Proof of concept for international cold chain monitoring and automated reporting

Summary

Red meat export supply chains are inherently complicated, fragmented and diverse. It is well known that temperature control can often suffer due to these factors, but it is difficult to know where this occurs, for how long and who is responsible.

In this project, Escavox investigated the commercial viability of continual cold chain monitoring of red meat supply chain to identify issues, improve quality and increase the return on investment from abattoir to importer in key international markets. 1,000 products were tracked along their supply chain to 22 different countries to compare and contrast the journeys using Escavox’s automated reporting platform.

Visibility of the cold chain helps to identify problems and allow change to be implemented that extends shelf life. When examining tracks within the reports generated by the Escavox platform, those with lower average temperatures tended to have fewer temperature fluctuations and increased predicted shelf life.

Objectives

The main objective of this study was to use real-world examples of Australian red meat exports to identify crucial variability points within the cold supply chain from abattoir to arrival at importing country.

This information helped to:

• investigate the variability between shelf life outcomes from air and sea freight
• test the hypothesis that air freight delivers a longer shelf life for the consumer
• identify any temperature incursions in the cold supply chain to provide data for any improvement.

Key findings

• Sea freight has better temperature control than air freight, resulting in a reduced rate of shelf life loss.
• Supplying data to prove sea freight suitability for US shipments resulted in seven times higher volume of sales, reduced freight costs of $3.82/kg and enhanced brand reputation.
• There is significant variability in temperature control and shelf life outcomes in all export routes. There are no consistently ‘good’ routes or shipment modes.
• Storage temperature has significantly more impact on shelf life than starting microbiological count.
• Long shelf life can be achieved but is not guaranteed. Tracking the temperature and location of product in red meat cold chains is fundamental to identifying and fixing issues in the supply chain. Ideally all routes should be tracked but at a minimum problem routes should be audited.
• A critical point in maintaining the export cold chain is the initial cooling of product to -1^o.
• Temperature impacts product shelf life at any point in the supply chain. Sharing data with other supply chain participants directly improves the temperature control and operational decisions which positively impact shelf life, quality and brand.

Benefits to industry

There are numerous benefits of monitoring international cold chains for Australia’s red meat products, including:

• increased sales volumes (7x)
• reduction in freight costs saving $3.82 / Kg
• brand protection and enhancement
• maintaining Australian competitive advantage
• reduced rejections of product
• building relationships between supply chain partners
• reduced insurance premiums
• supporting more beneficial market access protocols.

Future research

• Tracking temperature and location of red meat export shipments has multiple benefits and should be undertaken in order to minimise product damage, maximise shelf life and enhance brand reputation.
• Implementing an industry ‘shelf life lost per day’ metric would create an easy comparison of how well a cold chain is performing. This moves attention away from speed or temperature to a combination of both in one simple metric. When combined with data sharing, this can lead to a more informed decision on stock rotation.
• The ability to enter a processor-specific starting microbiological count would give a more accurate shelf life. A low microbiological count will help with longer shelf life, although cold chain control is more important.