeration, then check out some of our other blogs. And if you want the best cold storage manufacturer in Nepal, feel free to contact us at Nepcool. Thank you for reading till the end!

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• Safeguarding Health : The Role of Cold Storage in Pharmaceuticals
  

FAQs on Importance of Transport Refrigeration In Food Safety

1. How to transport refrigerated goods?

In order to transport refrigerated goods, you have several options to choose from, including refrigerated vehicles and containers, regardless of the steps that are involved in the transport process.

• Packaging
• Loading 
• Transporting 
• Checking temperature

2. What is the demand for refrigerated transport?

Refrigerated transport allows for precise temperature and humidity control throughout the cold chain supply.  This preserves perishable goods and builds trust in the food industry.  The increase in food safety and reduction of economic loss means more value to its demand.

3. Who invented transport refrigeration?

Frederick Jones invented transport refrigeration.

4. How does Nepcool ensure compliance with food safety regulations?

Nepcool takes advantage of innovative cooling transport refrigeration that meets the needs and expectations of the taste, appearance and safety of the foodstuff. As a leading cold storage and transport refrigeration manufacturer in Nepal, we look to develop temperature-controlled transport that transfers perishables with high efficiency from the point of production to distributor and retail customers. By taking the help of the best monitoring practices, proper storage practices and cold rooms, we ensure your business compliance with food safety regulations and health. 

5. What maintenance is required for Nepcool refrigeration systems?

Nepcool specializes in designing refrigeration units that fit all vehicles with quality and of unique, reliable, and easy to use. Aside from that, some of the maintenance required for the Nepcool refrigerated system include.

• Checking refrigerant levels
• Cleaning drain lines
• Inspecting compressor, temperature, and pressure
• Inspecting electric components
• Inspecting evaporator fans
• Checking door seals
• Cleaning fanbases
• Defrosting the units