Temperature Management Tips for the Meat and Seafood Cold Chain

Shipping meat and seafood within the perishable cold chain is a high-stakes proposition for grocers, restaurants and their supplier networks. As I detailed in a recent article for FleetOwner, proper refrigeration and robust temperature management programs are the foundation of quality assurance (QA) initiatives.

In particular, temperature consistency is critical to help prevent spoilage and the growth of microorganisms, because temperature issues can harm every stakeholder in the cold chain.

Cold chain safety is a shared responsibility.

Producers (shippers), carriers (truck drivers), logistics companies, distribution centers (DCs) and retailers all share responsibilities when it comes to ensuring cold chain safety. The potential for temperature abuse of meat and seafood can occur at any phase of the shipping process, especially whenever product changes hands.

It's critical for stakeholders to understand the regulations governing the meat and seafood industry cold chain, follow shipping best practices, and take preventative measures to promote food safety.

Federal guidelines and regulations

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends specific temperature ranges for various types of products, with optimum ranges allowing very little room for deviations. If a carrier is suspected of temperature abuse or deviating from the required standard, they are responsible for verifying that proper holding temperatures were maintained during transit while the product was under their purview.

Using third-party temperature monitoring devices - such as Copeland GO real-time 4G/5G trackers and loggers - is the most effective way to automatically and effectively capture this data. Without that information, carriers can be at risk if a temperature abuse dispute occurs.

Nuances and best practices

For meat and seafood stakeholders, effective temperature management requires careful attention to a full spectrum of perishable shipping processes and best practices, including:

• Establishing the right temperature baseline by properly preparing products and trailers
• Maintaining proper holding temperature ranges in-transit
• Understanding the full implications of their shipping method (i.e., freight on board [FOB] origin vs. destination)
• Shipment size considerations (i.e., full truckload [FTL], partial truckload [PTL] or less than truckload [LTL])

Monitoring and managing cargoes with third-party temperature controls

In the meat and seafood cold chain, proper measurement can only be accomplished with robust third-party monitoring capabilities, which provide the means for validating temperature data with objectivity and urgency.

An ideal solution is comprised of integrated hardware and software, including:

• Real-time tracking devices that provide live location and temperature information
• Data loggers that provide a history of in-transit temperatures after a shipment has arrived
• Cloud-based software that can aggregate shipping data into a centralized platform and transform it into deep cold chain insights and intuitive dashboards

Copeland has designed its GO real-time 4G/5G trackers, data loggers and cloud-based Oversight360 platform to help stakeholders build this critical cold chain infrastructure.

Implement a temperature management infrastructure.

Following these best practices and implementing a robust monitoring infrastructure will enable you and your cold chain partners to create more reliable meat and seafood cold chains. For example, the use of real-time tracking devices can immediately alert QA staff when (and where) a shipment deviated from its specified temperature range, enabling stakeholders to take action to mitigate losses and risks.

For a comprehensive view of cold chain activities, the Oversight360 platform improves decision-making by transforming raw data into intuitive reports, dashboards and visualizations. Stakeholders benefit from deeper insights that can help them create a culture driven by continuous quality improvements.

To explore how these temperature management tools can add resiliency to your cold chain operations, please visit the Oversight Software and Services webpage.