After a very successful showing at Clinical Pharmacy Congress this month, we’re delighted to be exhibiting at the Temperature Control and Logistics 2023 conference in Frankfurt this year!

This three-day conference in Germany brings together pharmaceutical and supply chain professionals from across Europe and beyond for networking and updates on the latest developments in this important sector.

With the special focus on Pharmaceutical Logistics, Quality Assurance and the Supply Chain, we’re confident that Timestrip’s indicators will be well received.

Pharmaceutical Logistics with time temperature indicators

We'll be showing both the liquid-based indicators and electronic ones, including the new Timestrip neo products that are causing quite a stir with their small size, high accuracy and low cost.

If you can make it, we’d be very happy to meet up at Booth 12, or maybe in the bar! Connect with us on LinkedIn to set up a meeting.

Temperature Control and Logistics takes place from 13th to 15th June. More information.

Timestrip® has developed a completely new electronic indicator technology capable of highly versatile operation at low cost. The Timestrip neo is a platform for a series of single use electronic temperature indicators suitable for pack level monitoring with both time and multiple temperature settings.

Timestrip neo

The Timestrip neo can be specified in a wide range of temperatures for both ascending and descending alerts, and for different time durations. If any of the set conditions are breached, a system of flashing LEDs provides clear information to the user. A standard configuration is available from stock.

The small form factor of the micro-weight Timestrip neo, and its ease of use, makes it ideal for widespread use on packages in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food and high value manufacturing sectors.

Time and temperature integration is also supported, so that acceptable time limits are reduced at elevated temperatures, making the Timestrip neo ideal for protecting goods such as perishable foodstuffs that deteriorate faster at higher temperatures.

The unique design provides monitoring at three temperatures, and shows the cumulative time above a specific temperature level. For example, in the standard configuration, a descending temperature that reaches 2⁰C will cause an LED to flash; another LED will light when this drops as low as -0.5⁰C. A third set of LEDs show when the temperature has exceeded 8⁰C for 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours.

A unique serial number is provided on every unit to provide traceability as part of a quality control system.

Timestrip neo technology opens up a new avenue of possibilities for Timestrip. Partnering with electronic design and manufacturing specialists Holtronic Ltd to design the Timestrip neo platform has enabled us to offer a completely new series of products to our clients.

Gabriel McGlynn, Chairman of Timestrip

“The Timestrip neo platform technology is complementary to liquid-based indicators, and offers higher accuracy while maintaining the low cost, small form solutions our customers need”, said Nora Murphy, Commercial Director of Holtronic. “The small size and cost effectiveness of Timestrip neo are common benefits across the series of products.”

Want to see more about our newest indicator? Read more about electronic time and temperature monitoring here.

Samples of Timestrip neo are available mid-August, product available from mid-September.

The New Way of Reading Logged Temperature Data

Timestrip® has introduced its first temperature data logger – the TL520. This compact and economical ‘micro data logger’ provides alerts when temperatures breach set limits, and allows the logged data to be downloaded to an app for investigation and analysis.

Simpler and easier to use than conventional data loggers, the TL520 requires minimal training in use, and can be used at any point in the cold chain.

The TL520 is a single use device providing an immediate irreversible indication of over- and under-temperature conditions using built-in LED lights. Accuracy is quoted as ±0.5ºC over the normal operating range.

A novel feature of the TL520 is that stored data can be sent wirelessly to an accompanying app. for investigation and analysis using built-in NFC technology. No computer is required as the data downloads to any compatible mobile device, and both iOS and Android devices are supported.

The 2-8ºC default settings make the TL520 ideal for monitoring cold chain (refrigerated) temperatures in the storage and transport of sensitive products. Pharmaceuticals, blood, vaccines and food products are typical end use applications.

The new micro logger provides many of the benefits of bulky, traditional data loggers, yet is much simpler to use and is small enough to store with many products during transport and storage

Nora Murphy, Commercial Director of Timestrip

The TL520 is now available from Timestrip and its distributors.

Timestrip smart indicators were used in a study by academics at Reading School of Pharmacy, part of The University of Reading, into people’s confidence in the quality of medicines.

