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the world’s airlines, publishes perishable cargo regulations
that set standards for temperature ranges, packaging,
marking, documenting, and handling of temperature-sen-
sitive air cargo.
Wen of Apex Logistics suggests paying special attention
to the trucking leg of the journey. A refrigerated truck is a
must, of course, but the motor carrier and its equipment
should also be reliable and its
service consistent, she says. She
and her colleagues take nothing
for granted; most of the perishables exports her group handles
are live seafood and delicate fruits
like cherries, so they always send
someone to the airline to accept
the cargo and tender it to the
airline, both for quality assurance and to ensure compliance
with Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) rules, she
says. For any temperature-sensitive shipment, it’s important to verify that it arrived in
good condition, with no visible damage that could compromise temperature integrity, she adds.
4Think “total time in transit” when scheduling and pack- ing shipments. Shippers only see a perishable product
when it’s in their possession, but that’s just one segment
of an air shipment’s journey. Once a product leaves the
premises, the maximum-transit-time clock starts ticking.
It pays to be aware of how many handoffs there will be,
how long a shipment will be in transit or held at various
waypoints, and whether it will remain refrigerated the
entire time. That knowledge will inform how items are
packed; the longer the total transit time, the more cold
packs and layers of insulation will be needed, for instance.
For some delicate or highly temperature-sensitive products like live seafood or cut flowers, the countdown begins
when they are placed in shipping cartons. To avoid compromising a product’s shelf life, experts caution against
packing such items too far in
advance of the flight’s departure
time and cutoff for receiving
cargo.
5Pay attention to packaging, containers, and protective coverings. This is a topic that could
easily merit an article of its own,
and it’s impossible to discuss the
many different packaging and
packing options and best practices here. Careful research is called
for, but here are a few basic considerations to keep in mind:
b The basic principle is to prevent heat transfer. Materials
in common use today for small containers include rigid
polyurethane foam, reflective materials like radiant barrier
films, and expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam. Gel packs
and sealed coolant packs are popular for refrigerated
products, while dry ice is often used for frozen items.
(Note that dry ice is a regulated hazardous material and
must comply with IATA requirements for documentation, classification, and labeling.)
b Packaging and perishables experts at freight forward-
ers, airlines, and parcel carriers stand ready to help ship-
Shipping perishable temperature-controlled products
by air is anything but routine. Many products, such as
fruit and flowers, are seasonal, with sharp short-term
spikes in shipment volume that tax carriers’ capacity.
Others, like seafood, are so delicate and temperature-sensitive that mishandling can cause irreparable
harm to the product or compromise food safety. To
give you a sense of the challenges involved, here are
a few interesting facts we ran across while reporting
this story:
b Although they are both crustaceans, lobsters and
crabs require different temperatures when shipped
live by air.
b Hellmann Perishable Logistics, founded in 1984,
says it was the first global logistics company 100-per-
cent dedicated to managing door-to-door cold chain
services.
b UPS transported an estimated 89 million cut flowers for Valentine’s Day in 2019, delivering them via
refrigerated service from South American farms to
U.S. consumers in less than two days. Lufthansa Cargo
transported 900 metric tons of flowers from South
America and Africa to its hub in Frankfurt, Germany,
for Valentine’s Day this year.
b American Airlines carried more than 12 million
pounds of fresh asparagus in the first half of 2018.
Christmas and New Year’s saw a spike in shipments
of meat, including 14,000 pounds of fresh beef from
Argentina to Miami and 235,000 pounds of lamb from
New Zealand to London.
b SpiceFresh, a new subsidiary of India’s SpiceJet
airline that works with farmers to ship fresh produce,
plans to invest in vegetable and fruit farms in northeast
India to ensure reliable cargo volumes.
Perishable points to ponder
