What is Cold Chain Monitoring and Why is it Important?
What is Cold Chain Monitoring and Why is it Important?
A cold chain is a continuously temperature-controlled supply chain. Cold chains require consistent refrigeration through every step of the supply chain including manufacturing, transport, warehousing, and delivery. The objective of a cold chain is to preserve the quality and integrity of a product by maintaining it at an optimal low-temperature range throughout its lifecycle.
Multiple technologies are used to keep temperatures low in cold storage including refrigeration, gel packs, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen. These technologies work in concert with monitoring solutions to ensure that no damage occurs to items as a result of temperature excursion out-of-optimal ranges. Monitoring the cold chain is essential to extending shelf life and ensuring products are fresh and safe to use.
What Industries Use Cold Chains?
Cold chains are employed in a wide range of businesses and industries that require their products to be kept at a certain temperature from their manufacture or initial packaging until delivery. In some cases, fluctuating temperatures can make an item less desirable in the market and result in lost sales. In other instances, maintaining a consistently low temperature is essential to the product’s safety and usefulness when it reaches its final destination.
The largest use of cold chain technology is within the food and pharmaceutical industries. Many of the products produced or offered by companies in these industries require strict controls over temperature throughout the item’s lifecycle. Companies operating in these two market sectors use cold chain technology in different ways to achieve their goals.
The food industry
The primary concerns of the food industry are to deliver its goods while they are still fresh so they retain their flavor, nutritional value, maximize shelf life, and FSMA 204 Compliance to avoid food-born illness. In some cases, this involves freezing the product and ensuring that it remains frozen until purchased by consumers. A quick look in the frozen food aisle in any American grocery store demonstrates how important the cold chain is to food producers and the public.
In some cases, such as transporting fresh berries, they need to be chilled but not frozen. Freezing berries destroys their texture and shortens their life when they defrost. While the temperature doesn’t need to be as cold as frozen fish or meat, a delicate balance between not too hot and not too cold is required. This can be challenging when goods are transported, as they often are, in large shipping containers where the temperature varies, with hot spots and cold spots building up in tightly packed containers.
Globalization and transportation have enabled people to enjoy fruits and vegetables grown in distant locations. This would not be possible without cold chains to preserve freshness as the items are transported from the field to our tables. Fruit picked in South America could not survive being transported to the United States without a consistent cold chain.
The pharmaceutical industry
The pharmaceutical industry also often needs to deliver its products under strict temperature controls or they lose their effectiveness and are useless to patients and consumers. This is true for vaccines and other types of medication that lose their efficacy when stored above optimal temperatures.
An illustrative example that highlights the importance of cold chains is the attempt to distribute COVID-19 vaccines throughout the world. Many areas of the world do not have the refrigerated storage capacity to keep the vaccines sufficiently cold. Local health services cannot provide the population with protection from the virus without facilities that can handle vaccine storage. This lack of cold storage capacity has resulted in inequalities regarding which populations have access to life saving vaccines.
What is Cold Chain Monitoring?
Cold chain monitoring is the use of technological solutions to track the temperature of items in a cold chain. Performing this temperature monitoring is essential to maintain the items' quality and ensure their freshness. Cold chain monitoring can employ Internet of Things (IoT) technology to continuously monitor the state of temperature-sensitive items in the cold chain.
The objective of monitoring is to ensure no damage occurs to the products due to issues encountered as they are transported and stored. Failure to maintain proper conditions puts people’s safety and health at risk. Issues with the cold chain can also affect customer loyalty and result in damage to a company's reputation and bottom line.
Why is Cold Chain Monitoring Important?
Cold chain monitoring is important because it guarantees an item has been transported and stored at the correct temperature and ensures the contents have not been spoiled due to incorrect handling. Monitoring must be consistent through all stages of a product’s lifecycle. Products damaged at any stage must be removed before they reach consumers.
In addition to keeping products fresh and viable from the manufacturer’s standpoint, cold chain monitoring is necessary to enforce the standards of regulatory bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These organizations have the public’s interest at heart and want to make sure that medications maintain their efficacy when shipped globally from pharmaceutical manufacturers to diverse populations.
Businesses that implement effective cold chain monitoring stand to enjoy multiple benefits. Monitoring real-time information about their products assists producers and transportation companies in the following ways.
Detecting product temperature fluctuations promptly enables companies to minimize the potential damage to products by addressing the underlying reasons for the problems. Corrective action may involve rerouting the products or repairing equipment throughout the cold chain.
Companies can employ a consolidated technology platform to track the condition of all products in the cold chain. Inventory management systems can generate alerts if optimal temperatures are not maintained so action can be taken before the product spoils or loses its effectiveness.
Predictive maintenance and regulatory compliance are promoted through the use of a viable and reliable cold chain monitoring solution. Potential issues can be identified and addressed before they result in damaged goods.
