Recently, many regions in China have reported that the positive nucleic acid test of imported cold chain frozen food and packaged samples has become a possible way to contract the novel coronavirus. So what is cold chain food? What are cold chain foods made of? Let's take a look at it today.
What is the food cold chain
At present, the range of food applicable to the cold chain includes:
Primary agricultural products: vegetables, fruits; Meat, poultry, eggs; Aquatic products; Flower products.
Processed food: frozen food; Poultry, meat, aquatic products and other packaged cooked food; Ice cream and dairy products; Fast food ingredients.
Special goods: Medicine.
Food cold chain is established with the progress of science and technology and the development of refrigeration technology. It is a logistics phenomenon under low temperature conditions based on refrigeration technology and refrigeration technology as a means. Therefore, the construction of the cold chain requires the production, transportation, sales, economic and technical issues involved to be considered together, coordinate the relationship between each other, to ensure the safety of perishable food in the process of processing, transportation and sales, it is a high-tech content of a low-temperature system engineering.
Cold chain logistics should follow the "3T principle" : the final quality of the product depends on the storage and circulation time, temperature and product tolerance of the cold chain.
The "3T principle" states the relationship between the time allowed for the quality of refrigerated food and the temperature of the product. Due to the accumulation and irreversibility of quality degradation caused by the time-temperature experience of refrigerated food in circulation, there are corresponding technical and economic indicators of product control and storage time for different product varieties and different quality requirements.
2, the composition of the cold chain
Food cold chain consists of four aspects: frozen processing, frozen storage, refrigerated transportation and distribution, and frozen sales.
(1) Freezing processing: including the cooling and freezing of meat and poultry, fish and eggs, as well as the processing process at low temperatures; Also includes the pre-cooling of fruits and vegetables; All kinds of frozen food and dairy products low temperature processing. In this link, the cold chain is mainly equipped with cooling, freezing devices and quick-freezing devices.
(2) Frozen storage: including food cooling storage and frozen storage, as well as fruit and vegetables and other food gas storage, it is to ensure the food in the storage and processing of low temperature preservation environment. This link mainly involves various types of cold storage/processing rooms, freezers, freezers and household refrigerators.
(3) Refrigerated transportation: including the low temperature state of logistics links such as medium and long distance transportation and short-distance distribution of food. It mainly involves railway refrigerated cars, refrigerated cars, refrigerated ships, refrigerated containers and other low-temperature transport vehicles. In the process of refrigerated transportation, temperature fluctuations are one of the main reasons for the decline in food quality, so the means of transport should have good performance, while maintaining the prescribed low temperature, but also to maintain a stable temperature, long distance transportation is especially important.
(4) Frozen sales: including all kinds of cold chain food into the wholesale and retail links of frozen storage and sales, it is jointly completed by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. With the rapid development of various supermarket chains in large and medium-sized cities, various supermarket chains are becoming the main sales channels of cold chain food. In these retail terminals, a large number of refrigerated/frozen display cases and storage are used, which gradually become an indispensable part of the complete food cold chain.
3, the characteristics of cold chain
Since the food cold chain is a supply chain system with the core requirement of maintaining a low temperature environment for the purpose of ensuring the quality of perishable foods, it has higher requirements and is more complex than the general normal temperature logistics system.
First of all, the construction investment is much larger than that of normal temperature logistics, and it is a huge system project.
Secondly, the timeliness of perishable foods requires higher organizational coordination of all links of the cold chain.
Third, the operation of the food cold chain is always related to energy consumption costs, and effective control of operating costs is closely related to the development of the food cold chain.
What is cold chain? What are the types of cold chains
The so-called "cold chain" mainly refers to all kinds of raw and fresh food in the whole process of production, transportation, sales and storage, the temperature is controlled within the range of 0 ° C -4 ° C, and the freshness and taste of food are maintained to the maximum extent. "Cold chain" is the general term for this process and the equipment that enables it. The concept of "cold chain" was first introduced in the food industry, but it is now applied in more fields, such as medicine, aerospace and so on.
Drug cold chain:
1. Drug cold chain refers to a special supply chain management system for temperature-sensitive drugs such as refrigerated drugs. The entire storage and circulation process from the finished product warehouse of the production enterprise to before use must be under the specified temperature environment (temperature control system) to ensure the quality of drugs.
2. The cold chain of drugs involves four links: low-temperature production, low-temperature transportation and distribution, low-temperature storage and low-temperature sales of cold chain drugs. After the production of cold chain drugs in pharmaceutical factories, they have begun to enter the cold chain process, through storage nodes, circulation channels, shipped to the sales terminal, and finally sold to consumers.
3. Drug cold chain, as a systematic project, has become a long-term and important infrastructure for pharmaceutical production, wholesale, retail and consumption terminal enterprises and institutions.
Food cold chain:
1. Food cold chain refers to a special supply chain system in which perishable foods are purchased or fished from the origin, processed, stored, transported, distributed and retailed until the hands of consumers, and all links are always in the low temperature environment necessary for the products to ensure food quality and safety, reduce losses and prevent pollution.
2. At present, the range of food applicable to the cold chain includes:
Primary agricultural products: vegetables, fruits; Meat, poultry, eggs; Aquatic products; Flower products.
Processed food: frozen food; Poultry, meat, aquatic products and other packaged cooked food; Ice cream and dairy products; Fast food ingredients.
3. Food cold chain is a logistics phenomenon based on refrigeration technology and using refrigeration technology as a means at low temperatures. Therefore, the construction of the cold chain requires the production, transportation, sales, economic and technical issues involved to be considered together, coordinate the relationship between each other, to ensure the safety of perishable food in the process of processing, transportation and sales, it is a high-tech content of a low-temperature system engineering.