How to Safely Ship Cargo Food, Beverages, Frozen Food, and Other Perishable Goods

Meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, and beverages, such as coffee, wine, and alcoholic drinks, are some of the most popular commodities in the world. 

Besides being popular, these commodities are among the most challenging to ship due to their limited shelf life.

All companies in the food and beverage industry must deal with issues regarding time, proper temperature storage, and ensuring transport has proper verification.

Therefore, when shipping time-sensitive products, companies must take time to select a cargo shipping service with high quality and punctuality. 

Why?

If either one fails, it can cause the entire shipment to be wasted. 

So how do you safely and timely ship food & beverage cargo? It's discussed in detail in the following article!

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Perishable vs Non-Perishable Food

Food and beverages are divided into two basic categories: perishable goods and non-perishable goods.

Consumable products or consumables are considered perishable if they can spoil, rot, or become toxic quickly. These products risk being inedible, or even unsafe to consume, if disrupted during shipping. 

Perishable food has special shipping requirements, such as:

• Storage and shipping at certain room temperatures, such as frozen food.
• Requires tightly sealed containers
• Requires fast shipping because food products can become overripe or spoil, such as fresh fruit and vegetables.

Improper storage or shipping conditions can damage the product. This can cause the recipient to discard the already-damaged product, or even consumers could buy and consume harmful materials that make them sick.

On the other hand, non-perishable goods are certainly not as fragile compared to perishable goods. Products are more resistant to shocks during shipping, delays, or can be stored at room temperature for extended periods.

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Challenges of Shipping Food and Beverage Cargo

If you ship fresh or frozen food, challenges will arise on their own. Besides meeting needs and deadlines, you also need to ensure that products and meat stay fresh, and frozen products must not thaw during shipping. 

By partnering with ABC Express, we can help you select the best food shipping service to meet your needs, and create a transportation route that ensures your products arrive fresh and ready for market.

Companies requiring alcohol shipping services may face other challenges such as laws and regulations surrounding alcohol shipment.

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Read: How to Ship Cargo Vegetables, Fruit, and Fresh Food Throughout Indonesia

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Types of Time-Sensitive Foods

Fresh food, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meat, are the types of food most sensitive to time. These food products have a short shelf life, spoil easily during shipping, and need to be maintained at specific temperatures.

For example, it is recommended that cheese products be stored between 0°C - 4°C, while fresh meat between -2°C - 0°C.

Shipping frozen food also requires a more complex service. Frozen food must be shipped with a frozen freight truck. The truck's internal temperature must be lowered to -7°C before loading and must maintain temperatures below -12°C consistently during transit.

This is done to prevent the product's internal temperature from rising above -12°C. If the frozen product's internal temperature is above -12°C upon arrival, there is a risk the shipment will not be accepted.

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Shipping Truck Recommendations

Nevertheless, packaging remains important for shipping food throughout the country, as proper packaging ensures that your food containers (such as boxes, cans, bottles, drums, etc.) are not damaged along the way. Because many parties will not accept dented cans or damaged boxes, it is very important to pack each cargo load correctly, considering the contents of a full truck load.

Shipping fresh and frozen food typically requires temperature-controlled trucks for food transportation. Temperature-controlled trucks can handle full truck loads and LTL (Less Than Truckload) shipments, and allow you to choose the temperature you want to store your food.

Some temperature-controlled cargo trucks allow you to choose different temperatures for different compartments in the truck, while others require all food in the cargo to be shipped at the same temperature. Fresh and frozen food can also be transported with insulated trucks using dry ice, but this can be a less reliable shipping method for maintaining freshness.

Temperature-controlled trucks can also carry non-perishable food, but it should be noted that refrigerated trucks tend to be more expensive to use. You should discuss your food supply chain logistics and beverage logistics with certified professionals at FreightRun before determining what type of food truck transportation you want to use.

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Choosing the Best Food Cargo Shipping Service

There are many food and beverage cargo companies to choose from throughout Indonesia. Therefore, although choosing the right partner for your shipping needs is very important, we understand that task can be quite daunting.

That's why ABC Express has a national network of trusted cargo shipping companies for you to choose from.

We will work with you to ship your food and beverage materials in the best condition.

Whatever your shipping needs, ABC Express can help you ship cargo smoothly to the final destination.

ABC Express is a domestic and international cargo shipping company that operates regular uninterrupted service throughout Ramadan, worldwide.

Contact ABC Express Our team is ready and willing to answer any questions you have and move your cargo.

Learn more about ABC Express Services!

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