Cool ways to chill for cold storage and maintaining an unbroken cold chain

In an interview for FOOD Magazine, Robbie Davies (Cold Chain Centre) clarifies significant progress relating to the cold chain. Refrigeration technology is an area that has advanced considerably in recent years - particularly in road transport, making cold storage during transit more reliable than ever before. The production of new refrigeration units has been particularly advantageous to the perishable food industry. Some new units allow products to be cooled and isolated from other products in a load that either does not need to be cooled or may not be suitable in a consolidated load under normal transport conditions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are also making tracking of real time cold storage data possible. The ability to receive real time data makes it possible to reduce potential losses as it helps identify any cold storage problems quickly and effectively. Innovative temperature monitoring and logging technologies also benefit the food and beverage manufacturers. Information can be transmitted directly and instantaneously to a computer or even iPOD devices and temperature monitoring has become more efficient, which is extremely important when transporting goods and particularly when transporting free-flow frozen goods (when the products, for example raspberries, have been frozen individually and packed into a carton), which are very susceptible to thawing. In cold storage, some of the latest solutions for maintaining the integrity of a product include remote temperature monitoring in chambers and automated alarm systems, which reduces the time required should a chamber need maintenance. Cold storage chambers have also significantly grown in size: some now have a pallet capacity of up to 20 000. Source: http://www.ferret.com.au, http://www.coldchaincentre.com.au and FOOD Magazine