Cold Chain management & Monitoring

1. Cold Chain management &Monitoring What is cold chain monitoring? A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain established to provide an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage and distribution processes. Equipment and logistics are also critical in maintaining a desired range of low temperatures. Regardless of the industry, the product, or the structure of the cold chain itself, each hand-off within the supply chain exposes products to potential risk. Consistent cold chain temperature monitoring and data logging are important to understand whether the product has been compromised as it reaches the consumer. Workers responsible for managing the cold chain have access to new technology to track temperatures in these controlled environments. With cold chain monitoring devices, workers can keep an eye on temperatures and ensure they remain within predetermined and, in some cases, regulated ranges. Maintaining consistent temperatures throughout the supply chain Manufacturing Beyond simply wanting to provide consumers with the safest product of the highest quality, industries such as food and pharmaceuticals are required to use cold chain monitoring and data logging beginning with manufacturing to comply with federal regulations. Government agencies audit these industries periodically to ensure compliance and customer safety. Vaccines, for example, are monitored very strictly as even the slightest fluctuation in temperature can render certain vaccines ineffective. Transportation As goods are being transported, changes in temperature can occur. Cold chain monitoring during transport is particularly important and can now be customized according to the product. Data loggers are now disposable, waterproof and pre-calibrated. This allows for increased convenience for cold chain monitoring in a variety of environments, including damp, wet or icy scenarios. Unlimited amounts of data can be downloaded to a mobile device in CSV or PDF format. Customs When managing a global cold supply chain, suppliers of temperature-sensitive products must often clear customs before the shipment can be delivered to the final destination. This adds to the total time of delivery.

2. Cold chain service providers are skilled in handling customs paperwork in order to expedite processing. Storage Before, during and after transportation, products will be stored for a period of time. Retail/end-user Different end-users have different preferences when it comes to receiving deliveries of cold shipments. Traditional cold chain packaging and transportation solutions have several limitations in terms of cost- efficiency, capability, and capacity. These limitations put a ceiling on your ability to detect and respond to the much vulnerability along the cold chain supply route. To strike the perfect cost balance between functionality and cost effectiveness for your unique product requirements, it is advisable to deploy an effective monitoring and data logging solution. Critical considerations for effective cold chain monitoring Transporting cold chain shipments is a delicate balance of maximizing safety while minimizing cost. Many organizations are forced to forgo some features of cold chain transport in order to manage costs. It is critical to understand the variety of options and considerations and priorities which are most critical for your business needs. 1 - Comprehensive temperature data Proactive is always better than reactive. Finding out that temperatures were not maintained, when there is nothing you can do about it, is unacceptable. Seeing temperature excursions in real-time, however, provides the opportunity to take action in cases where direct action is possible. While acting in-transit might is often not possible, those using static cold containers, like kitchen fridges, have a chance to intervene, prevent your products from approaching the point of no return and minimize losses. Real-time data is available, so accessing it and utilizing it is a must. 2 – Real-time data Temperature isn’t the only data you need in order to ensure your product arrives in optimal condition. Even if temperature is where it needs to be, what if your cold chain products are sensitive to vibration and the truck’s suspension is shot or the route included an extremely bumpy highway? Consider products that are typically transported via cold chains:

3.  fresh produce  meat products  pharmaceutical compounds  delicate vaccine vials To complete the journey without incident, such products can have unique cold chain requirements including:  ambient light  tilt  shocks  scan location  humidity Monitoring for these and a variety of additional considerations effectively ensures the health of your cold chain. 3 - Monitoring at the package-level Smaller cold chain products, like single-serve containers of frozen foods or strips of pills, may be packed individually rather than in large aggregated containers. The lower thermal mass of this type of packaging exposes the products to greater temperature excursion risk. Package-level temperature monitoring is especially important because hotspots can result for individual packages that were:  last to be loaded to cold rooms located closest to the refrigerator door  outside cold rooms for longer than the rest of the shipment  located next to a malfunctioning cooling vent A Lisaline data logger being used for single package monitoring. Visit https://www.lisalineasia.com/ for Cold Chain management, Cold Chain Solutions, Cold Chain System, Cold Chain Services, Temperature Data Loggers, Cold Chain Equipments, Vaccine cold chain, Blood temperature indicator, USB Temperature Data Logger, Cold Chain in Pharmaceutical , Cold Chain in Pharma, Temperature monitoring in Hospitals, Cold Chain Supply Chain, Cold Chain Management in Healthcare.