Businesses dealing with various branches of logistics, and especially, transporting and shipping various food items and pharmaceutical products that require refrigeration to maintain the products’ optimal condition throughout employ various tactics and ensure that their infrastructure is such that it can maintain all the products.
Most logistics companies will take precautions to ensure that the quality remains intact, and uncompromised until it reaches its target destination. A few of the crucial methods are discussed below to get a better understanding of how the refrigerated products are shipped worldwide.
Refrigerated storage and trailers for the roads
One of the most important factors for refrigerated cargo is to ensure that the entire process of transportation is conducted, with refrigerated containers and vessels to maintain the product quality. This also includes the warehouses and trailers used to move and store the products. Maintaining product quality is the key focus for refrigerated cargo transportation worldwide.
Dry Ice
According to a dry ice Sydney expert explains that dry ice, commonly known as frozen carbon dioxide, was one of the first methods of shipping refrigerated cargo and remains as one of the premier methods of ensuring temperature control for the good. Dry ice is another method employed by logistics companies to ensure that the products are in perfect condition lasting for weeks until it reaches its target destination.
While dry ice is an advantage that has been used by the shipping company in Sharjah and elsewhere across the globe, it is not completely safe to use, as it can leave painful ice burns on the skin when handled incorrectly. Not just that, in small unventilated spaces, the dry ice, which is the solid carbon dioxide, can dissipate and slowly replace the oxygen content of the room, making it difficult for the occupants to breathe. This is why it is imperative to use dry ice with proper ventilation to ensure no adverse health reactions for the occupants. Most large shipping companies ensure restricted use of the substance, and guidelines need to be checked thoroughly to avoid hassles.
Ice gel packs
This is another common technique used by shipping companies worldwide. This method consists of freezing gel packs, which can be used and refrozen again. This also helped keep items cool, especially ones that do not require stringent temperature control and is a much-preferred method worldwide. Ice gel packs are also environmentally safe and recyclable and biodegradable and are safe to handle without the requirement of any safety equipment.
Styrofoam
Styrofoam is a heavily insulating material that is often applied to ensure that the products maintain their current temperature without much energy loss. Inexpensive and reusable, make Styrofoam a much sought out and effective measure for refrigerated transportation of products worldwide.
Specimen kits
When transporters need to ship biological specimens that are used for laboratory processes, they use specimen kits to ensure the utmost safety of the products throughout. Logistics companies that handle pharmaceutical products, as well as biological laboratory products, take extra precautions to ensure impeccable quality throughout. They utilize gel packs and a special phase-change block which can keep frozen products below-freezing temperatures for more than a week without hassle.
Heaters and blankets
While the main emphasis in on cold transportation of products, not much is said about transporting products that need to maintain warmer temperatures for its optimal condition. For instance, transporting tropical fruits and vegetables require optimal temperature and humidity to maintain the freshness and the quality of the food before sales.
Warmer temperatures are maintained by logistics companies by having tote and drum blanket that may be used to ensure that the temperature of the products does not fall below the requirement. Drum, heaters can generally work both ways and maintain warmer, as well as cooler temperatures safely for the products.
These are the main methods of temperature-controlled shipping practiced worldwide by most Sharjah logistics companies. Although for each business, the requirements and the processes may be different; these processes are the most effective at maintaining an optimal temperature for products, whether for cold or warm options.