Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in excerpt
Timestrip time and temperature monitoring
Timestrip indicator labels are single use, low cost, patented technology diffusing liquid through a viewing window to reveal how much time has passed since activation or temperature breach

Featured Product

VOR
Shows length of time vaccines are out of fridge
Vaccines
vaccine out of fridge

More Info

Timestrip Applications
Timestrip News
eTimestrip App for pdf reporting
Download our eTimestrip app today. It is compatible with most of our electronic indicators and can be used to generate data report PDF and CSVs to save and share.

Featured Product

Timestrip neo
Electronic indicator with 3 temperatures
Timestrip neo
Timestrip neo TT525

More Info

Timestrip Applications
Timestrip News

Wine has always been a popular drink and for many the fermented beverage of choice. In most cases whether you prefer Red or White, or even a Rose, experts and connoisseurs believe that any wine is best stored and served chilled.

So, you may well ask what is the difference between a wine served warm, or chilled, and does it really matter if the wine is warmer than expected, or even hot? Some wines are indeed served hot and are even used in cooking, but why is it important if it gets hotter than anticipated before it gets to the consumer?

Well, from an article in WinePair ™ a short time ago it was stated that; wines do change when they are subjected to a high temperature. Firstly, the tannins become 'more noticeable and wines take on a tangy, astringent character. Instead of a smooth and supple mouthfeel, wines feel rough and more one-note on the palate. Fruit flavors often become secondary to unpleasant acidity. In dry climates, corks shrink as they lose moisture, leading to leaky bottles and a sticky mess.'

This is all well and good, but at above what temperature would there be any noticeable change to the wine we drink?

Any wine should normally be stored between 55 – 65ºF (13-18ºC) and wine should be stored in a cellar, or a wine refrigerator, that maintains this recommended temperature level. And, it is generally noted that the change to the body of the wine begins at 70F (21C), and wines can “cook” as exposure temperatures hit 80F (26ºC) degrees and beyond. However, an occasional spike won’t decimate a wine, but prolonged exposure — like a week-long heat wave, or full day in the car — can.

So, what is an acceptable solution for making sure you can tell that a wine has breached its recommended storage temperature? – quite simply an Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicator label from Timestrip.

Timestrip offers a full range of stock labels including two that have a temperature breach of 20ºC and 25ºC (tolerance +/- 1ºC), and Timestrip can also produce a custom and branded label that can be set to monitor more specific temperature breach limits.

So, in the future be on the look out for some form of temperature indicator label on the bottle of wine that you buy to ensure that it has been kept at the recommended temperature to insure you get the most enjoyment from the wine that you buy and drink.

Using a Chemical Time and Temperature Label

There are many ways to measure temperature change and for recording how long a temperature-controlled substance, material, or chemical compound, is maintained outside of its normal required temperature limits for stability, or future use. Time Out is not a new term, or monitoring application, but it is a complex one and certainly needed. The most common is for Pre-Preg and Carbon Fiber materials that must be maintained within strict temperature guidelines for flexibility and strength requirements, plus many Chemical compounds and liquid API’s (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients). These strict limits also apply to certain bio-logics and vaccines that can only be “out-of-environment” for short periods of time whilst they are being worked with, formulated, or packaged.

These tracking solutions range from RFID tracking and monitoring with expensive tags and readers to complex solution software applications that read and record these expensive electronic devices, attached to the item being monitored, as these pass in and out of the safe temperature zones.

On the low-end monitoring is done by timers with alarms and some form of temperature recorder to show the temperature limits that the materials were exposed to. Combine both elements and you get a Time and Temperature limit that the materials were within showing how long this was for.

But in some applications, simplicity may be a better solution like – a time and temperature breach indicator label, instead of reading separate items and manually recording these for record purposes.

Timestrip Plus labels and Run Timer Labels are used for many applications ranging from monitoring event times related to an expiration of effect use life to monitoring vaccine and bio’ shipments as these pass through a logistics operation, or down the cold chain supply chain. However, if you take a Timestrip Plus label that contains a time element and a temperature limit indicator for an excursion, or the work environment temperature, you have a truly unique and simple way of measuring TOTCE!

