Temperature-sensitive food shipments can encounter changing and sometimes uncontrolled conditions throughout distribution. This is particularly challenging for direct-to-consumer deliveries, where products such as meal kits, dairy products, meat, fish and other fresh or frozen foods may spend extended periods in transit or unattended following delivery.
Smithers can help you understand the conditions experienced during shipment and evaluate packaging performance against realistic temperature profiles, supporting decisions around product protection, packaging optimisation, spoilage reduction and material use.
Cold-chain testing and temperature monitoring
Smithers can audit distribution journeys, capture real-world temperature data and reproduce relevant conditions under controlled laboratory conditions.
Our capabilities include:
- Standard and bespoke cold-chain testing for different products and distribution routes
- ISTA 7D testing to evaluate the effects of external temperature exposure on packaged products
- Pallet-scale testing to evaluate larger shipment configurations
- Controlled temperature testing from -70°C to +150°C
- Temperature monitoring using multiple probes across pallets, shippers and packaged products
- Development of representative temperature profiles for more complex supply chains
Where temperature is only one part of the distribution risk, Smithers can also provide combined-hazard shipment simulation, bringing together temperature with physical hazards such as vibration and pressure to more closely represent real-world distribution conditions.
Evaluating cold-chain packaging performance
Testing can help organisations:
- Optimise packaging – balance temperature performance against packaging weight, complexity, material use and cost
- Reduce spoilage and waste – understand where temperature excursions may affect product quality or integrity
- Evaluate last-mile performance – assess packaging against less controlled conditions towards the end of the distribution journey
- Compare packaging solutions – evaluate alternative materials, insulation systems or pack configurations under controlled conditions
Talk to an expert about your cold-chain packaging
Talk to our specialists about your product, distribution route, temperature requirements and the packaging performance you need to evaluate.