Ignorance is Bliss
One of the obstacles to the implementation of cold chain monitoring is that if a serious temperature excursion is recorded, this can “force the hand” of the accountable party, requiring them to dispose of the products that were compromised whilst in their care. This can be expensive. In some cases businesses prefer not to know if they have damaged products, especially if they are removed from the end customer. This is where either legislation or the power of the party that is answerable to the customer is required to mandate an end to end item level cold chain.
In some cases, like transporting vaccines such as the COVID mrNA vaccines that are very temperature sensitive, there can be strict regulations covering the bulk transportation of the drugs but no measurement and enforcement of the cold chain between the freezer used for transportation and the fridge in the clinic, and even more significantly between the fridge and the recipient of the vaccine.
The cause of shortfalls in vaccine efficacy are hard to isolate and attribute, and awareness of the cold chain solutions for item level (vaccine vial) tracking is poor. Until the cold chain is truly end to end, people will be exposed to the risks associated with a cold chain that is broken in key places.
Using Bluetooth Beacons for Cold Chain Monitoring
Multiple technologies can be used to perform cold chain monitoring. A promising option is to deploy temperature-sensing Bluetooth beacons that can communicate with supply-chain and inventory management systems via cloud-based applications running on handheld devices like a smartphone. Inexpensive Bluetooth Low Energy beacons have minimal power demands that make them an excellent choice for cold chain monitoring.
Wiliot’s IoT Pixels offer an innovative implementation of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons. The Pixels are small devices available in battery-powered units that harvest energy from ambient radio waves. IoT Pixels are temperature-sensitive and are distributed in rolls that can easily be attached to or embedded in virtually any product.
IoT Pixels can be used to monitor shipping containers or the products within them. They can also be attached to vaccine vials which can be monitored to ensure they are always kept at their optimal temperature. The pixels communicate with the Wiliot Cloud through Bluetooth enabled mobile device apps to give enterprises the information they need to maintain a cold chain and deliver goods safely to consumers. Wiliot’s IoT Pixels are a cost-effective method of effectively and efficiently monitoring the cold chain.
End-to-End Cold Chain Management for Fresh Fish
Regulatory compliance
Companies in the food processing, production, transport, delivery, and retail sectors are being increasingly held to regulatory standards such as the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Specifically, FSMA section 204 defines the Food Traceability Final Rule and establishes recordkeeping requirements for entities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods on the Food Traceability List (FTL) offered for sale to U.S. consumers. The goal of FSMA and similar legislation in other countries is to enhance public health protection by improving the food safety system from farm to consumer.
Constructing a stringent traceability framework enables companies and government agencies to quickly detect and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks to protect the consumer. This objective can be met with enhanced tracking, monitoring, and record-keeping to minimize society’s exposure to unsafe food or contaminated products. Employing an IoT solution eliminates manual chain of custody logging, like counting and scanning, that can result in errors and negatively affect the food supply chain, and can add the additional value of temperature monitoring.
Supply chain efficiency
Implementing a traceability system can lead to substantial gains in supply chain efficiency. While the previously discussed benefits concentrate on ensuring food safety and consumer health, this benefit directly addresses a company’s bottom line. A more efficient supply chain usually translates into streamlined operations and increased profits.
Specific factors that contribute to enhanced supply chain efficiency include:
Reducing labor costs by eliminating the need for manually scanning, counting, and recording product levels and movement;
Providing additional time for employees to move product by automating tracking procedures;
Minimizing fuel usage and transportation costs by understanding the location of supply chain items at all times and optimizing their movements.
How Food Traceability Works
An effective and efficient food traceability system relies on the coordination of multiple technologies to provide the tracking functionality that provides the necessary visibility into the supply chain. The following technologies can be used in the construction of a food traceability system. In some cases, specific features of the technologies may hinder their ability to implement the most productive and cost-efficient traceability systems.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - Traditional RFID technology has been used for creating tracking and traceability systems. While it provides vital information about product location and movement, it relies on an expensive infrastructure including dedicated RFID readers. The scanning process is usually done at chokepoints which provides only a limited window of visibility due to the small quantity of read points.
Traditional IoT - Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as Bluetooth beacons offer another method of implementing food traceability systems. While Bluetooth beacons negate the challenges of the traditional RFID manual scanning process, as they broadcast continuously in real-time, the main issue with employing this technology is the expense of IoT tracking devices and maintenance. The cost makes it prohibitive to provide visibility on a unit or case-level basis, negating many benefits of the system.
QR codes and barcodes - This legacy technology involves time-consuming and potentially error-prone manual scanning to track product movement. Scanning is performed at chokepoints and issues such as lost or broken scanners, inaccurate or missed manual scans, or label printing errors can significantly impact the visibility into the supply chain.
