Table of Contents
1. What Is Cold Storage?
2. Who Uses Cold Storage?
3. Why Use Cold Storage?
4. How to Use Cold Storage
Benefits of Cold Storage
Cold storage is a highly effective solution for handling and storing bulk perishable goods. Without it, many businesses would deal with significant expenses due to replacing and disposing of perished goods. Without cold storage, the shipping and storing of a wide variety of products would be expensive and wasteful.
Many industries across the globe use cold storage. As globalization increases and demand for perishable products spreads, businesses must implement large-scale storage and shipping methods to keep costs down and perishables safe. Let’s look at the many advantages of cold storage and how it maximizes business efficiency, safety and profit.
What Is Cold Storage?
Cold storage is the storing of food products and other perishable items at a low temperature. Some foods, chemicals and cosmetics need to be kept in cold stores to maintain their freshness, quality and properties. Using cold storage facilities allows businesses to transport and store items that would normally go bad, increasing their shelf lives and saving the company money.
There are different cold storage options available to businesses. Two of the most common are cold storage warehouses and temperature-controlled trucks. Cold storage warehouses house goods while transport trucks ship them from one location to another in temperature-controlled conditions. There are many beneficial uses of cold storage warehouses and trucks — incorporating them into your business allows for easier, safer and more efficient operations.
Who Uses Cold Storage?
Anyone who uses products that can lose their integrity or degrade when subjected to temperature changes needs cold storage. This could mean refrigeration or frozen storage depending on their needs. Some industries that use cold storage include:
- Agricultural producers
- Frozen food producers
- Food outlets and restaurants
- Supermarkets
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Health care institutions
- Importers and exporters
These industries all rely on perishable goods — without cold storage, they couldn’t reach an international, or even national, customer base. As a result, many of the products consumers purchase depend on cold storage for preservation:
- Cosmetics
- Chemicals
- Fruits and vegetables
- Dairy and meat products
- Frozen foods
- Botanicals
- Organic textiles
- Historical documents and paintings
- Film canisters
- Craft goods
- Nutritional supplements
Why Use Cold Storage?
The food industry — along with many others — must create and ship safe, fresh products. Without cold storage, food left between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit will quickly start to develop bacteria. With high-quality cold storage, foods can be kept out of the danger zone for extended periods, allowing businesses to transport and store food quickly and safely.
Let’s look at a few of the numerous benefits cold storage can offer your business:
1. Offers Temperature Control
Cold storage has temperature controls, allowing you to adjust settings to fit your specific needs. Refrigeration systems now come with several customization options that enable you to set cold storage temperatures to the exact setting for your food products. This also means transport trucks can have sophisticated climate systems, allowing many companies to transport their goods through the same truck system.
Temperature-Controlled LTL and FTL
2. Prolongs the Life of Perishable Goods
Freezing food allows you to preserve the nutrients and extend the life of your perishable food products. Proper freezing allows for maximum preservation of nutrients and helps maintain the texture, quality and taste of your foods. This is highly beneficial for businesses that need to source a particular ingredient over distances — they can now order whatever they need without sacrificing food quality and nutrition.
3. Is Cost-Effective
Bulk cold storage is highly cost-effective. One of the most significant expenses for businesses is food waste. The more product that spoils and gets thrown out, the more money a company loses. With cold storage, businesses can keep food preserved for months at a time. This reduces their overall waste and allows them to sell the maximum amount of product without spending money on restocking food that went bad.
4. Prevents Health Issues
As previously mentioned, food in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit is much more likely to grow harmful bacteria. The longer your food sits in the danger zone, the more bacteria can spread. Bacteria like Campylobacter, Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus all grow at these temperatures and can make anyone who consumes them sick. You’ll keep your consumers safer by minimizing their chance of getting Salmonella or other health risks with cold storage.
5. Saves Space
Because you don’t have to store all your food products in your fridges or onsite, keeping them in a cold storage warehouse frees up space for your company. All of your goods not currently in use can be stored conveniently in a warehouse location for when you need them. Additionally, using temperature-controlled truck transportation saves you from having to freeze and store food products at your business. You can rely on shipments to deliver your order instead of freezing everything yourself on-site.
Explore Warehousing Capabilities
How to Use Cold Storage
Cold storage facilities require sophisticated technology to store and transport perishable items. They have to be outfitted with secure airlock systems, cooling equipment, stainless steel cold store racking and much more. Both outfitting and maintaining a facility or truck for these needs take more money and specialized upkeep than many businesses want to handle, which is where logistics and storage organizations come in.
Cold storage facilities require regular cleaning to prevent the spread of microorganisms. Additionally, they must be set up for maximum energy efficiency to keep costs down. Cold storage facilities also have to ensure product traceability to keep operations running smoothly without losing customer products. On top of all this, facility workers must have the proper clothing, equipment and safety measures in place to protect them from the cold.
A dedicated logistics and warehousing company can handle all the shipment and storage of your perishable goods efficiently and safely. Choosing the right cold storage facility can take the burden off your back so you can focus on providing your customers with the best products and services possible.
Efficient Food Transportation and Storage With Flagship Logistics Group
With over 30+ years of logistics experience, you can trust Flagship Logistics Group to safely and efficiently deliver and store your food products. We offer multi-temperature warehousing, temperature-controlled LTL transport and truckload freight shipping to businesses at every level of the food industry chain.
We’re dedicated to optimizing all of your logistics and freight management. By partnering with us, you ensure your business receives the highest quality supply chain and food logistic services available. Our dedication to superior customer service means you’ll get personalized help with handling your operations for a better, more productive system.
