Cold Chain and Food Safety

Unbroken temperature control from harvest to buyer, traceability documented with data loggers and HACCP-based food safety systems are the focus of this session.

In seafood, quality is at its highest at the moment of harvest and from then on can only be preserved. Cold chain is the name of that preservation: keeping the product within a defined temperature range from harvest to the buyer's store.

Where the chain breaks. Waiting after harvest, insufficient ice ratio, door-open time during vehicle loading, transfer points and customs waiting periods. A two-hour deviation at one link can take days off shelf life.

You cannot manage what you do not measure. Using data loggers means being able to document temperature history to the buyer. Some retail chains have made this record a contractual condition; without it, the return risk stays with the seller.

Traceability. Recording which cage a product came from, on what date and in which batch is not only a regulatory obligation; it is a system that narrows the scope of a recall when something goes wrong, and therefore lowers its cost.

Food safety documentation. HACCP-based systems, export health certificates and buyer-specific audits are on the agenda of every exporting operation. The documentation process is not separate work from production — it is the output of production's record discipline.

At the summit. Logistics companies, refrigeration equipment suppliers and exporters share the B2B table. The technical tour on 22 October also inspects the cold chain line of a processing plant.