COVID-19 Impact on Cold Chain in Food and Beverage Industry | DBMR

Posted by Rajesh M on April 27th, 2021

COVID-19 Impact on Cold Chain in Food and Beverage Industry

The pandemic have impacted the food and beverages industry by up surging in their consumption globally. However, along with it pandemic have impacted on storage and transporting of food products to high extent. Whereas, due to the extended lockdown food service sector have been drastically impacted in all over world.

Cold chain is the sequence of actions which are mainly applied to food products during its transportation and storage. The logistics of these cold chains comprises of all procedures which ensures constant temperature for product at storage facilities Furthermore, cold chain is known as a science & technology and a process.

It is necessary to understand biological and chemical processing which is associated with perishability of food products hence it is known as science. Further, it is called as a process as it includes series of actions that are need to be taken and performed to manufacture, store, transport and monitor temperature sensitive products.

It is comprises of temperature-controlled supply chain hence it is continuous series of distribution and storage process which take place in a temperature organized environment.

In the required temperature sequence, the cold chain is responsible for the storage and transfer of perishable foods to minimize the process of biological degradation. It allows customers to distribute healthy and high-quality foods. It entails field experiments to calculate the actual state of commercial cold chains for correct time-temperature conditions at each critical point of the cold chain.

These procedures, however, have some drawbacks, such as industrial handling procedures, field transport operations and storage in retail and domestic refrigerators during showing. Therefore, progress of skills obtained by time-temperature conditions calculation, analysis, and management is examined, along with the associated technological and functional difficulties slowing the introduction of such approaches.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed exceptional impact on food supply chain. It includes farm labor, processing, transport and logistics, as well as inconstant shifts in demand. Some of these delays are the result of measures that have been implemented to reduce the magnitude of the infection.

Food supply chains have proven a remarkable flexibility in the environment. COVID-19 has enforced shocks on supply chains of food, at the same time; it’s affecting farm production, transport and logistics, and demand.

For instance,

• Meat processing plants across the U.S. are forced to be operated by reducing their capacity. In the U.S., meat processing at slaughter houses for cattle and pig slaughter has been decreased by 40% in April 2020 as compared to the April 2019.
• Food inventory is knows as a connecting point to overcome disruptions between food transportation. According to USDA, from February to March, there is 4% drop in frozen pork inventory. Further USDA stated it's the largest drop since March 2014.

However, there is an increase in demand for road transporting such as transporting goods by truck.

For instance,

• In the U.S. there is 40% to 60% upsurge in transportation of grocery stores and warehouses since pandemic started.
• In India, there has also been a mixed short-term effect on the market for transportation. Online food orders have declined by 20% since February, while online supermarket orders are overflowing.

The measures to deter and monitor the dissemination of COVID-19 and its effects have had a major influence on billions of people's food supplies, eating habits, and nutrition, posing a host of research questions. The purpose of this research focus is to provide insights into the impact of the epidemic of COVID-19 on the availability of food, dietary and nutritional habits, and the consequences of these changes.

Changes in purchasing habits, such as the mass procurement of perishable foods, can lead to the use of foods that are no longer healthy or sub-optimal in terms of nutrient content, resulting in a very limited supply of such foods. Increased demand for such goods can contribute to an inability to sustain supply levels.

Food contact among states, public health officials, independent experts and influencers, through a wide spectrum of media outlets, has now become an important part of the exchange of COVID-19 information, ranging from knowledge sharing about how to deal with changes in food supply to threats associated with food sales, storage and use.

INITIATIVES

The ICCC 2020 Conference, held from the 26th through to the 28th of August, began earlier this week to highlight the topics of food quality and food safety in the cold chain, energy efficiency in the cold chain, refrigerants of tomorrow, innovative technologies in the cold chain and more. GFCCC is using a virtual presentation at the biennial event to connect attending stakeholders and governments to the coalition’s activity around these themes, mainly through its data-gathering initiative it is pursuing with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ozon Action. Read more….