What Is Cold Chain And Its Functions?

Recent years, there are great market demands for cold storage, cold rooms or chambers to store products, Eurostars is a specialized company that manufactures cold room refrigeration condensing units, evaporators, and provide the complete services for customers. Eurostars engineer shares some knowledge about cold chain hereby.

1.What is cold chain?

Cold chain refers to the special supply of certain products in the process of processing, storage, transportation, distribution, retail, and use, all chain systems are always in the specific low temperature environment necessary for the product to reduce losses, prevent pollution and deterioration, and ensure product safety.

The cold chain has been deeply integrated into the lives of the people. All aspects of our lives are inextricably linked with the cold chain. The scope of application of this "chain" is very wide, including primary agricultural products, processed foods, and special commodities (such as medicines and vaccines). Of course, cold-chain foods are the most closely intertwined with life, and refrigerated and frozen foods are always in the specified low-temperature environment in cold-chain logistics, which can ensure food quality and reduce food loss.

The storage period of foods transported by cold chain logistics is several times longer than that of ordinary refrigerated foods. Temperature control through circulation links can effectively reduce microbial growth and food spoilage. At the same time, in the process of cold chain logistics, through the method of gas regulation, the breathing state after fruit and vegetable picking is inhibited, so as to achieve the effect of keeping the fruit and vegetable fresh. It can be seen that cold chain logistics plays an important role in improving our quality of life and convenience.

2.Cold chain functions

First of all, the core of cold chain logistics is "temperature control and insulation", which includes a constant temperature and humidity cold storage that has precise requirements for the humidity and temperature of stored goods and freshness preservation cold storage. The so-called freshness preservation is to reduce the oxygen concentration in the air from 21% to 3%~5%. On the basis of the cold storage, a set of air-conditioning system is added to utilize the combined effect of temperature and oxygen content control. Reach the breathing state after harvesting fruits and vegetables.

Secondly, cold chain storage is also an indispensable part, which is generally used for fresh agricultural products.

The third is cold chain transmission. At a certain temperature, we need go to sorting, picking and packaging of fresh agricultural products through the transmission machinery, utensils, etc.

Fourth is cold chain loading and unloading, which is a very important and difficult step. The unloading vehicle and the unloading warehouse should be sealed to ensure that the refrigerating and freezing goods temperature rise is controlled within the allowable range during unloading. When the unloading operation is interrupted, the doors of the transportation equipment should be closed immediately to keep the refrigeration system in normal operation.

Fifth is cold chain transportation, which is an also important link in cold chain logistics. Cold chain transportation costs are relatively high, and it includes more complex mobile refrigeration technology and incubator manufacturing technology. Cold chain transportation management contains more risks and uncertainties.

In order to realize automatic and efficient operation of the entire cold chain logistics process, the utilization of information technology is inevitably indispensable, that is, the information control of the cold chain. Information technology is the nervous system of modern cold chain logistics. With the support of the system information platform, it is easy to realize the strategic collaborative management of all the resources of the enterprise, reduce the cost of cold chain logistics, and improve the market competitiveness and management level of cold chain logistics enterprises.

3.Can cold chain foods be edible?

The application of the cold chain system can not only refrigerate food, but also meet the effective storage of medical articles. The storage temperature varies according to the characteristics of different food materials and medical items.

For example, pork and beef should be stored in an environment of -18°C, which can better maintain the integrity of the cell wall and help maintain moisture. Tuna is generally stored in a temperature environment of -50°C to -60°C, and the delicious meat quality of the tuna can be perfected by instant freezing. In an environment of -20°C, it can effectively meet the storage needs of various pharmaceuticals such as medical drugs, plasma, biological materials, reagent libraries, vaccines, etc. There are also some vaccines that require storage temperatures as low as -70°C. For example, Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from The United States indicated that it needs to be stored at an ultra-low temperature of -70°C, then can kept for 6 months without affecting the effect. It is a big challenge for cold chain logistics and cold storage.

Generally speaking, the lower the temperature, the longer the virus will survive. In an environment of minus 20°C, the virus can survive for several months, even in ordinary cold chain transportation, the virus can survive for several weeks. If the contaminated products, including food or outer packaging, are transported through the cold chain in an area with a high incidence of the COVID-19 epidemic, the virus can be brought to a non-epidemic area, thereby causing contact transmission.

However, no corona-virus infection has been reported that caused by direct consumption of cold-chain food so far. The corona-virus is a respiratory virus, which is mainly spread through respiratory droplets and close human-to-human contact, and the possibility of infection through the digestive tract is very low. From the epidemiological trace-ability analysis, the high risk infected population is, such as porters, who repeatedly come into contact with the outer packaging of imported cold-chain food in a specific environment.

Many authoritative experts have stated that China has entered the stage of normalization of the prevention and control of the COVID-19pneumonia epidemic, and there is no need to panic about the recent cases in several regions. However, it needs to be emphasized that winter provides a more suitable environment for the spread of the corona-virus relying on cold chain logistics. Therefore, "preventing people and objects also need to be protected."

In terms of "prevention of materials objects", cold chain inspection and quarantine is a link that requires special attention. It is necessary to establish a standardized and orderly food inspection and quarantine work, arrange special personnel to manage the transportation work with large transportation volume, long distance and high probability of pollution, do regular cleaning, disinfection and other sanitary treatments, and implement real-time monitoring and temperature recording of cold chain logistics work to ensure that the quality of the food in the transportation process, and to ensure the safety and sanitation of imported foods.