Some products must be maintained within a certain temperature range during storage and shipping. This temperature-controlled supply line is called a cold chain. It is important not only to keep the temperature stable but also to be able to verify conditions at a later date. There is a growing demand for data loggers that can provide shipping temperature data to document a product's shipping history.
Cold Chain Compliance Importance
There are a number of reasons products require specific temperatures. In many cases it may be something as simple as keeping product quality high, avoiding unappetizing crystallization that occurs in frozen foods that have thawed and refrozen. However some foods that are exposed to higher temperatures for even a short time may pick up food borne illnesses that endanger consumers.
More serious problems could include reactive chemicals that can undergo changes when exposed to heat or cold. This could cause one compound to turn into another or even trigger an explosion. Vaccines and pharmaceuticals often need to be kept cold or they can lose their effectiveness. Recipients need a way to verify the products have been shipped as ordered so they know they can safely distribute them to consumers.
Verifying Cold Chain Compliance
Temperature sensitive products are often shipped in containers that include temperature sensors and data loggers. These loggers take regular readings of the temperature inside the container and in some cases outside the container as well. These readings are stored within the data logger for later retrieval. Loggers are designed to take readings reliably for days, weeks or even months.
Receiving parties can examine the logs to ensure the product has never been exposed to temperatures outside the acceptable range. Containers that have been moved through multiple warehouses and transport systems may have passed through numerous temperature zones and often the shipper doesn't realize a particular package was inadvertently stored outside accepted temperature range, or might think that the incident wasn't serious enough to report.
Documentation Protects Each Party Involved
Often temperature data loggers are included by the manufacturers are vendors but there are a growing number of cases where the shippers themselves provide the hardware. In case the merchandise does arrive spoiled or damaged, the loggers can show where the problem occurred or at least where it didn't.
Government agencies investigating outbreaks of E. coli or other food borne illnesses are able to use data logger information to help them determine when the contamination might have occurred. Vaccines that have been compromised can be disposed of rather than ineffectively administered to at risk populations.
Temperature is the most common characteristic recorded by data loggers but many other measurements including vibration, pressure or impact force can also ensure a product was shipped without incident.
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