Cold supply chains are highly regulated business operations. Products in the cold chain, such as vaccines and perishable food items, directly impact consumers’ health. An ideal cold chain must be temperature-controlled to ensure products remain safe to consume.
Even the smallest change in temperature can result in lower product quality. So, as a responsible cold chain supplier, you must ensure to maintain product integrity. One of the best solutions you can use is a cold chain temperature monitoring data logger.
Let us learn how it can help you. But, before that, let us learn the concept of food integrity in the cold chain supply business.
An Overview of Product Integrity
Consumer confidence in your product starts with its safety and quality. That means you must ensure your products will either meet or exceed your consumers’ expectations with regard to quality and longevity.
Integrity directly relates to better control over temperature conditions when it comes to Temperature-Sensitive Products. This means you must ensure proper storage, transport, and temperature regulations throughout the transit of your products.
Consequences of Temperate Flexures in Cold Chain
You must always maintain the required level of cold chain temperature within the goods storage area. Doing so ensures the products remain fresh and safe for consumers, as temperature excursions can cause:
1. Vaccine Toxication
Cold supply products like medications become ineffective or toxic to patients when exposed to heat. Moreover, temperature excursions can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines and other biologics, directly affecting patient health and overall healthcare administration.
2. Food Born illnesses
Irregular temperature is one of the main causes of rapid food spoilage. It can cause foodborne illnesses and spread disease through contaminated food. These kinds of diseases are often fatal to lives.
3. Financial and Reputation Loss
Such a huge waste of products costs money. Moreover, it increases disposal issues, impacts the company’s reputation and can cause legal repercussions. When cold chain failures happen, it dents public trust in the efficacy and safety of products.
How Cold Chain Temperature Monitoring Solves The Issue
Cold chain temperature monitoring is the cornerstone of guaranteed product integrity. It helps you maintain records of temperature and conditions from when the product is manufactured until it reaches the end consumer.
This innovative solution uses a range of devices, from simple data loggers to advanced IoT sensors, to track real-time visibility and status of products.
Here’s how temperature monitoring helps:
1. Quick Issue Resolution
If you have a system that continuously checks for logistics temperature conditions, it is easier to detect if there are deviations from normal operating ranges. Moreover, it allows for rapid responses like re-chilling products or changing shipping routes, which could reduce damage and limit product loss.
2. Risk Mitigation
Cold chain temperature monitoring devices keep a keen eye on the supply chain and help recognise areas that can pose risks. These are the areas your maintenance team can learn early about and implement specific improvements. This prevents product failures, which could eventually lead to big financial losses.
3. Maintained Regulatory Compliance
Many industries that sell perishable goods have to comply with strict temperature regulations. Cold chain temperature monitoring ensures your business remains compliant with these rules. Thus, you can reduce the risk of penalties and reputational damage.
4. Improved Customer Trust And Confidence
An ideal cold chain temperature monitoring system shows your company’s dedicated, high-quality product delivery. This transparency generally results in increased consumer trust and makes way for loyal buyers.
5. Increased Supply Route Visibility
With the data collected through cold chain monitoring, you can access the visibility of product conditions across supply chains. By tracking the trends of temperatures, you can manage inventory effectively and choose better routes to transport fresh food.
6. Enhanced Product Traceability
Detailed, specific temperature data can identify compromised batches. So, there is minimal waste and risk to public health.
Picking the Ideal Cold Chain Temperature Monitoring System
There are a variety of cold chain temperature monitoring instruments, and no single system can provide all the solutions required. Breaking it down, let’s cover the most important considerations you need to make a suitable purchase.
1. Product Sensitivity
You must know the particular temperature essentiality for your cold products. Vaccines often need freezing temperatures of 2°C-8°C for storage/transport. Meanwhile, fresh produce, including fruits and vegetables, needs a minimum temperature of around 5°C and a maximum of 13°C. These specific thresholds can guide you in choosing a monitoring system with the right accuracy and temperature range.
2. Supply Chain Complexity
There would be a significant difference between a straight production-to-client supply chain and a complex global supply chain. The latter comes with multiple handoffs and temperature changes over trip modes (air/sea/land). For complicated supply chains, you must choose real-time monitoring for remote access. Thus, you can have proper control over visibility and temperature.
3. Regulatory Compliance
The pharmaceutical industry follows Good Distribution Practices (GDP), which require certain temperature control during storage and transportation. Meanwhile, other perishable items may have different compliance requirements. So, you must choose a product that can fulfil the required tamper-proof data logging and audit trails.
4. Budget
Keep a realistic budget that meets your requirements. Cold chain temperature monitoring systems can range from basic data loggers to sophisticated IoT solutions with subscription fees as per the chosen plan. Add the software licensing, ongoing data storage fees, and staff training expenses.
5. Accuracy and Precision
Ensure that the system is equipped with precise temperature readings. It is an important consideration if the route of your cold chain logistics is long, and may encounter climate changes. Also, check whether the device offers effective tolerances for such dynamic routes.
6. Alert and Notification Systems
An ideal cold chain temperature monitoring device should offer customisable alerts through an email, SMS or mobile app push notification. It enables your team to act quickly, preventing any loss.
7. Integration and Data Security
Ensure the data logger works with other software that you are using to manage data. This way, you can streamline efficient data analysis and reporting. With such delicate products, data security is essential. Make certain that the device provides powerful security and defensive measures to prevent unauthorised access.
9. Vendor Evaluation
Selecting the right vendor is key to continued support and system success. Select a vendor with a proven track history of serving the cold chain industry. You can ensure this by their expertise, years of experience, and testimonials of their previous and existing clients.
If you anticipate growth, choose a vendor who can provide a scalable monitoring solution that can handle more products or longer supply chains.
Enhance Cold Chain Supply with IoT Works
Essentially, cold chain temperature monitoring is not just a compliance mandate but an imperative module in your supply chain arsenal. This is why protecting product integrity also preserves your brand reputation and reduces financial loss or harm to people using the products. For products travelling thousands of miles in a networked supply chain before reaching consumers, chain temperature monitoring is more important than never.
At IoT WorkS, we ensure you get the most suitable monitoring tool for your business operations. Our experts analyse your asset management needs and assist you with their quality expertise. Contact Us today.