Fresh Food Supply Chain
The fresh food supply chain is becoming increasingly complex. Not long ago, supply chains were short and relatively local. But improved processing, refrigeration and transportation, coupled with year-around demand for fresh foods, has resulted in elongated global fresh food supply chains with produce and proteins sourced from around the world.
- During summer months, food grown or produced in California or Florida may require several days of shipping.
- During winter months, produce grown in Central or South America or Arizona may have even longer supply chains, further impacting delivered freshness.
- Specialty foods, such as fish, are sourced from around the world.
LIMITATIONS OF DATA LOGGERS
Legacy data loggers and other “old-tech” approaches are inadequate and do not support proactive decision making throughout the fresh food supply chain. They don’t provide proactive insights or the level of granularity to make informed decisions as conditions that impact food freshness and safety dynamically change from harvest or production to delivery to the retailer. They only document when (and potentially where) something went wrong along the supply chain after the damage is done.
Additionally, placing a single data logger in a trailer is inadequate for managing freshness because freshness varies at the pallet level. Further, trailer-level monitoring only attempts to address one link in the fresh food supply chain – supplier to distribution center – ignoring the impacts of time and temperature prior to shipment or after the produce or protein has been received at a distribution center.
Today’s Fresh Food Supply Chain Requires New Technology
Successfully managing today’s fresh food supply chain efficiently and effectively requires applying modern technology. To reduce waste and ensure food safety, fresh produce and proteins need to be monitored and managed at the pallet- or case-level from harvest or production to the grocery store or restaurant.
Zest Fresh for Produce and Zest Fresh for Protein provide suppliers, logistics companies, distributors, retailers and restaurants with the insights they need to manage the dynamic fresh food supply chain. Real-time alerts enable workers to make the right decisions to ensure cold chain integrity and that every pallet is delivered with sufficient freshness to meet the grocers’ and restauranteurs’ needs.
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