The advantage that these labels offer is quite simple by the fact that once the label is outside of its “strike” temperature the chemical will flow down the time indicator scale to show how long the label is outside of the lower product stability-controlled temperature environment. When the material or chemical substance with the label attached is returned to the temperature-controlled environment the chemical will stop flowing and only now show the “Out-Time”. If this item is taken in and out many times the label will begin to form a total aggregated TOTCE as the chemical flows and stops each time it moves in and out of the two environments.

A record of each individual “Out-Time” can be captured by taking a photo with a Smart Phone which will show the time and date that it was taken, and this can be stored as a permanent record linked to the serial number on the label itself that will be clearly seen in the photograph.

Sometimes simple is the best approach based upon the old adage of the “KISS” philosophy, so contact Timestrip today if you want to find out more about this TOTCE solution offering.

The big word in the logistics and supply chain “world” is RISK, and a risk assessment being performed, or at least having a mitigation plan in place, is becoming part of many certification requirements, like ISO 9001, and other pending or recently introduced federal regulations.

It will be no surprise, I am sure, when I mention certain facts like – “Where humans are involved in a process there will be errors, and 90% plus of all supply chain errors are human errors”; but how do you avoid these?

Firstly, let me say there will always be Risk not only in the common elements of the supply chain but also and especially with the way that you handle any cold chain or temperature-controlled products.

So how do you manage these risks?

There are 4 common and accepted ways that Risk can be managed, or mitigated:

  1. Risk Avoidance: Changes made to your processes and players that ensures risks are no longer an issue.
  2. Risk Mitigation: Reduce the severity of the loss or prevent the likelihood of the risk from occurring.
  3. Risk Acceptance: Avoidance of a potential risk area is not possible or economically feasible, so it is acceptable and will not impact your business.
  4. Risk Deflection: After the risk has been identified and quantified, transfer that risk to the control of another player or partner in the process – maybe add it as a clause to be addressed in a vendor contract.

So how do you establish a Risk Mitigation Plan?

  1. Review and audit your supply chain to assess where risk does, or may exist
  2. Assess what the impact of these risks may be and create a list with the highest probability items at the top to address first
  3. Define your risk mitigation strategies for the highest-level items and work down the list from High to Low
  4. Implement the strategies and document them.

What else should I do, or know?

  1. Even though your Risk Management plan includes good SOP’s and WI’s make sure that people are adequately trained in these disciplines
  2. Conduct self-audits regularly
  3. The cost of a Cold Chain Monitoring device or solution, is far less expensive than the cost of disposal of a temperature compromised shipment
  4. All Quality Systems and Risk Aversion Plans should have one over-arching goal – Quality of Product and Consumer Safety!!!!

At Timestrip we are acutely aware of all kinds of risks that can exist in all kinds of supply chains from Pharmaceutical to Food and even beyond to special chemicals and laboratory testing time lines.

For a full range of our products please visit our products page

Company Profile & Environment

Marathon Distributors is a pharmaceutical and healthcare logistics services provider on the island of Cyprus. With an annual turnover of over $40m, it has a 35-38% market share for its range of activities and employs a workforce of just over 40 people.

Its services include warehousing, transportation and distribution and it boasts a state-of-the-art warehouse strategically located on the outskirts of Nicosia (Latsia Industrial Area), just-off the Nicosia-Limassol-Larnaca highway. The warehouse area has a floor space of 2,500m2 and a modern cold storage area with a capacity of 70m3.

For transportation, it operates its own fleet of 18 vehicles — all temperature controlled and GPS monitored — and they cover 100% of the island. The vehicles deliver to pharmacies, pharmacy depots, physicians, hospitals, clinics and clinical laboratories across the island.

Cold chain issues fall under the remit of MD Simone Kapakiotis. Her work covers all aspects for the warehousing and transportation of cold chain products, which are mainly vaccines.

The main regulations that the company needs to comply with are the Law on Human Pharmaceuticals 70(I) 2001 and EU guidelines on Good Distribution & Manufacturing Practices.