The study focused on the potential re-use of returned medicines. It found that participants’ intention to take part in medicines re-use increased with the presence of the Timestrip^® Plus temperature sensors on the packaging. The perceived social pressure to accept the medication also increased. The effect of the indicators was even greater than the promise of pharmacist visual checking of the medicines.

Although medicines re-use is not at present allowed in the UK, the presence of Timestrip indicators on packaging is understood to be a marker of their quality.

Ref: Lam, Y.; McCrindle, R.; Hui, T.K.L.; Sherratt, S.; Donyai, P. The Effect of Quality Indicators on Beliefs about Medicines Reuse: An Experimental Study. Pharmacy 2021, 9, x. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx. Read more here:  https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4787/9/3/128

As the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is felt by businesses around the world, we wanted to let our contacts, partners and clients know what we are doing at Timestrip UK. 

We are deeply concerned about the welfare of our staff, customers, suppliers and distributors, as we work hard to adapt to significant changes at work.

We regard the health and safety of our employees as of the highest importance, and our people are generally working from their home base using electronic communications including video conferencing. We are reducing travel to a minimum. We also suggest that meetings with external parties are held remotely.

While we do not expect this will cause a loss of service level, should you have any concerns, please let us know.

On a positive note, we would like to reassure you that we are working with our customers and distributors around the world to ensure the continued supply of our time and temperature indicators in the future.

Indeed, we are responding to an increased demand, especially for those products that form a part of best practice hygiene procedures.

Stay safe,

Nora Murphy
Head of Commercial Operations

Timestrip UK Ltd

An FDA-approved Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicator that ensures that only viable whole blood supplies are used post-transit

The high tech, low cost alternative to electronic dataloggers Delivery of unambiguous safety data FDA approved Ease of use Lower costs Less wastage Low carbon footprint

A critical issue for medical professionals is ensuring the viability of blood supplies once they leave the highly controlled storage environment, such as a blood bank refrigerator or a hospital blood storage facility. This aspect of the so-called blood cold chain is essential for ensuring that these are kept at the correct temperature right up to the time they are administered by trauma units, ERs, operating theatre staff, air/ ground ambulances, and any other situation requiring blood to be transported from storage units out to patients.

During transit, whole blood needs to be kept within a temperature range of 2°C/36^OF to 10°C/50°F. Below this range, there is a risk of freezing with the formation of ice crystals, rendering the blood unusable, while upper temperature breaches create the possibility of blood being affected by an overgrowth of non-specific bacteria, which may have entered the blood unit during collection or component preparation.

Both these situations have serious consequences: the cost implications of a wasted product and/or more seriously, a patient that is put at risk.

To address these issues, Timestrip® has developed its single-use Blood Temp 10 – a high-tech, low cost Irreversible Time & Temperature Indicator that effectively monitors temperature breaches above 10°C/50°F during transit.

No more guesswork

Thanks to its innovative technology, Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 removes this uncertainty by providing clear, unambiguous data as to whether a supply of whole blood is safe to use or be returned to storage.

This is achieved thanks to the smart label’s two indicator windows:

• the first window to indicate if the label has been activated

• the second to indicate if a temperature breach has occurred

Thus, at a glance, medical staff know if a supply of whole blood is not only safe to use post-transit. The smart label also ensures a higher level of quality of the product is delivered by monitoring of temperature throughout transit.

Moreover, thanks to its irreversible feature, once the smart label has reacted to a temperature breach, this cannot be undone. For security reasons, the colour of the label’s indicator window stays permanently changed.

FDA approved … and more

Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 has FDA certification (FDA 510(k) #BK190363) and is manufactured with controls established by a IQC approved quality management system that conforms with ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016.

With a temperature accuracy of +/- 0.5°C, this means that the Timestrip® label is designed with reliable and, more importantly, trustworthy technology as assessed by some of the world’s most stringent criteria. Moreover, extra security is assured by every Timestrip® label having its own unique serial number, thus ensuring full traceability.

Checking this list of features brings further benefits to healthcare providers involved in the transportation of whole blood by also ticking the box for local and internal regulatory compliance.

Cost savings

Because Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 ensures that only viable blood supplies are either administered post-transit, or returned to storage, the possibility of precautionary disposal is eliminated. This reduction in waste can have significant cost benefits.

In fact, studies have shown that loss rates without a Timestrip® are around 5%. These are halved with its use. In fact, reducing a loss rate by 9.9% pays for the total investment and a conservative 19.8% reduction doubles the ROI.

