OUR ADVANCED COLD CHAIN

As governments all over the world began the distribution of Covid-19 vaccine, cold chain management has emerged as a crucial factor for ensuring the effectiveness of the vaccine itself. An efficient management of the vaccine cold chain requires several degrees of coordination among multiple stakeholders such as – just to name a few – pharmaceutical manufacturers, specialized laboratories for storage and logistics providers who can ensure climate-controlled transportation and distribution.

Even if for a completely different range of products, this process is not dissimilar to the one we experience on a daily basis in our business. The cold chain and logistics management for the food industry is just as complex as the one implemented in the pharmaceutical sector: it entails science to understand the chemical and biological processes linked with food perishability and technology to guarantee that appropriate temperatures are maintained throughout the entire supply chain.

Since we started Alifood our main goal has been to promote Italian food excellences worldwide; at the same time, as the culinary tradition of our country is mainly based on fresh food, it has also been our biggest challenge. For this reason it has always been fundamental for us to have in place an integrated cold chain logistics system that would allow us to safeguard the integrity of the products we export. At the beginning we started off with refrigerated food then, twenty years ago, our love for fresh Italian food made us one of the first global food traders to invest in the research and implementation of cutting edge food technology and advanced food preservation techniques such as IQF. Colloquially known as “flash-frozen”, Individually Quick Frozen foods retain all their nutritional qualities, flavour and texture. Completely safe to store for a long time in domestic freezers, IQF foods show no bacteriological development, are easy to portion and need shorter cooking times. Easy to distribute and store, they also enjoy a longer shelf life as they remain fresh up to roughly one year – or even more – from the date of production.

Today our integrated cold chain management system – that starts from our local producers and ends in our clients’ storage facilities – not only preserves the organoleptic properties and nutrients of all the varieties of food we offer but it also significantly reduces the shipments costs connected to airfreight. Continuous research, training and a constant, open dialogue with both our clients and our suppliers are the catalysts of every innovation we keep introducing. Each advancement is made in compliance with the most recent EU regulations about frozen foods that aim at preventing potential damages and ensuring optimal shelf life. This provides us with the advantage of being able to market in faraway countries even our freshest products like cheese and cold meats which could not otherwise be enjoyed by Italian food enthusiasts all over the world.