New Guidance Helps Supply Chain Enhance Frozen Food Quality, Reduce Energy Use

The Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) and the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) have developed a new protocol to standardize and modernize temperature monitoring across the frozen food supply chain. This protocol provides a unified, data-driven approach to tracking temperature fluctuations from production to distribution, aimed at improving operational efficiency, enhancing food quality and safety, and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The initiative involves leading industry experts and professionals to develop a standardized protocol for capturing, recording, and understanding temperature fluctuations from production through final distribution.

Key Takeaways:

• The new protocol provides guidance on identification of critical monitoring points across the supply chain, best practices for data collection, management, and analysis, and establishment of baseline measurements for future research and improvement.
• Implementation of this protocol will enable the industry to better understand variations in temperature set points across different products and operators, identify and address significant temperature deviations during product journeys, and support future initiatives to optimize energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The protocol is designed to improve food safety, quality, and shelf-life implications and reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions throughout the cold chain.
• Shane Brennan, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Partnerships, and Policy at the GCCA, stated that there are major opportunities for businesses across the cold chain to identify and eliminate inefficiencies in how they use energy to keep food frozen.
• Dr. Sanjay Gummalla, AFFI's Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Food Safety, emphasized that the protocol represents a major advancement for frozen food manufacturers and broader cold chain partners as they drive continued improvements in quality and sustainability.

Statistics:

• The frozen food cold chain operates with established monitoring practices that deliver high-quality food and preservation standards across the world.
• 1,300 member companies in over 85 countries are represented by the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA)
• Over 400 frozen processors and associate members belong to the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI)

Sources:

• Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA):

* Shane Brennan, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Partnerships, and Policy

* Contact information: sbrennan@gcca.org

• American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI):

* Mary Emma Young, Vice President of Communications

* Contact information: meyoung@affi.com

• Publicly available industry memo: #\
• Learn more and download the protocol from the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) website.