The generation of similar positive temperature monitoring outcomes are possible using other products, such as electronic devices. These, however, are far costlier.

Ease of use

Apart from delivering clear, unambiguous data as to whether post-transit a unit of whole blood may be used or returned to storage thanks its innovative indicator windows, the Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 is also remarkably easy to use.

In fact, unlike other whole blood temperature monitoring solutions on the market, Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 is a unique FDA 510(k) medical device that does not require preconditioning. Moreover, it is also CE approved and designed for:

Prior to the transit of a unit of whole blood, a simple squeeze of the label’s activation blister is all that is required for temperature monitoring of a unit of whole blood to begin. Then the label just needs to stuck on the unit.

Squeeze, peel and stick – that’s it!

And the end of transit, Timestrip® technology has also been designed for maximum ease of use:

• until activation, the first indicator window is yellow and the second is white

• upon activation, the first indicator window turns green

• if a temperature breach has occurred during transit, the duration of the breach is indicated by the second white indicator window that proportionately fills up with blue dye

Product Specifications

10°C/50°F monitoring

Irreversible, single use

19mm x 32mm

Field activation

Visual proof of temperature exposure

Advantages over electronic dataloggers

Beyond being less expensive, Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 does not involve a datalogger’s complicated and sometimes cumbersome unit return program that is necessary to make it more affordable. The smart label’s single use indicator makes it the ideal fit for simple, straightforward and effective temperature monitoring.

The Timestrip® also is a super convenient shape: small, flat, with no batteries or any other electronic components to them.

For green credentials, the Timestrip® also outstrips traditional dataloggers in terms of carbon footprint, because the latter eventually needs to be either be thrown away or sent back to source to justify the expenditure.

Lastly, the Timestrip® has the potential of generating more accurate safety data. Indeed, because a container of units of whole blood will tend to use just a single datalogger, inevitably the temperature of ambient air within the container is taken into account, potentially generating less than accurate safety data.

With Timestrip® labels however, every single unit has its own temperature indicator. This means that the possibility of rejecting an entire shipment based on a single result is eliminated.

Whether in a major teaching hospital, a walk-in clinic or a doctor’s surgery, any type of healthcare boils down to two broad objectives: improved patient outcomes and the best possible use of resources.

Although historically reconciling patient health and the harsh realities of budgetary constraints have at times led to difficult choices, the fact is that by integrating technology and innovation into decision making around resource allocation, both objectives can be achieved at the same time.

Indeed, thanks to its high tech / low cost Time and Temperature Indicator labels, Timestrip® is able to provide healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical sector with a broad range of practical, user-friendly solutions that:

✔ Ensure product quality

✔ Reduce product waste

✔ Ensure regulatory compliance

✔ Reduce time and temperature monitoring costs

But what does this look like in practice?

Improving quality control and efficiency

Tenet Healthcare is US healthcare provider that faced the challenge of needing to effectively manage how it processed bags of whole blood. On the one hand, it faced the need to comply with local regulatory requirements related to the use of effective temperature monitoring for blood products; and on the other, it had to discard any bag of blood that had been exposed to a temperature above 10°C for more than 30 minutes.

The company needed to be absolutely certain that any unused bag of whole blood was 100% safe to be returned to storage for future use. It had also noted ongoing difficulties in using other blood temperature indicators. Potentially, the latter could lead to doubts about product safety, which in turn would require that bag of blood to be discarded, possibly unnecessarily.

Its use of Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 – 10°C Blood Irreversible Transit Temperature Indicator noted the following advantages:

✔ Improved quality of care

✔ Improved workflow efficiency

✔ Maintenance of quality control during transportation and storage

✔ Support in complying with regulatory guidelines

Cost-effective regulatory compliance

Marathon Distributors is a pharmaceutical and healthcare logistics services provider in Cyprus and is involved in the distribution of pharmaceutical products throughout the island. The main cold chain management issue it faced was around compliance with local and EU regulations, specifically the country’s Law on Human Pharmaceuticals 70(I) 2001 and the EU guidelines on Good Distribution & Manufacturing Practices. These mandated the company to ensure that the pharmaceuticals it delivered were not exposed to a temperature above 8°C for more than 8 hours during transportation.

