Introduction
Cold chain refers to maintaining a specified temperature range during storage, transportation and distribution of perishable items like frozen or chilled foods, agricultural products, pharmaceutical products, chemicals and photographic films. It involves complex logistical and technical operations to keep the products within the required temperature range (usually between 2°C and 8°C but can vary depending on the product) from the time they are harvested or produced until they reach the consumer.
Why is Cold Chain Important?
With rising population and increasing demand for perishable and processed food products, maintaining an efficient cold chain has become crucial to ensure food safety, prevent wastage and satisfy consumer needs. According to estimates, around 30% of total food production gets wasted globally before reaching consumer plates due to lack of proper cold chain infrastructure and logistics. Proper implementation of cold chain can minimize this wastage greatly and increase availability of safe and quality food at affordable prices all year round. It also allows year-round production, storage and consumption of seasonal products. For the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, adherence to temperature norms during transportation is mandatory to maintain potency and efficacy of temperature-sensitive drugs, vaccines and biological products.
Components of an Effective Cold Chain System
Key components that comprise a robust cold chain include:
– Refrigerated storage facilities: Cold storages, refrigerated warehouses, containerized refrigerated freight, refrigerated trucks and rail carriages provide temperature-controlled storage of perishables.
– Temperature monitoring equipment: Sensors, data loggers and remote monitoring systems help track and record temperatures during storage and transportation to ensure adherence to standards.
– Refrigerated transport: Refrigerated and insulated trucks, ships, containers and rail provide temperature-regulated movement of goods over long and short distances.
– Temperature-controlled packaging: Insulated packaging like cool boxes, foam containers and insulated polymer and cardboard packaging prevent temperature fluctuations during loading, transit and temporary storage.
– Cold chain infrastructure: Specialized cold storage facilities near farms, ports and distribution centers with reefer racks, cold rooms, docks and refrigeration plants support seamless movement of goods.
Challenges in Cold Chain Management in India
While India has made progress in recent years, lack of adequate cold chain infrastructure continues to pose challenges:
Lack of Refrigerated Warehousing: India faces a huge gap in temperature-controlled warehousing capacity. According to estimates, the country requires over 62 million cubic tonnes of cold storage space but has a capacity of just over 30 million cubic tonnes. This causes bottlenecks and losses during harvesting and transportation seasons.
Inadequate Reefer Transport: With only about 40,000 refrigerated trucks against a need of over 200,000 vehicles, the reefer fleet is grossly insufficient for India’s need of distributing chilled and frozen products over long distances. Perishables have to rely on poorly-insulated transport resulting in losses.
Energy Infrastructure Issues: Unreliable power supply, especially in rural areas, affects the functioning of cold storages and refrigerated transport. High energy tariffs increase operating costs of cold chain operators.
Lack of Standardization and Traceability: Absence of standards for cold chain operations, packing, temperature and quality monitoring hampers efficiency. There is a need for implementing tracing and tracking systems for improved monitoring.
Role of Technology in Overcoming Challenges
New technologies are helping address some cold chain issues:
– Use of renewable energy sources like solar for powering cold storage and reefer operations is helping reduce dependence on conventional grid supply.
– Innovative packaging solutions like EPS boxes, phase change materials, hydrogels and advanced display units are improving insulation and temperature maintenance abilities.
– Sensors, data loggers, telematics and remote asset monitoring systems facilitate real-time temperature and location tracking during transit and storage.
– Electronic logistics marketplaces allow farmers, suppliers, transporters and customers to coordinate seamlessly.
– Block chain and distributed ledger technologies offer potential for digitizing cold chain operations and increasing transparency.
– Automation and mechanization help optimize handling, loading/unloading and improve productivity at cold storages and distribution centers.
Government Initiatives to Boost Cold Chain Capabilities
Several initiatives by the Government of India aim to develop and upgrade cold chain infrastructure across the value chain:
– Operation Greens which promotes Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and for establishing integrated cold chain systems.
– Rs. 10,000 crore Indian Agricultural Research and Management Scheme (IKSAM) for promoting storage infrastructure including cold storages.
– Rs. 600 crore Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund to expand animal husbandry infrastructure such as biomilk coolers and transport refrigeration.
– Scheme for Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure to provide subsidies for new cold storages and cold chain projects.
– Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships for projects developing an integrated cold chain network and multi-modal logistics parks.
Conclusion
An efficient, reliable and sustainable cold chain system will play a crucial role in maximizing shelf-life of agricultural produce, reducing wastage and increasing availability of safe food products, while enhancing farmer income and boosting food processing industry. Ongoing efforts to augment cold chain infrastructure and leverage digital technologies are helping improve capabilities but much more needs to be done to meet India’s rapidly growing demand. With a collaborative approach across governments, farmers, logistics providers and technology companies, India’s cold chain sector can unlock its true potential.