With the rise of online shopping, even for food items, many businesses now have the potential to expand their customer base beyond the immediate region where people can physically visit a location. It’s possible to send entire meals—such as meal kits—to customers all over the country. However, doing so requires some extra investment in logistics. Insulated box liners are one critical tool, but they are not recommended on their own.
Lowering The Temperature
The goal of insulated box liners is to maintain the initial shipping temperature of a product, such as vegetables, refrigerated meat, or even frozen ingredients. However, to establish the initial shipping temperature, it’s important to give the insulated box liners “something to work with.”
That something is usually a cooling pack of some kind. Cooling packs are added elements that have either already been chilled or cooled themselves or rely on a chemical reaction to maintain a cooling process. By adding these additional cooling aids to a food shipment and then correctly packaging that product with insulated box liners, the shipment is now ready to be sent to its destination. It maintains that ideal shipping temperature, even without the aid of being placed in an active cooling environment, such as a truck or cargo container with a reefer unit that refrigerates the air.
This is especially important in transitional periods, such as when a product is being moved from a plane or train to a truck for the next leg of the journey to its final destination. During these periods, there is no environmental protection, so temperatures can dramatically change. The risk becomes greater if there’s a delay and products are left sitting on the tarmac of a runway or an environmentally unmaintained warehouse in summer.
Use The Right Pack
Businesses have a few different options when it comes to cooling elements to complement insulated box liners for food shipping. The most popular choices include:
Gel Ice Packs
This is the most common type of cooling element and is popular because it is flexible, allowing it to be placed in different shapes.
Foam Brick Ice Packs
The counter to this is the foam brick ice pack. Although it may superficially resemble the gel ice pack, it is rigid and retains its shape.
Hard Plastic Ice Pack
This looks almost like a large flask with frozen liquid inside. Like the brick, it retains its shape, so some consideration is required for packing.
If you’re interested in insulated box liners for your food shipping needs, contact us and obtain a quote.