Although other products helped achieve regulatory compliance, the company began using Timestrip® PLUS™ 8°C 8 Hrs (TP065) Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicators because they were much more competitively priced.

Overall the company reported:

✔ Timestrip Indicators were 50% cheaper

✔ Delivery costs were 50% lower

✔ Delivery times were faster

✔ Positive end-user feedback around ease of use

Easy temperature monitoring for vaccine transport

Cambridgeshire Community Service NHS Trust is a UK healthcare provider in south-east England. Part of its work is the delivery of school-age immunisations to schools in its area. This includes for instance flu nasal immunisations for primary schools and HPV vaccinations and Meningitis ACWY and TdIPV for secondary schools.

For the delivery of vaccines, electric Labcold Portable Vaccine Carriers and pharmaceutical-grade vaccine carriers are used. In order to maintain the efficacy of the various transported vaccines, two different temperature ranges need to be managed: 2°C to 8°C and -25°C to 25°C.

In order to ensure the delivery of viable, unspoiled vaccines, the Trust thus had a requirement for a dual, low-cost solution for use by its delivery teams.

To achieve this, two Timestrip products have been used in each vaccine carrier:

● a Timestrip® PLUS (TP 065) to indicate if the temperature went above 8°C

● a Timestrip® PLUS (TP 217) to indicate if the temperature exceeded 25°C, and if so, for how long

The feedback from the delivery teams has been extremely positive, specifically around:

✔ Easy to read visual data

✔ Ease of use

✔ Reliability

Reliable test kit time data

Clinical Innovations is a US maker of obstetrics devices that wanted to develop a non-invasive test kit for the diagnosis of any rupture of membranes (ROM). Although treatable, spontaneous ROM is a serious medical condition and a major cause of preterm births. Thus, an accurate diagnosis of ROM can be a key factor in determining timely and appropriate medical intervention. Similarly, a false diagnosis of ROM can lead to unnecessary hospitalisation, medication and even induced premature delivery.

Timestrip was able to provide Clinical Innovations with Time Indicators for its ROM Plus® self-contained test kit. These give clinicians the essential and immediate data they need to reduce the dangers of any premature ROM for expectant mothers and their babies.

The test kit uses Timestrip technology with an in-built 20-minute time monitoring indicator that generates the required data within 5-20 minutes, with 5,10 and 20 minutes clearly indicated on the Timestrip. Its key benefits are:

✔ Clear visual data

✔ Ease of use

✔ Improved health outcomes

Hygienic healthcare environment

Beyond pharmaceuticals and blood products, healthcare also involves various types of disposable items that need replacing regularly. Especially for the sick, hygiene in the clinical environment is an essential aspect of patients being able to make a full recovery. Timestrip indicators make excellent cleaning reminders for surfaces, filters and instruments.

Assuming the absence of any complications, catheters for instance need to be replaced every 30 days for Foley catheters and every 60-90 days for silicone catheters. Catheter bags however need to be replaced every 5-7 days. If these items are not replaced at appropriate intervals, opportunities are created for harmful pathogens to develop.

Unsurprisingly, this has also been shown to be the case for hospital privacy curtains. Dr Kevin Shek was the lead study author into the rate of contamination of hospital privacy curtains in a burns/plastic ward. In a report about the study findings in Nursing Times, he said:

“We know that privacy curtains pose a high risk for cross-contamination because they are frequently touched but infrequently changed. The high rate of contamination that we saw by the fourteenth day may represent an opportune time to intervene, either by cleaning or replacing the curtains."

Especially in busy hospital departments such as Accident & Emergency and ICU, hospital privacy curtains can quickly become contaminated with bacteria such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. diff). Thanks to Timestrip® Time Monitoring Indicator panels that change color after a set period of time, clinical staff are alerted when a privacy curtain needs to be changed. They help a hospital achieve:

✔ Best use of resources with a low-cost solution

✔ Compliance with guidelines around frequency of change

✔ Less time needed to monitor when that change needs to occur

✔ Hygienically clean hospital environment for patients

How Timestrip irreversible time sensitive indicators are used in Germany by Ulmer Wohnungs for their apartment ventilation units to remind tenants that they need to change the ventilation duct filters.

