Solving the Challenges Faced in Food & Beverages Transportation

Summary

The demand for fresh and frozen food is increasing, leading to challenges in the transportation of perishable products. Food manufacturers must meet strict sanitary requirements to ensure food safety. To transport food products, it is essential to maintain a specific temperature and prevent contamination. The food industry faces rising costs due to increased demand, smaller batch deliveries, a lack of qualified drivers, and a shortage of refrigerated vehicles. Key terms in the food and beverage industry include temperature regulation, hygiene, and ready-to-eat foods. Vehicles used for food transportation must have a design that facilitates cleaning, disinfection, and temperature control. The food transporter must ensure that all food is protected from contamination and transported under temperature control.

Perishable products and pre-processed foods are transported around the world due to an increase in demand. In addition, people rely on ready-to-cook and ready-to-serve products to deal with their busy work schedules.

Food manufactures are taking all the necessary measures to meet the food safety standards. Although we might have experienced the condition of previously cooked food, it gets spoiled within the day due to climatic conditions.   

Edible products are the one that gets spoiled and quickly decays due to its timeline because these foods & beverages are transported across the world, even for long distances. Thanks to Refrigerated trucks that made it possible.

The food companies ensure all the sanitary requirements from manufacturing right from primary production, including processing, distribution, transportation, storage, and sale to the end customer, meeting all the hygiene standards. 

Solutions for the Challenges faced in Food & Beverages Transportation

What are the criteria to transport food products?

It’s important to keep perishable goods refrigerated at 40 degrees or below or frozen at 0 degrees or below. Meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and any prepared foods are examples of items that must be refrigerated for safety.

The two most important aspects of food safety while transporting food are preventing contamination and keeping the food cold (5°C) or hot (60°C).

Food & Beverage Industry Costs: What's Driving Them Higher?

 

  1. Demand for Fresh and frozen food sales is on the rise.
  2. Delivery of additional items in smaller batches to facilitate same-day deliveries
  3. Lack of qualified drivers
  4. Vehicles with refrigeration and freezing capability are in short supply
  5. Decreased usage of preservatives, resulting in a shortening of shelf life

Terms that you need to know in Food & Beverage Industry

 

  1. Demand for Fresh and frozen food sales is on the rise.
  2. Delivery of additional items in smaller batches to facilitate same-day deliveries
  3. Lack of qualified drivers
  4. Vehicles with refrigeration and freezing capability are in short supply
  5. Decreased usage of preservatives, resulting in a shortening of shelf life

1. Temperature of the surrounding area

An environment’s typical operating temperature (TOP).

 

2. Contamination

When a product is dangerous for human consumption because of any potentially harmful substances, whether chemical, physical, or biological.

3. Disinfection

By using chemical or physical agents, the microbial burden can be reduced to a level that will not cause food to be contaminated in any way.

4. Worker in the Food Industry

Persons are expected to adhere to food hygiene regulations that directly handle packaged or unpackaged food, equipment, utensils, or food contact surfaces.



5. Food Distributors

A firm that specializes in: 

  1. The handling of food destined for sale.
  2. No matter if the activity is commercial, charity, or community-based, no matter whether it is a one-time event. Transportation of food for sale or further processing in a food establishment, including food trucks.



6. Hygiene

A situation that encourages the use of hygienic measures that can help avoid sickness and promote health.



7. Foods that are ready to eat

Unprocessed food is consumed in the same state as it is sold and excludes nuts in the shell and whole, raw fruits and vegetables that require hulling, peeling or washing by the consumer.

8. Items that can be Stored

The process of sterilizing food items using heat, chemicals, fermentation, or pasteurization.

9. Temperature Regulation

Keep food at 5°C or below, or 65°C or above, in general.

Vehicle Requirements for Transportation

1. Vehicle Type and Structure

Any transport vehicle must be built to safeguard food if it becomes contaminated during transportation. As a result of the design of the vehicle’s inside, it should be easy to examine, clean, disinfect, and regulate temperature.

Design and construction of vehicles should facilitate locking and sealing, protect cargo from severe temperatures, and prevent insect infestation. In addition, vehicles used for transporting food must have surfaces that can be cleaned and sanitized effectively if necessary. 

A thermometer needs to be provided to monitor the temperature. The temperature should correspond to the temperature of the food that will be served.

2. Maintenance and Sanitation

Strict cleanliness must be maintained at all times for all food-transporting vehicles. This includes all vehicles used for transporting meat, poultry, or egg products and their accessories and connections. Whenever necessary, they should be cleaned and disinfected. Procedures for cleaning and sanitation should be documented.