The company faces numerous challenges in the sectors it operates in. Firstly, the Cyprus market is of a relatively small size, which stifles its potential for growth. Also, it is a highly regulated environment, subject to numerous stringent EU guidelines. Lastly, the business itself must manage quite high operating costs and low profit margins.

On the plus side however, due to relatively short transportation distances on the island (delivery times are 6 hours at most) and the company’s use of validated cooling containers for the transportation of cold chain products, it never generates any product waste.

Use of Timestrip Indicators

Because of its environment, Marathon uses Timestrip Plus 8°C 8 Hrs (TP065), which monitor temperature breaches above 8°C for periods of up to eight hours. Cold chain issues are of concern during the transportation process.

The procedure followed for using Timestrips is that they are placed in all orders containing cold chain products. These indicate to drivers and customers whether a temperature deviation has occurred during transportation. If no deviation occurs, customers receive orders and sign all the relevant documentation. If however a deviation has taken place, these orders are returned to the warehouse and the company sets in motion a deviation procedure that needs to be followed.

The Timestrip Solution

The main reasons the company uses Timestrip TTIs above other approved TTIs are a competitive price, the reliability of the product, an easy order system and speed of delivery.

Significant improvement has been noted in these areas since the company began to use Timestrips. The product itself is 50% cheaper than other similar products. Also, delivery times are one day faster and delivery costs are 50% lower than before.
Other Benefits

Feedback from Marathon’s customers has been very positive and have enhanced its standing with them. They particularly like that Timestrips are easy to use, easy to read and reliable.

Simone Kapakiotis says: “The use of Timestrips adds to our company’s reputation of being professional and reliable.”

Abstract: The World Health Organisation stresses the importance of maintaining the cold chain for temperature sensitive vaccines. Due to the recommendation for rabies vaccines to be stored between 2° and 8° Celsius and the nature of canine mass vaccination projects, cold chain maintenance remains one of the most significant logistical hurdles project managers have to overcome.

Mission Rabies field teams in Malawi evaluated the use of adhesive temperature monitors as an alternative to thermometers in both storage fridges and field cooler boxes during the duration of a 4 week mass vaccination drive in April/May 2016.

Two different Timestrip® temperature monitors were used to alert the teams to the critical temperature thresholds of 0°C and 30°C.  As freezing rapidly damages vaccines, each vaccine box containing 10 vials of 10ml vaccine was marked with a monitor that indicates the immediate crossing of the lower threshold through colour change. As damage from high temperatures is related to both the temperature achieved and the time of exposure, to test for the upper temperature limit each cooler box was equipped with a monitor that showed the crossing of the upper threshold over time.

Of a total of 22 vaccination teams participating in the study, 7 teams reported an exposure of the vaccines to temperatures above 30°C for more than 4 hours and on 9 occasions teams reported a temperature drop to 0°C or below.

These findings highlight the importance of monitoring the temperature during field campaigns, both due to proximity to ice packs and exposure to high outside temperatures. The use of Timestrip temperature indicators gives early visual clues and raises awareness among the team. However practicability of the temperature monitoring must be taken into consideration and adhesive monitors need to be improved with regards to their setup to make them a valuable tool in field projects.

This abstract was presented at the 28th Annual Rabies in The Americas Conference on 23 October 2017.

Authors: Frederic Lohr, Reuben Isbitsky, Andy Gibson, Alasdair King

Tenet Healthcare is a healthcare services company is using Blood Temp 10 temperature indicators to monitor blood transportation. PDC Healthcare surveyed the company on their experience with the indicators. The survey reported the blood bag temperature indicators helped them significantly improve blood transportation quality control and workflow efficiency.

The Blood Temp 10 indicators helped Tenet Healthcare comply with regulatory guidance by having auditable proof blood core temperature was maintained when being returned to the blood bank.

Read the full case study below:

Tenet Healthcare Blood Transportation Case Study

Case Study verified by TechValidate.


Riverside Health System is a healthcare non profit that is using Blood Temp 10 temperature indicators for blood temperature compliance. PDC Healthcare surveyed the organization on the efficacy of the indicators. Their survey reported the blood bag temperature indicators helped them significantly improve blood transportation quality control and workflow efficiency.

