Transportation Temperature for Food Products
Hi!
I have a question regarding the transportation temperature in container during sea freight.
We have a food product that normally can be stored in room temperature, the shelf life is about 1 year. We are exporting this product to overseas. Just concerning if the temperature in the container will be overheating? But since this is a loose container, so we can't use chill container. Appreciate if anyone can advice or share your experience in how would you handle the transportation temperature to overseas.
Thanks!
Mel.
It's going to depend to an extent on how ambient-stable the product actually is, how long the journey is, possibly what route you're taking and what time of year you're shipping it. Metal containers are quite good at picking up heat, so for example in the past I've had products that we'd ship in ambient containers only during autumn/winter, and/or on routes that aren't crossing the equator, as "ambient" in a metal box on a ship at the wrong time of year with the wrong weather conditions can mean >40C. The nature of the product may also have an impact on how much heat it picks up during the day / releases at night.
I'm not sure what you mean by "loose" container, but you can readily get chilled "reefer" containers that you could load with pallets or boxes (subject to being suitably secured - however you load it, you should expect it to move around a lot more than normal road freight, so secure it well!).
It is completely based on product type, make up of trailer and placement of that trailer on the ship - as in what type of exterior or interior area/environment will it be subject too.
We have a client that did their first overseas shipment and sent out 10 trailer loads of ambient product, their trailers were placed on the top tier (exterior) of the ocean-going ship and subject to intense heat for 7 days, all product was LOST at time of receipt due to damage.
You really want to look into the shipping broker that you use and use one that is experienced in food transport.
Thank you for your reply. Wondering is there anyway to test the ambient-stability of a product?
It's going to depend to an extent on how ambient-stable the product actually is, how long the journey is, possibly what route you're taking and what time of year you're shipping it. Metal containers are quite good at picking up heat, so for example in the past I've had products that we'd ship in ambient containers only during autumn/winter, and/or on routes that aren't crossing the equator, as "ambient" in a metal box on a ship at the wrong time of year with the wrong weather conditions can mean >40C. The nature of the product may also have an impact on how much heat it picks up during the day / releases at night.
I'm not sure what you mean by "loose" container, but you can readily get chilled "reefer" containers that you could load with pallets or boxes (subject to being suitably secured - however you load it, you should expect it to move around a lot more than normal road freight, so secure it well!).
Dear Glenn,
Thank you for your reply. Wondering what do we need to check with the shipping broker (such as lead time)?
It is completely based on product type, make up of trailer and placement of that trailer on the ship - as in what type of exterior or interior area/environment will it be subject too.
We have a client that did their first overseas shipment and sent out 10 trailer loads of ambient product, their trailers were placed on the top tier (exterior) of the ocean-going ship and subject to intense heat for 7 days, all product was LOST at time of receipt due to damage.
You really want to look into the shipping broker that you use and use one that is experienced in food transport.
Thank you for your reply. Wondering is there anyway to test the ambient-stability of a product?
Most likely way to find out is to try it. If you don't have heated cabinets or similar, there are various external labs that will be able to provide this as part of accelerated shelf-life testing services.
As for the broker, ideally you want your container down in the hold where it is less exposed, but you'll want to approach with a degree of scepticism about any claims they may make on this, IMEX - quite a few will say that they will "try to" arrange this, but unless they put a lot of volume through the shipping lines they are rarely able to guarantee it, as the scale of container shipping is so vast that they don't want/need to have the flexibility to accommodate oddities unless there is actual significant commercial justification for it.
Understanding the journey length and route is also very useful, so you should certainly ask about that. Keep in mind that there can be delays, and if you ship frequently enough then you'll definitely encounter these ;)