Cold chain packaging is a type of packaging that maintains appropriate temperature conditions for food (or pharmaceuticals) by using specific materials and technological means during the process from production to consumption. It occurs throughout the supply chain, including, but not limited to, harvesting/manufacturing, processing, storage, transportation, and ultimately distribution.

Objectives

  1. Ensure product quality: prevent microbial growth and multiplication by controlling temperature, thus ensuring product safety and freshness. 2.
  2. Extend shelf life: Appropriate low-temperature environment can slow down the rate of food spoilage and effectively extend the effective period of commodities.
  3. Reduce loss: Reasonable design and implementation of cold chain logistics system can greatly reduce the loss rate of products due to improper handling.

Features

  1. Temperature control: the core feature of cold chain packaging is to have good temperature control performance. According to the different needs of the packaged goods, choose suitable insulation materials such as polystyrene foam (EPS), polyurethane (PU), etc., and combine them with the use of ice packs, dry ice and other cold sources to ensure that the required temperature range is maintained throughout the logistics process.
  2. Sealing: In order to prevent moisture in the outside air from entering into the package and causing condensation, which affects the quality of the products, cold chain packaging usually adopts high barrier materials for sealing treatment. In addition, good sealing can also effectively prevent the invasion of bacteria to further protect food safety.
  3. Anti-pressure and anti-vibration: During long-distance transportation, goods may encounter various bumps and vibrations. Therefore, high-quality cold chain packaging also needs to have a certain degree of pressure and shock resistance to protect the internal items from damage. This is often realized by strengthening the structural strength of the box or adding cushioning materials.
  4. Environmentally sustainable: As environmental awareness grows, more and more companies are focusing on developing recyclable or easily degradable cold chain packaging solutions. For example, the use of bio-based plastics instead of traditional petroleum-based plastics, or the design of packaging forms that are easy to recycle.
  5. Intelligent: this kind of packaging can be built-in sensors to monitor and record temperature changes in real time, and once abnormalities are found, an alarm will be issued immediately to notify the relevant personnel to take appropriate measures. At the same time, it can also track the location of goods information to improve logistics efficiency.