There should be hard insulated food containers that can maintain food temperatures throughout transit, allowing air to circulate, keeping temperatures even during transportation (i.e., thermo boxes and coolers).

An independent third-party calibrator should check temperature gauges at least once each year, with internal calibration as needed. The Inspection Department should receive certificates upon license renewal.

The Obligations of the Food Transporter

  1. Protect all food from contamination
  2. Travel Potentially Hazardous Food under temperature control
  3. Ensure that potentially hazardous food that is meant to be carried frozen stays frozen throughout transport.

The vehicle driver and the food handler are trained for Basic Food Hygiene, which relates to food distribution and handling. In addition, monitoring programs are in place to guarantee temperature requirements are met both in transit and distribution.

Cleanliness and sanitation procedures have been documented, including cleaning frequency and chemicals used and the individual responsible. Third-party temperature monitoring equipment is calibrated once a year, and in-house calibration is performed as needed. Carry vehicles are not utilized for purposes other than their original function, i.e. They are not used to transport personnel.

Replacement vehicles must have Temporary Food Transport and Vehicle Pass in case of breakdown, repair, and maintenance and must also fulfill the criteria. A vehicle with a Food Transport and Vehicle Pass that has been approved for use cannot be transferred to another. In addition, consumable food samples must meet/comply with all the rules/requirements.

 

 

 

What are the exact problems faced by the Food and Beverage industry? - Solutions

1. Inability to keep track

Tracking is one area where we have a lot of trouble. Without proper visibility, it causes a delay in transportation. Keeping track must be appropriately maintained in order to reduce costs, maintain quality, and please your consumers. Your consumers will be dissatisfied if you provide them with little information. When it comes to customer satisfaction, there is a trade-off between lowering wastage and keeping consumers pleased. 

Solution:

GPS-based Vehicle Tracking System will eliminate the inability to track the vehicle’s location and in which route it’s moving. It gives real-time visibility, and you will get constant updates remotely without making calls to the drivers during the journey.  

2. Increased Supply Chain Costs

The expenses of running a food supply chain encompass a variety of factors, including:

  1. The price of energy and fuels
  2. Transportation and distribution
  3. Manpower
  4. The purchase of cutting-edge technology

Solution:

The hike in fuel price has impacted the transportation sector with increased fuel expenditure. So, to monitor the fuel usage implementing Fuel Monitoring Solution in the vehicles decreases the unnecessary fuel expenses and fuel usage. You can monitor fuel usage as per the distance covered and how many hours the vehicle was idling. 

In order to improvise the fleet expenses, adopting Fleet management Software to digitize your bill reports like POD(Proof Of Delivery) will be helpful to avoid chaos in the fleet operations. Here, transforming your business through cutting-edge technology is mandatory as it helps to reduce human-made errors. Therefore, choosing the best Fleet Management Software as per your business requirements will be a wise idea.

3. Maintaining Constant Temperature

Transporting time-sensitive commodities can be a challenging undertaking for fleet management. Additionally, they must be delivered within a specific time frame and maintain a high level of quality along the journey. Temperature is a crucial factor for the safe transport of these goods. However, dealing with this from a distance may be difficult.

Solution:

This is when having a GPS tracking device comes in useful. The Temperature Monitoring Feature maintains the temperature settings, minimizes the likelihood of temperature deviations.

4. Maintenance

Last-minute emergency repairs may be up to four times more expensive and result in unanticipated downtime, it pays to invest in a telematics system that can notify you of maintenance concerns in real-time.

Solution:

Maintaining your fleet’s vehicles is critical to keeping it operational, optimizing revenues, and preventing costly breakdowns. The most effective fleet vehicle maintenance plans integrate periodical alerts with preventative maintenance to maximize efficiency. By using FleetOS software, one can schedule maintenance periodically with reminders.

5. Real-Time Visibility

Commercial fleets have a 20 percent yearly accident rate, suggesting that one out of every five fleet vehicles is involved in a collision. Vehicle crashes may cripple companies not just by causing personal injury and physical damage but also by raising insurance premiums for years to come.

Solutions:

Fleet businesses are reducing these risks by using in-vehicle video systems to provide driver teaching, monitor driver behaviour, and access real-time visual evidence for accident investigations. Dashcams – Video Telematics works best for fleets that carry products that have a high value.

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Sushanthi is a Content Writer who wishes to be the voice of brands to project their innovative ideas and stories through her writing skills.

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