Translation: "In many UWS apartments, ventilation units are installed which permanently ensure fresh and clean air. Only when the filter is clean, do the fans work quietly and use less energy. In our video we show you how to easily change the filter."

Timestrip Time Sensitive indicator labels

Timestrip can make you a custom Time Sensitive Indicator Label - we create custom solutions that measure time ranging from 1 hour up to 2 years. We are ISO 9001:2015 certified and Timestrip time indicators offer a helpful visual reminder of service and maintenance schedules for consumable components. Accurate and reliable, Timestrips contribute to a more positive experience for the consumer and help ensure optimum performance from appliances that need replacement indicators or service reminder indicators in order to function effectively.

Time and distance are the twin challenges when managing cold chain logistics for the transportation of fresh food perishables

Fruit and vegetables, packaged salads, dairy produce, eggs and even flowers – consumers the world over depend on supply chains that can bring perishable goods to retailers’ shelves speedily and in the best possible condition. Their instantly made purchasing decisions depend on products looking as appealing and unblemished as they do in promotional advertising.

At Timestrip, we see this every day. One of our aquaculture clients uses our Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicators in the export of seafood to the US market. He reports that how his products look upon arrival directly impacts on whether a delivery is rejected or not. His use of Timestrip smart labels ensures that his cold chain management processes guarantee not only that his products are safe after transport, but also look fresh to the end-user. (Read our Ferme Marine de Mahebourg case study)

Moreover, this need for efficient transport processes that guarantee product quality at the point of sale is playing itself out against a backdrop of rising worldwide consumer demand for perishable goods as per capita incomes rise in major markets such as China and India.

A general rule of thumb in the global food trade is that lower per capita income nations tend to import mostly grains, while higher per capita income nations import a wide range of cold chain perishables. So, while 70% of foods consumed in the US are managed by cold chain processes against only 25% of the meat and 5% of the fruits and vegetables in China, for the latter these figures are rising rapidly.

Also, within developed markets, the demand for perishables is rising. According to Winnesota Regional transportation, the US refrigerated transportation market on which the sale of perishables depend is growing at a rate of around 12.5% per annum, with strong projected growth in the coming years.

Projected annual growth in global cold chain to 2020 - 13.9%
Fresh produce shelf-life time spent in transit- 50%

Source: Logistics Bureau

Although regulation around safety is an important factor in the growth of cold chain transportation, globalisation and innovation play a far more important role. Technological progress around refrigerated transport makes it possible for less developed economies to sell their perishable produce in far away markets.

Complex international supply chains

As soon as a flower is picked or a fruit and vegetable is harvested, it begins to rot. Time and distance are thus the twin challenges of the fresh cold chain.

In fact for some produce such as Guatemalan bananas that picked when they are green, this biological process occurs during transit thus ensuring they arrive at retailers in the EU and the US in a saleable condition.

To avoid product spoilage, speed is the number 1 priority. Cold chain processes are therefore equipment and technology intensive in order to prolong freshness so consumers get to buy saleable produce.

Other considerations include:

• product sensitivity to weather and other naturally occurring disruptions
• the maintenance of sound sanitary practices from producer to retailer
• the requirement of specialised handling and packaging
• accurate labeling and traceability

Faster supply chains

An increasingly common feature of making perishables supply chains faster is for major supermarkets to take total control of this process with acquisitions of farming production facilities and the development of close business relationships with growers.

In the UK, the supermarket chain Morrisons is also one of the country’s biggest food manufacturers, with over 20 nationwide food production and distribution sites. The group says that more direct links with its farmers enable it to deliver the freshest food and best value to its customers.

Vertical supply chains also allow for growers and farmers to earn more from their produce. This happens in France with the supermarket chain Intermarché whose close relationships with dairy farmers ensure that they are paid 50% of the retail sales price of a litre of branded milk.

From farm to supermarket shelf

The Leckford Estate in Hampshire, southern England, is the Waitrose supermarkets farm that supplies its produce to Waitrose stores across the UK

Keeping the fresh cold cold chain cool

Although speed is essential in ensuring that the transport and delivery of perishables avoids spoilage, temperature control is another vital component in guaranteeing fresh cold chains.

“Maintaining the cold chain is one of the most effective ways to ensure safe, quality food”

Jorge Hernandez, Senior VP, food safety and quality assurance, U.S. Foods

The complexity of the required processes has led to the food companies working increasingly with specialist third party suppliers and the requirement of suitably qualified personnel.