In turn, the real time temperature monitoring increased patient safety and quality of care was improved.

Read the full case study below:

Riverside Health System Blood Temperature Compliance Case Study

Customer Evidence verified by TechValidate.


For more information on PDC Healthcare click here.

For the full survey on TechValidate click here.

PDC Healthcare surveyed Decatur Memorial Hospital about the benefits of using Blood Temp 10 indicators. Their survey found the blood bag temperature indicators used to measure blood core temperature helped the hospital improve the quality of care and significantly improve blood transportation quality control to comply with the FDA regulatory guidelines.

Read the full case study below:

Decatur Memorial Hospital Blood transportation Case Study

Customer References verified by TechValidate.


For more information on PDC Healthcare click here.

For the full survey on TechValidate click here.

Time and Temperature Indicator maker Timestrip launches the Timestrip® Temperature app, a new tool that provides a visual audit trail of its temperature products.

Frame
Zoom
Focus
Snap

Using the App simply involves taking a photo of a Timestrip® label with a smartphone.

If the Timestrip® has a new style serial number, the App will recognise the serial number and allow you to register it on the system.

You can then take a follow on scan where you can enter its activation state (inert, activated or breached), storing this data with essential time and location information in the cloud.

If the Timestrip® has an old style serial number you can still use the app in the same way but you'll need to manually enter the serial number. The App is free to download from the Google Play store with an iOS version to follow shortly.

High tech low cost

The App is the latest innovation from Timestrip, which revolutionised the field of cold chain management with its unique Irreversible Time and Temperature Indicator labels (TTIs).

Recognised by the World Health Organisation and the US FDA as an essential tool for the cold chain management of blood and food products, TTIs provide data as to whether a blood or food product is safe to use. Timestrip’s irreversible TTIs make this crucial safety information unambiguous and instantly visible.

Like having a hundred permanent digital data loggers

The main benefit of Timestrip’s irreversible TTI labels is that they give essential cold chain management information on individual units of processed products. This deals with the main shortcoming of digital data loggers, which are mostly used for containers of transported and stored products.

Thanks to the new Timestrip® App, extra key information around cold chain management is added with the safe storage of status, time, journey and location data, which can be accessed at any time via the app or via a website. A digital data logger can be lost or damaged and all its data can be wiped clean. The Timestrip® App however safely stores this data in the Cloud.

Data logger functionality at a fraction of the price

Timestrip UK CEO Reuben Isbitsky says: "I am very excited about our first App, which brings Timestrip TTI labels very close to data logger functionality, at a fraction of the price.  While a key benefit of Timestrip products is that they do not need external infrastructure to read and interpret, using the optional Timestrip Temperature App to scan them, adds enhanced functionality, easy audit trail and provides the customer with a permanent record of the history of the product’s journey."

Timestrip UK Ltd have expanded their range to include their latest Timestrip PLUS™ 10°C threshold indicator with a 7-day run-out/recording window. This specific indicator is meeting the demand within the pharmaceutical industry and the regulations and compliance that come with transportation and storage. With Timestrip’s latest 10° 7 day offering, they are reaching out further within the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industry and ensuring their high tech but low cost devices are evolving with the relevant advances in the industries.

7 Day Pharmaceutical temperature breach indicator

Timestrip design and manufacture innovative, irreversible time and temperature indicators for a range of industries from Food to Pharmaceutical. Their Timestrip® PLUS range is predominantly used across the Healthcare, Life sciences and Pharmaceutical arena. Currently, the Timestrip PLUS™ range covers temperature thresholds from -20°C up to 38°C and generally display a run-out window of any temperature breach for 8, 12 or 48 hours.

Combining time & temperature monitoring patented technology, which involves controlled rate lateral diffusion of liquids through the device membrane once activated. If a breach occurs, the ‘smart’ indicators will visually indicate how long a product has been exposed to higher temperatures.

For a free sample of the new 10° 7 day indicator, or to place an order click here

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram