This is part four of our Cold Chain Summit Series. You can read part one, part two, and part three to catch up. Quickly though, we've been discussing what the Cold Chain is, why it is important and how it impacts your products and goods.
Temperature monitoring throughout the cold chain is extremely critical. Getting pharmaceuticals and food products from the manufacturer to the user involves movement through various weather conditions at different times of the year. Some products, especially pharmaceuticals, show no external signs of spoilage or loss of potency if there were extreme temperature fluctuations during transportation or storage. In these cases, it is hard to determine if the cold chain maintained proper conditions or wrong conditions. One procedure prior to sending a product through the cold chain is to create temperature profiles. These profiles document the extremes of temperature conditions in a geographical region or transit route or warehouse. One set of temperature parameters could compare mild, extreme, hot or cold weather. Another set could compare normal summer, hot summer, normal winter and cold winter.
Another set of conditions could be temperature mapping of a warehouse or distribution center. Whatever temperature profile method you choose, use Dickson’s new report logger inside a package, truck, airplane, ship, warehouse and distribution center to profile the temperature conditions. This will help you document the temperatures during the cold chain and ensure the shelf life of your products.
