In the current age, consumers and market both are demanding high-quality services in various areas, including merchandise or transportation. The shipment of products or goods is such a challenging attempt when it comes to transporting fragile and pretty sensitive products, like perishable goods.
It is not easy to keep certain fruits and fish from other countries in good condition until they reach the consumer’s table. This process demands a quality complex system throughout the logistic process, involving everything from the origin point to the final point of supply.
What are Perishable Products?
A perishable product is such an item in which the quality of material may deteriorate due to different environmental conditions with time. These perishable products generally include meat, fish, seafood, fruits, meat by-products, pharmaceutical items, flowers, and chemicals.
Due to certain reasons like physiological and chemical characteristics, these perishable goods do not have large lifespans. It means that these products are easily susceptible to permanent and severe destruction during transportation. This destruction usually occurs due to continually fluctuating temperatures.
Transportation of Perishable Products
These perishable products are supposed to be handled with great efficacy and attention during transportation in order to keep them in good condition. The primary purpose is to transport these perishable goods on the table of the consumers in a fresh and unharmed condition. However, if you want to make this happen in real, there are certain key factors that you must consider as follows.
- Time
- Isolation
- Holding Temperature
According to a research report, these perishable products always deteriorate between the post-harvest and product distribution time. This permanent damage or deterioration can significantly affect the consumer in a negative way. Moreover, it will also affect the reputation of the respective business that is selling these products.
One of the foremost things to prevent these perishable goods from getting damaged is to consider the cold chain. Because the cold chain guarantees that the properties of your perishable products will remain integral throughout the transportation journey.
Excellent Ways to Transport Perishable Products
Perishable items are those products that are more likely to deteriorate and spoil if not kept in the refrigerator and then become unsafe to consume. Perishable food products that need to be refrigerated for their safety generally include fish, dairy products, meat, poultry, and different cooked meals. Refrigeration basically helps in slowing down the process of bacterial growth.
These perishable goods are generally exported from Mexico to the US. However, the products delivered to Asia and Europe are transported through ocean and air.
Transportation of Perishable Products by Ground
Perishable products are often transported by ground through trucks and trains. The trucks transporting these products generally have varying cold systems, which cannot be mechanized. Because they always dry ice or ice.
However, the trains have an isolating lining with a specialized system for loading, refrigeration, and unloading. Nowadays, every company prefers to outsource their perishable logistics services in order to obtain better results.
Transportation of Perishable Products by Air
This method is considered to be the most effective way to transport perishable products. As every airport has a specific area for managing these perishable goods. You can also control the temperature by using freezers and refrigerated chambers.
The areas specified for perishable goods have various inspection points. These areas are being supervised all the time by highly trained personnel who ensure that your goods are being kept at optimal temperatures. The products mostly transported through the air are fresh products, including meat, vegetables, dairy, fruit, etc. They also include frozen products like fruit pulps, concentrates, etc.
Transportation of Good through Ocean
Many businesses prefer to transport these perishable products through ships that contain refrigerators. These ships contain proper refrigeration systems in order to keep the products cool and circulate air properly. Most of the manufacturers also utilize refrigerated containers, which are called reefers, for shipping purposes. Generally, the logistic operators are supervising consolidation or deconsolidation.
Before shipping these perishable products, you need to prepare a sheet containing the temperature requirement. This temperature requirement sheet will indicate the temperature at which you should keep the products in the reefer (refrigeration container).
Following are the products that you can transport by the ocean.
- Fresh Items which include vegetables, fruits, meats, etc.
- Frozen goods like fruit pulps, meats, concentrates, etc.
Essential Key Factors to consider while Transporting Perishable Goods
Perishable goods such as raw meats and dairy products demand proper transportation techniques that can guarantee their good condition and freshness. Every restaurant prefers to keep perishable products in good condition because they want to serve the customer with safe and high-quality products.
In order to reduce the risk of decay during the shipping or transportation of these perishable eateries and goods, the distributors should follow all the protocols and requirements. Following are the major key factors to keep in mind before transporting perishable goods.
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Have Proper Knowledge about the Product
The transportation partners and warehouse staff should be aware of the type of goods they are handling and their shipping requirements. When they have full knowledge about the product, the perishable logistics services will conduct the safest delivery of perishable products.
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Choose the Best Transportation Partner
It is extremely important to choose a reliable partner for the transportation of these perishable goods. A good shipping partner will take certain suitable steps in order to maintain the quality of the products. In order to find a trustworthy transporter, the managers need to conduct comprehensive research in terms of the following things.
- Do they have a good record or any experience?
- Are they cleaning and maintaining their equipment regularly?
- What are their shipment time options?
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Establish Clear Communication with the Transporters
Transporting perishable goods is such a time-sensitive method. Therefore, both parties should have the right and clear communication, and the business should convey the correct information to the transporter before the shipment of products.
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Have Quality Packaging
While shipping these perishables, you need to make sure that transporters are handling and identifying these perishables correctly. However, you can make it happen by establishing proper packaging and labeling techniques.
Conclusion
The transportation of perishable goods is pretty expensive for business because it demands careful management and quick deliveries. Moreover, if the goods decay during shipping, the company will surely lose out on its potential sales.
