Protecting the Cold Chain in the Summer Months with a Quality Food Storage Facility in Austin, MN

As summer approaches, the daily temperature increases quickly. While warmer temperatures are generally celebrated, especially after a long Minnesota winter, they can pose some serious issues for food storage and overall food safety. Increased cases of foodborne illnesses and an overall reduced shelf life of food all result from a compromised cold storage chain in industrial food processing, transportation, and storage. With the dangers of a disrupted cold chain heightened in the summer heat, those with a role in the food industry have to work harder to protect food safety. Minnesota Freezer Warehouse Company is committed to sustaining high standards for the cold chain system as a climate-controlled food storage facility in Austin, MN.

MFWC manages more than 35,000 trucks with over 100,000 orders each year at our two warehouse locations in southeast Minnesota. With this level of traffic shipped, stored, and transported in and out of our facilities, protecting the cold chain year-round is critical. The heat of the summer makes it especially important that our efforts to maintain a quality cold chain are perpetuated and improved.

What’s the Cold Chain?

The cold chain is a term utilized by any growers, storers, transporters, producers, and manufacturers in the food industry. From farm to table, foods follow a chain of process, whether that means the locally-grown carrots that follow the chain to a farmer’s market stand, or the widespread corn grown in the U.S. that makes its way into many different food products. The cold chain is a type of food chain that is special in its necessity for a highly controlled climate.

Frozen vegetables, for example, are a common food type that makes its way along the cold chain. From the moment they are washed, par-boiled, and flash frozen, frozen vegetables must be kept in freezer conditions to the moment they are taken out of a residential or commercial kitchen freezer and put onto the stovetop. For the most part, the cold chain has main components, including:

  1. Origin: the processing and packing facility
  2. Transport: from the processing facility to a storage facility
  3. Storage: in a quality food storage facility, like those of MFWC
  4. Other Transport: from storage to a seller (grocers, restaurant food provider, food product company, or otherwise)
  5. Other Storage: in home, restaurant, or commercial freezer, refrigerators, or dry storage

If at any moment the cold chain is compromised, food quality and safety has immediately begun to be sacrificed, no matter how long the chain was broken. The heat of the summer causes any potential break in the chain to have a significantly increasing detriment to food safety.

MFWC understands the important role food storage facilities play in protecting the cold chain, and we are dedicated to providing quality service and guaranteed cold and dry storage year-round. To learn more about our services as a food storage facility in Austin, MN, contact MFWC at (844) 373-1477 today.

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

Albert Lea
820 E. 13th Street
PO Box 86
Albert Lea, MN 56007-0086

PHONE: 507-373-1477
TOLL FREE: 844-373-1477
FAX: 507-373-2174
EMAIL: info@mfwc-cold.com

Austin
1907 14th Street N.E.
P.O. Box 475
Austin, Minnesota 55912-0475

PHONE: 507-437-1982
FAX: 507-437-1892
EMAIL: info@mfwc-cold.com

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