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Maintaininga reliable and sustainable coldchain for perishable goods is a challenging endeavor,especially for milk, cheese and other dairy products, which face uniquetemperature fluctuation issues.
Thedairy supplychain is particularly vulnerable to challenges related tomaintaining freshness compared to other food and beverage sectors. Even minortemperature changes - such as fluctuations of just 1 degree - can drasticallyimpact product shelf life.
Currentmethods often fail to account for unit level variations within the sameshipment or pallet, resulting in dairy products sometimes having half or doubletheir expected shelf life.
Althoughthere are regulatory guidelines in place and dairy industry leaders areactively addressing longstanding perishability issues associated withtemperature-controlled storage and refrigerated transport, spoilage and safetyconcerns continue to persist. Factors such as seasonal temperature spikes,malfunctions in refrigeration equipment, transport delays, power outages andsevere weather can all lead to significant product losses for dairy producers.
That’s wheresensors come in. Sensors play a crucial role in the dairy industry, monitoringvarious parameters to ensure product quality, safety and operationalefficiency.
Forinstance, sensors are used to continuously monitor the temperature of dairyproducts throughout the supply chain, from production to storage andtransportation, which helps prevent spoilage and better ensures product safety.
Sensors alsoare utilized to monitor the quality of milk and other dairy products bydetecting changes in composition or spoilage indicators. For example, they canidentify the presence of contaminants or abnormal bacterial levels.
There alsoare sensors that help monitor moisture levels in storage facilities andtransportation vehicles, some that measure the pH levels of dairy productsduring processing, and flow sensors that track the quantity and consistency ofmilk and other dairy products during production.
Measuringfreshness
Evigence, aHoboken, NJ-based sensor company, offers its Evigence Freshness ManagementPlatform, which can be calibrated to almost any product in the cold chain,including dairy.
The EvigenceFreshness Management Platform addresses key supply chain challenges such astemperature control, shelf life management and traceability by providing dairycompanies with end-to-end cold chain control.
“OurFreshSense sensors accurately track the freshness of perishables by monitoringtime and temperature in real-time,” said Oria Malka, vice president of salesfor Evigence. “Our sensors are calibrated for the shelf life of the products itmonitors, and as such to various dairy products.”
FreshSensesensors simulate the specific product’s degradation through a chemicalreaction, which is captured by a camera-operated device. The data is thenanalyzed by a machine learning model to provide precise freshness metrics andestimate the remaining shelf life based on the unique parameters of theproduct.
“We empowerfood companies to monitor at case, or even unit, level from inception all theway to consumption,” Malka said. “This ability did not exist until now.”
Thecompany’s AI-powered dashboard and real-time insights allowdairy managers to quickly identify improvement opportunities across theirsupply chain based on the true freshness of their products, facilitating fasterdecision-making.
“Thedashboard provides trends and highlights, guiding users on where to focus theirresources and attention, to ensure they deliver dairy products of the highestquality,” Malka said.
The additionof Evigence’s Automated Early Supply Chain Scanning to the Evigence FreshnessManagement Platform added a critical layer for early detection of dairy productfreshness concerns. With built-in automatic data capturing (ADC) technology,Evigence streamlines traceability from initial production lines without addingmore manual labor needs.
Productionteams can now focus on their primary tasks while Evigence measures and tracksfreshness from the initial production lines through to delivery to guaranteeoptimal quality.
“Our goal isto reduce freshness loss at the unit level at every step of the supply chain,”Malka said. “Evigence can reduce waste and improve freshness in the dairysupply chain in many ways, but a primary example is how our real-time freshnessmanagement insights inform better decisions for the Real Remaining Shelf Life(RSL) of each product.”
Forinstance, its multiscan feature, used in distribution centers, leveragesaugmented reality to highlight which cases of products should advance furtherin the cold chain faster due to shorter expected shelf life, even if stillwithin standards. This real-time tool enhances freshness by ensuring productsreach the market based on their true freshness, reducing waste and minimizingcustomer complaints.
“Ouradvanced analytics also provide dairy companies a way to access easy tounderstand visual dashboards and heat map visualizations so dairy supply chainmanagers can immediately identify the freshest products and potentiallyproblematic products,” Malka said. “The weekly data trend reports also helpthem identify important patterns across regions, divisions, supply chainpartners, product groups, etc., so they can find and fix inefficiencies andavoid food loss.”
Lookingahead
Sensorcompanies are working closely with major dairy providers to continue enhancingquality and reducing waste.
“We arecontinually expanding our machine learning models and trend analyses to providethe best possible insights across the cold chain,” Malka said. “As we furtherdevelop our sophisticated machine learning algorithms, we aim to providesolutions that can empower our users to be even more proactive in the future bypredicting spoilage and quality degradation before it occurs. We want to createa new focus on freshness across the food and dairy industry to ensure safe,high-quality products.”
With thedairy industry, every degree matters. The commitment to leveraging cutting-edgesensor technology not only promises to transform the dairy supply chain, butalso ensures that consumers can enjoy fresher, safer and higher-qualityproducts, ultimately redefining standards in food safety and sustainability.