Another key cold chain area for temperature monitoring revolves around equally specialist technologies, such as RFID tags that record and forward real-time temperature data, real-time GPS tracking that provide visibility of shipment progress, and a range of high-tech time and temperature monitoring solutions.

Avoiding waste due to spoilage

Fresh produce spoils easily and in many cases this is only identified at the very end of the transportation cycle, leading to either shipments being rejected or consumers claiming refunds from retailers. Moreover, apart from waste caused by the spoilt produce, further costs are incurred related to transporting these products that will never be consumed.

For companies, these have a big impact on their financial results. Timestrip Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicators are currently being used by a number of companies to address this issue. In the US for instance, the rail carrier Amtrak has integrated Timestrip products to successfully reduce food waste of its on-board catering services. Read our Amtrak case study.

At an industry level, a new vision about how to reduce these costs is around the establishment of "lean practices" whereby handling by various stakeholders in a perishables supply chain are kept to the very minimum. This is part of the thinking behind supermarkets taking control of food production mentioned above.

A strategy in this area includes a focus on direct-stores deliveries that avoid traditional centralised distribution methods and the maintenance of smaller local fresh produce warehousing much closer to retail outlets.

Significant savings can be also generated with appropriate packaging that protect fragile perishables against damage and innovative materials that actually extend the life of produce by controlling its life-cycle with the use of ripening agents such as ethylene gas.

This can involve speeding up the ripening process with innovative packaging containing ethylene gas capsules that can ripen fruit on demand, and ethylene gas that is used to ripen green bananas during transportation. It can also involve slowing down the ripening process with the use of ethylene absorbers that are added to fruit packaging.

A growing area of cost savings in fresh supply chains is the use of returnable plastic crates (RPCs) that can be used many times.Their ergonomic design allows for space-saving stacking, safer handling and ventilation and draining hat reduces in-transit spoilage. Plus with so-called "one-touch merchandising", RPCs placed directly onto shelf displays,further reducing handling.

They also have an impressive environmental record: a 2013 study found that RPCs generate 82% less waste, consume 92% less water, cause 76% less ozone depletion and require 49% less energy.

The advent of the banana cold chain

Bananas make up the largest share in the transport of perishables, equivalent to approximate 20% in volume and worth some US$8bn in 2013.

Exact figures of global banana production are difficult to determine as globally only 15% of production (which include plantain) is exported and much of what is not exported is produced by small or very small growers.

Nevertheless, refrigerated cargo (aka reefer) ship technology has been an important driver in the cold chain technology development. The first reefer ship for the transport of bananas was developed in the US in 1902 by United Food Company.

Up until that point, bananas were a highly exotic fruit and very much a luxury item in non-banana producing nations.

Today, it is one of the world's most consumed fruit and due to its distinct ripening process, the trade and transportation of this produce has led to distinct term in cold chain logistics – the so-called 'banana cold chain'.

Whether it’s Chilean blueberries for breakfasts in London, French-made polio vaccines for use in Malawi, or Mauritian sea bass for restaurants in the Big Apple, the chances are that all these cold chain perishables have been transported by air.

Indeed, thanks to our increasingly connected world and rising incomes in developing nations, consumers across the globe are opting for perishables produced far from where they will be consumed. Since 2010 in India for instance, rising per capita incomes have led to an increase in the consumption of frozen food, meat, fish, canned and instant food items, as well as a greater acceptance of frozen vegetables.

Similar trends have been noted in China, where in increasing numbers more affluent consumers are opting for imported foodstuffs, especially seafood.

Strong growth for cold chain logistics

For cold chain pharma products, the figures are startling. In its annual Biopharma Cold Chain Sourcebook, Pharmaceutical Commerce estimates the global volume of 2017 cold chain products at $283 billion, out of a total market of $1.17 trillion, and growing at approximately twice the rate of the overall pharma market.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which supports aviation with global standards for airline safety, security, efficiency and sustainability, estimates that immunization prevents 2.5 million deaths every year and sees air cargo as critical for flying short shelf-life vaccines to their destination in time to be effective.

Air transportation is also critical to the economy of many regions, notably fruit‐ and vegetable‐producing countries in Africa that ship most of their produce to developed markets.

