Perish the thought

How does temperature-controlled packaging help to reduce the shipping risks of perishables? It is well known that every step in the cold supply chain represents a risk. If you don’t know who is handling your products and how they are handled, you should opt for protective packaging, to shield products from physical damage and other external factors such as temperature change, humidity, and vibration.

Before reaching its destination, packaging can go through five different hands, thus leaving multiple opportunities for perishable products to be subjected to compression and pressure making them liable to damage. This article will showcase the risks and explore some essential packaging materials that provide shock resistance and temperature control solutions.

The Risks

There are a lot of risks associated with transporting perishables and every industry must take into consideration the safety of its customers. Meat, dairy, seafood and more are all susceptible to temperature changes that can reduce their shelf life or even allow bacteria to grow. Unless you know that your product is at all times in a temperature-controlled environment during its transportation and storage, then you will need to use insulation and refrigerants specially designed for perishable products.

Insulated packaging helps protect perishable foods from temperature swings during transportation and keeps them safe from physical damage. These refrigerants come in the form of gel packs or PCMs (phase change materials) and help keep the temperature of a product at a certain level during transportation. The spoilage and product defects will decrease significantly if both refrigerants and insulation are used.

Temperature-Controlled Solutions

Temperature-controlled packaging solutions come in different forms, every one of them with a specific purpose and quality. Establishing the type of packaging is based on the product’s sensitivity and the quality of the packaging. There are a lot of different packaging options for transporting perishable foods, including gel packs, water blankets, PCMs, as well as coolers that help maintain the temperature of products at the right levels.

Choosing the right type of packaging might not be that easy, but with the help of an expert, you will get the one your product needs. Try not to spend more on materials and end up with an increased shipping cost due to the product’s overall weight. Also, don’t opt for cheaper materials because this can cause damage to your products in other ways.

The importance of Insulated Packaging

Perishable products require an insulator that protects them from heat transfer during shipment and keeps the temperature levels optimal. At the molecular level, heat is a form of energy in which molecules of a substance vibrate at a constant or variable pace when energy is given.

The vibrating of those molecules provides energy to the molecules around them, causing them to vibrate as well. ‘Heat Transfer’ is the study of the methods and procedures required to transfer heat energy.

This might involve keeping products cold, frozen, or heated, as well as minimizing the consequences of significant temperature fluctuations. One of the most popular ways to provide insulated packing is with lightweight foam. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is a popular protective packaging insulator used in the healthcare and food industries. Make sure to contact an expert that can provide you with the right type of packaging when shipping perishable products.

Includes excerpts from an article by ‘Love-Belfast’ February 2023