Wiliot’s Data Visibility Platform - At the heart of this visibility platform are IoT Pixels, advanced IoT devices that combine with Wiliot’s dedicated cloud platform to address the issues presented by alternate technologies. The IoT Pixels are postage stamp-sized computers that combine the economies of scale of traditional RFID, alongside the labor-free scanning architecture of Bluetooth beacons, in a low-cost and battery-free sticker form factor. We will take a closer look at the distinctive features of Wiliot’s IoT Pixels in a subsequent section.
Step-by-step process
The following infographic illustrates a food traceability system in action.
A Case Study
This webinar conducted by Wiliot and the Food Safety Magazine highlights the need for food traceability and the benefits of implementing a system built on Wiliot’s IoT Pixels.
Features of Wiliot’s Visibility Platform
Let’s look at the features that distinguish the Wiliot Visibility Platform and make it an excellent choice when developing a system to track products through the entire food supply chain.
Real-time tracking - The use of Bluetooth technology allows items to be tracked in real time. The IoT Pixels eliminate the need to manually scan items by communicating with low-cost, Bluetooth-based devices within range. Data is then transmitted to the Wiliot cloud for processing and AI-based data analysis. This approach reduces infrastructure costs and increases tracking granularity.
Continuous visibility - Real-time tracking and data transmission to the cloud provides continuous visibility into the inner workings of the food supply chain, without the need for manual scanning. Companies can obtain insights into product location, movement, and condition inside facilities, transport vehicles, and storage areas that allow better decision making to ensure food safety and operational efficiency.
Flexibility - IoT Pixels are small, measuring 2.8 x 4.4 cm with a thickness of 0.2mm. Their size makes them extremely flexible as far as the type of products they can be used to track. Battery-free IoT Pixels offer additional flexibility by removing the need to replace batteries. The Pixels are delivered on reels for easy application to pallets, cases, containers or individual items.
Scalability - A food traceability system based on IoT Pixels is designed for scalability. The cloud can handle communication with an unlimited number of IoT Pixels, allowing a business to start small and expand the system at will. A common deployment may start by adhering IoT Pixels to pallets, then advancing to the case or item-level for more granular signals. Companies can implement a pilot program and after seeing the demonstrable results, move to a more comprehensive implementation.
Advanced sensing capabilities - The IoT Pixels work together with AI in the Wiliot Visibility Platform to provide relevant, and customizable sensing insights. In addition to accurate location data, IoT Pixels can sense and track unit and case-level temperature and humidity to enable advanced product data such as item freshness and expected expiration dates. This feature gives Wiliot’s solution a tremendous edge over competing technologies when implementing a food traceability system.
Companies in the food industry can obtain multiple benefits from implementing a food traceability system. They can improve food safety, address compliance issues, and achieve supply chain efficiency resulting in cost-savings and increased profits. While multiple technologies can be used to deploy a traceability system, the features of Wiliot’s Visibility Platform make it a superior solution for companies looking to deploy a robust food traceability and monitoring system.
Contact us to learn more about the benefits of implementing Wiliot’s IoT Pixels to build a food traceability system that protects consumer safety, reduces waste, and enhances your supply chain management.
FAQs
Can Wiliot’s IoT Pixels be used with alternate cloud computing solutions?
Yes, the data from IoT Pixels flows via Wiliot's cloud-based Visibility Platform to all third party cloud software. The Wiliot Visibility Platform is the connector that joins its IoT Pixels and third party cloud platforms and applications. The Wiliot cloud is closely integrated into the software that runs on the tags and the ambient IoT readers/bridges and gateways, it enables end-to-end encryption and provides privacy, access control. It's not possible to bypass this security. Wiliot's cloud also provides a way to distill a continuous stream of low level signals that would be cost prohibitive for a third party application to access directly, into a set of events that signal relevant happenings such as location or temperature change.
What are the financial advantages of a food traceability system?
Multiple financial advantages can be enjoyed by companies implementing a food traceability system.
Real-time tracking and visibility enable companies to optimize their supply chains, saving the cost associated with fuel, labor, and transportation time.
Reduced food spoilage minimizes waste and increases the amount of products that make it to the shelf
The consistent delivery of fresh food improves customer loyalty and satisfaction, maintaining and growing the business.
Addressing potential food safety issues proactively reduces expensive recalls and possible lawsuits from consumers affected by contaminated products.
Why is IoT a better technology choice than RFID when implementing a food traceability system?
IoT technology is superior to RFID when implementing a food traceability system for several reasons. Using IoT technology eliminates the need for manual scanning or passing items past a dedicated and expensive RFID scanner by communicating via Bluetooth radio waves. IoT devices can continuously transmit data to provide real-time location information and an improved level of visibility regarding items moving through the supply chain.
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