Time and Temperature Indicators (TTIs) play a key role in this process, by providing clear and unambiguous data as to whether any cold chain breaches have occurred during transit, and if so, how long they lasted. Moreover their use with certain products in certain markets are mandated by regulatory authorities, such as by the FDA for seafood imports into the US.

Managing complex logistics

That said, the transportation of cold chain perishables by air is highly complex and prone to numerous situations where temperature breaches can occur. In a study for the air transporter IAG Cargo, researchers found that over half of all temperature deviations occurred during transportation.

This data is supported by findings of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says: “The greatest and most frequent vulnerability to temperature exposure occurs on the airport tarmac when goods are exposed to the elements before aircraft loading, or during unloading.”

Research however points to cold chain logistics managing these situations effectively for some time now. A 2012 study of Icelandic fish exported to the UK and France showed that despite poor temperature control during storage and ground operations at the airports before and after the flights, relatively a moderate increase in the temperature of the fish were recorded: the pallets of food were subjected to ambient temperatures above 10°C as well as solar radiation for several hours, but the temperature of the fish rose by less than 2°C. This was explained by the transportation of the fish inside polystyrene boxes, which were kept cool with ice inside the boxes.

It’s important to stress though that in these sorts of situations it’s only the use of temperature monitoring tools such as irreversible TTIs inside the boxes on the transported items themselves that a stakeholder can know whether potentially damaging temperature breaches have occurred.

Food loss epidemic

Nevertheless, despite much progress and professionalisation in cold chain logistics, certain problems remain difficult to resolve. One of the main costs with the transportation of perishable products such as fruit and vegetables is wastage due to spoilage related to inadequate temperature management during transit. Estimates vary as to what this amounts to, but most data suggests it is in the region of 33%.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this wastage should be viewed as a “food loss epidemic”, which it values at about $1 trillion each year.  Added to this are related environmental costs: wasted water used to produce food that is never eaten equal to the water needs of Africa, and CO2 emissions equivalent to removing every car off the road across the world.

It is hard to imagine any industry would tolerate 30-40% inefficiency.

Food bacteria grow best between 5°C and 60°C, which explains why keeping perishable products cool, cold, frozen or deep frozen is the only way to guarantee product quality and shelf-life as it arrives at the end of a transportation process.

Customers of air transport providers for perishables are well aware of this. In a survey of their various concerns, the three greatest were recorded as:

• the expertise of handling personnel
• appropriate temperature monitoring
• traceability

What is remarkable about these concerns is how they very much match those of the healthcare sector and it would seem that moving forward, it will be the lessons learnt from transporting pharma products, that could help avoid the massive cost of food spoilage during transit.

In a conference in Dallas, Texas, last year organised by the Netherlands-based Cool Chain Association, chairman Stavros Evangelakakis suggested applying healthcare industry standards to perishables would lead to wastage being “dramatically lowered”.

A post conference statement went on to stress the need to “treat perishable cargo with the same care, respect and transparency as pharma”, adding that this would be “crucial” for new and emerging markets such as South American and Africa.

Potential “quadruple win” for cold chain logistics

A recent study reported on in The Guardian highlights the huge benefits proper cold chain management can bring to the transport of perishable foods.

A carrier in India field tested cold chain equipment with a local grower for the transport of fruits in refrigerated trucks from Punjab to Bangalore, a 1,600 mile-trip over rough roads in high temperatures.

The results were significant:

• a one-week shelf life increased to two months
• profit increases by up to 23% for all the supply chain actors
• post-harvest food loss reduced by 76%
• greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 16%, excluding the significant reduction of emissions from food loss

Blueberries in January

One of the massive economic benefits of effective cold chain management is how it enables the creation of new markets.

In most countries, blueberries used to be only available at specific times of the year. The situation changed dramatically in the 1980s, with Chile harvesting blueberries from October until late March and exporting these to the US.

Today thanks to climate-controlled storage and transport technologies, the fruit is available year-round in many regions, buoyed on by the rebranding of the fruit as a “super-food”.

Today, the US is the world’s largest producer of blueberries, followed by Canada, Poland and France. Meanwhile in the UK, 2010 was the year blueberries overtook raspberries as the country’s favourite soft fruit after strawberries.