Cool Chain Association trials labels for perishables

The nonprofit Cool Chain Association (CCA) has completed the first phase of a trial of perishable labels that place commodity and temperature requirements on a single label with the hope of reducing temperature variation in perishables during transport and streamlining cold chain operations. International Air Transport Association (IATA) regulations for perishables — as opposed to pharmaceuticals — do not require temperature range to be indicated on packaging, so perishables are prone to temperature variation, CCA Board Treasurer Eric Mauroux told Air Cargo World. CCA hopes for global adoption of the new label, which logs all necessary shipment information, he said. [caption id="attachment_57066098" align="alignright" width="310"] A new label was trialed for perishables shipments by the Cool Chain Association. Photo/Meantime Communications[/caption] For the trial, a label indicating both the type of commodity and temperature range was attached to shipments of plants and vegetables between Israel and Belgium over a three-month period. Handlers and warehouse operators were the primary participants, and the goal was to avoid temperature variations for the perishables. The trial established that the new label did help avoid temperature variation and also reduced time-consuming activities like checking additional documents, according to the CCA. “This label is placed on the shipment before it is accepted by the airline and not only enables their ground handling company to provide the right handling and storage but also enables all actors to identify such shipments throughout the chain,” Mauroux said. “This facilitates the identification of perishable shipments throughout the chain and … [prompts] the corrective action.” Handlers and warehouse operators provided mostly positive feedback on the label but shared concerns about cost and the change in workflow it would create, Israel Amsterdamer, project manager for the trial, said in the release. He added that the big picture is to be “solving a very real problem, saving costs in the long run and playing an important part in stopping food loss,” Amsterdamer noted. The next steps in the trial are to reach agreement among stakeholders and receive approval from the IATA Live Animals and Perishable Board (LAPB) to implement it at an industry level. “We are sure that IATA LAPB members will respond favorably to this initiative as it is a major breakthrough to ensure cool chain integrity of perishable shipments,” Mauroux said. Why it matters Airfreight stakeholders began building out their cool chain operations amid surging demand for transport of the COVID-19 vaccine and other vital medical shipments. But currently the perishables sector is the largest airfreight vertical, representing 17% of total airfreight transported globally, Mauroux said. In fact, in terms of volumes, the sector is growing faster than the overall air cargo business, gaining 1 point of product share over the last four years, he added. In turn, stakeholders have been adding new warehouses and implementing new technology, including dnata which plans to open a new cool chain facility at Erbil Airport (EBL) in 2023. Meanwhile other stakeholders continue to ask for more agreement between local authorities and standardized ground infrastructure to improve the cold-chain transport process. CCA is made up of around 40 groups in the temperature-sensitive supply chain , including Air Bridge Cargo, Brussels Airport (BRU), Cargolux, Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW), DHL , Etihad Cargo, ITA Airways Cargo, KLM, Qatar Airways Cargo , Liege Airport (LGG) and Swiss WorldCargo.

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