Cold Chain & Temperature-Controlled Freight
Shipping perishable and temperature-sensitive cargo without breaking the chain, from reefer setup to monitoring and claims.
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Pre-Cooling and Loading a Reefer Without Breaking the Chain
The chain usually breaks in the twenty minutes the doors are open. Loading a reefer properly is a sequence, and one step of it is the opposite of intuition.
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Shipping Fresh Produce: Controlled Atmosphere and Ethylene
Fresh produce is alive in the container. It breathes, it gives off heat and ethylene, and several popular fruits are ruined by being kept too cold.
Active vs Passive Cold Chain Packaging for Air Freight
A powered container and an insulated box solve the same problem differently. The choice turns on duration, value, volume and how much handling risk you can absorb.
GDP Pharma Shipping: What the Rules Actually Require
GDP is about documented control, not about how cold the box was. Most forwarders who say they are GDP compliant cannot produce what compliance actually requires.
Cold Chain Data Loggers and Temperature Excursions
An excursion is not automatically a loss. The damage is usually done by whoever decides on the spot to write the shipment off, or to accept it without telling anyone.
Reefer Setpoints, Ventilation and Humidity: What to Specify
Most reefer claims trace back to three lines on a booking that nobody filled in properly. Here is what each setting does and what happens when it is wrong.
Temperature-Controlled Freight: 9 Things You Must Specify
Setpoint, ventilation, pre-cooling, cold-chain gaps and data loggers. The details that decide whether reefer cargo arrives sellable.
India to USA Freight: Ocean, Air & Pharma Cold Chain Guide
A practical guide to India to USA shipping: ocean and air freight, Nhava Sheva and Mundra ports, transit times, India and US customs, and pharma cold chain.
Cold Chain FAQ
Where do cold chains usually break?
At the transfer points, not on the main legs. The vulnerable moments are the time on an unshaded apron, the hours in an unplugged reefer waiting for a terminal power slot, and the gap between a chilled vehicle and a chilled store. The ocean or air leg itself is generally the best-controlled part of the journey.
How do I prove the temperature was maintained?
Use continuous data logging, and treat the logger record as the deliverable. A temperature excursion is often invisible on arrival (the cargo looks fine), so without a log there is no way to demonstrate integrity or to establish where a failure occurred. For regulated goods such as pharmaceuticals, the logger record determines whether the consignment can legally be sold at all.
What temperature should I set the reefer to?
Specify it explicitly at booking rather than relying on a default, and state whether the container must be pre-cooled before stuffing. The correct set point comes from the product specification, and for produce it may also involve controlled atmosphere settings for oxygen and carbon dioxide. Never assume the carrier will infer the requirement from the commodity description.
What happens if a reefer loses power in transit?
How long the cargo survives depends on the product, the ambient temperature, and how well the container was pre-cooled and loaded, but the risk is a total loss for sensitive goods. This is why monitored plug-in at every stage matters, and why reefer shipments should carry insurance written for temperature-related loss, which is not automatically included in standard cargo cover.
Is air freight better than sea freight for perishables?
Air is faster and reduces the number of hours the cargo spends in the chain, which suits short-shelf-life goods and high-value pharmaceuticals. Sea in a reefer is far cheaper and works well for products with sufficient shelf life, such as frozen goods and hardy produce. The right answer is usually driven by remaining shelf life on arrival rather than by freight cost alone.