Monitoring and recording temperature levels from the early stages of processing to the delivery of finished goods to the consumer is essential to food safety - a discussion with Cryopak.
Improper temperature control of food products can lead to the spread of bacteria, causing food borne illnesses such as Salmonella, E. Coli or Listeria. Monitoring and recording temperature levels from the early stages of processing to the delivery of finished goods to the consumer is essential to food safety.
Amanda J Riemer, is Marketing Coordinator, for Cryopak, a leading manufacturer of cold chain products for food and life science industries and provider of temperature-controlled packaging to help maintain product integrity.
Riemer listed some concerns that food companies have when dealing with an issue of improper temperature control during transit of food products: “Companies want to know if the correct temperature profiles were maintained throughout the transportation process. If not, when did the problem exactly occur? How long was the temperature not maintained at the required levels? If a third party trucking group is involved, such data helps pinpoint who is actually responsible (and how to deal with insurance issues etc).”
There’s a lack of education in such aspects, says Riemer, who suggests analyzing FDA warning letters to understand some of the reasons cited for non-conformances. For instance, she adds that, many companies transport seafood – shell fish and oysters – without a precautions for temperature control.
Also, state troopers in many states can stop trucks transporting perishable food products if they suspect these to be ‘hot trucks’ – those with inadequate or incorrectly working temperature controls. Such hold ups, traffic delays or accidents could lengthen transportation time. Cryopak’s loggers, Riemer explains, can be programmed to follow number of readings, instead of time, to monitor temperature in spite of such delays. The limit of some of the data loggers are programmed to 8000 readings, for instance.
Cryopak's data loggers can be customized per clients' requirements. Already, the company sells the Junior Egg Data Logger shaped like an egg, designed to measure egg temperature in cartons during transportation and storage or during the incubation process. A recent customer wanted to know if a temperature data logger could be shaped like a hamburger, that could accompany real patties on a conveyor belt and even in a broiler.
Recently, Cryopak launched the new iMini USB PDF data logger. With no proprietary software, this logger avoids compatibility issues, and users can retrieve data on any device with a PDF reader. The compact profile and lightweight design, along with the waterproof pouch allows this data logger to go virtually anywhere.