Cold Chain Logistics – The Key Element
While globalization has made the overall distance between locales of the world a lot more modest, the actual partition of these equivalent districts is yet a vital reality. The more noteworthy the actual partition, the almost certain cargo can be harmed in one of the unpredictable vehicle tasks included. A few goods can be harmed by shocks, while unnecessary temperature varieties can harm others. For a scope of merchandise marked as perishables, especially food (delivers), their quality debases with time since they keep up substance responses, which rate can be generally relieved with lower temperatures. It requires some investment and coordination to move a shipment effectively, and each postponement can have unfortunate results, remarkably if this freight is transitory. To guarantee that freight does not get harmed or bargained all through this cycle, organizations in the drug, clinical and food businesses are progressively depending on the cold chain logistics.
The cold chain involves the transportation of temperature-sensitive products along a supply chain through thermal and refrigerated packaging methods and the logistical planning to protect the integrity of these shipments. There are several means by which cold chain products can be transported, including refrigerated trucks and railcars, refrigerated cargo ships, reefers, and air cargo.
The cold chain is accordingly a science, and innovation, and a process. It is a science since it requires a comprehension of the chemical and biological cycles connected with perishability. It is an innovation since it depends on actual intends to guarantee proper temperature conditions along with the store network. It is a cycle since a progression of errands should be performed to plan, store, transport, and screen temperature-sensitive items.
The fundamental components of a cold chain logistics include:
Cooling systems: Bringing commodities such as food to the appropriate temperature for processing, storage, and transportation.
Cold storage: Providing facilities for the storage of goods over a period, either waiting to be ship to a distant market, at an intermediary location for processing and distribution and close to the market for distribution.
Cold transport: Having conveyances available to move goods while maintaining stable temperature and humidity conditions as well as protecting their integrity.
Cold processing and distribution: Providing facilities for the transformation and processing of goods as well as ensuring sanitary conditions. Consolidating and deconsolidation loads (crates, boxes, pallets) for distribution.
Cold Chain Logistics during COVID-19
Months of demand tested the cold chain, from keeping food supply chains flowing to developing distribution strategies for a coronavirus vaccine. At the start of the pandemic, it became clear very quickly that the cold chain was a priority. Manufacturers and distributors committed to ensuring the food supply chain would continue working as an essential industry. The focus later expanded to figure out how the cold chain would also be used to successfully deliver a temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccine to billions across the globe, once a viable option was ready. Vaccine cold chain logistics & management comprises a patchwork of processes, methods, and practices across several industries; these processes, in turn, have their own safety and performance standards as well as national (and in some cases international) regulations to which they comply and/or demonstrate conformity. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, medical-grade freezers, and laboratory equipment must comply with safety, quality, and performance requirements established by the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators.
For example, Cold chain stakeholders will need to continue their compliance regimens according to their applicable industry regulations and maintain or establish third-party advisory partnerships as necessary to support ongoing commercialization in their chosen markets. India grows more food, wastes more, while more go hungry. Between the ongoing farmers’ protests highlighting cries of no proper remuneration for what the “annadata” (food provider) produces and India’s 103rd position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) lies Indian agriculture’s shocking reality – farm produce wastage.
Even as India suffers from a serious level of hunger, here is something that’s even more worrying: the country wastes a significant portion of its farm produce due to a weak cold chain infrastructure, with 16% of fruits and vegetables being wasted every year. Up to 10 per cent oilseeds, pulses and cereals grown in India are also completely wasted. Food wastage in India is driven by the lag in many stages of the supply chain in the country.
Lack of cold chain logistics and proper storage facility, exports, transportation, adequate processing facilities, and marketing are fields where the government authorities has failed to deliver, leading to wastage of food. The total production of cereals is around 28 crore tonnes, out of which only around 8 crore tonnes is procured by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and that a part of it is kept in open storage area, where a portion is wasted.
–Kingshuk Bakshi