With stricter regulatory requirements, rising logistics costs and an explosion in urban deliveries, managing a refrigerated supply chain has become more complex than ever. Refrigerated logistics professionals are faced with ever-increasing constraints, often with tools designed for another era. <\/p>\n\n
According to the Comerso 2025<\/strong> barometer, food waste in supermarkets alone accounts for 1.39 million tonnes of products every year<\/strong>. A significant proportion of this is due to a lack of traceability and temperature control throughout the supply chain. <\/p>\n\n At ELA Innovation, we have observed that breaks do not always occur on the road, but often at transition points<\/strong>: at docks, during vehicle changeovers, or during urban delivery rounds where no measurement system is in place.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The cold supply chain refers to all the operations involved in transporting a heat-sensitive product <\/strong>from its manufacture to the end consumer, maintaining a controlled temperature at every stage.<\/p>\n\n It covers a wide range of sectors: food <\/strong>(fresh, chilled and frozen products), pharmaceuticals <\/strong>(medicines, vaccines, medical devices), laboratories <\/strong>(biological samples, reagents) and distribution <\/strong>(supermarkets, dark stores, catering).<\/p>\n\n In all these worlds, the constraints are the same. It’s not enough to maintain the right temperature, you have to prove<\/strong> it: time-stamped, continuous data that complies with regulations. This is where disputes arise. <\/p>\n\n Products must be cooled as soon as they leave the production line. The choice of insulated packaging and containers determines temperature stability throughout the chain. <\/p>\n\n Risk:<\/strong> insufficient temperature control during production compromises batch integrity, even if subsequent stages are perfectly controlled. This is often a blind spot in quality control systems. <\/p>\n\n Cold stores, cold chambers, pharmaceutical cabinets: storage is the most time-consuming phase. In dense environments (logistics platforms, supermarkets), the multiplication of equipment makes centralized collection difficult. <\/p>\n\n Risk:<\/strong> a poorly positioned sensor, a poorly closed door or a silent malfunction can degrade an entire batch without immediate warning. Manual readings do not provide continuous coverage. <\/p>\n\n Refrigerated trailers, temperature-controlled trucks: the most regulated link in the chain, yet still a source of disputes. Multi-hour routes with driver changes and zones without a network multiply the risks of collection breakdowns. <\/p>\n\n Risk:<\/strong> wired GPS units are showing their limitations in the face of modern fleets. Costly and inflexible, they create data breaks when changing vehicles or going off-connectivity. <\/p>\n\n On the same platform, there are fixed cold rooms, isothermal boxes on standby and trucks returning from their rounds. Supervising these flows simultaneously – with no break between transport and storage – represents a real technical challenge. <\/p>\n\n Risk:<\/strong> when transport and storage data don’t communicate, a continuous view of the cold chain is impossible. Breakages occur precisely at the junction points. <\/p>\n\n The least-equipped link. Light vehicles, non-motorized insulated boxes, independent delivery drivers: temperature traceability often stops at the depot. <\/p>\n\n Risk:<\/strong> GPS solutions are ill-suited to this context – too expensive, too complex for cargo bikes or scooters. What happens during the tour remains a grey area. <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Standard EN12830 defines the technical requirements for temperature recorders: measurement accuracy, security and data integrity. The current version dates from 2018. <\/p>\n\n Revised in 2023, this standard covers the periodic verification of sensors. For deep-frozen products, this verification is mandatory in accordance with European regulation n\u00b037\/2005. For positive-temperature refrigerated products, it is strongly recommended. It must be carried out by a COFRAC-accredited laboratory. <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The essential criteria: EN12830 compliance with COFRAC certificate, long autonomy, industrial resistance (IP68\/IP69K), and on-board memory for continuous recording even without a network.<\/p>\n\n This last point is often overlooked. A sensor that stops recording off-grid creates gaps precisely where the risks are highest. <\/p>\n\nWhat is the cold supply chain?<\/h2>\n\n
The 5 links in the cold supply chain and their risks in the field<\/h2>\n\n
1. Production and packaging<\/h3>\n\n
2. Warehousing and storage<\/h3>\n\n
3. Long-distance transport<\/h3>\n\n
4. Logistics platforms<\/h3>\n\n
5. Last-mile delivery<\/h3>\n\n
The 7 most common causes of cold chain breakage<\/h2>\n\n
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Summary table: risks and responses by link<\/h2>\n\n
Link<\/th> Main risk<\/th> Technical answer<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Production<\/strong><\/td> Insufficient warm-up<\/td> Sensor in packaging<\/td><\/tr> Storage<\/strong><\/td> Door open, sensor in the wrong position<\/td> Fixed sensors + high-density gateway<\/td><\/tr> Long-haul transport<\/strong><\/td> Out-of-network data loss<\/td> Sensor with on-board memory<\/td><\/tr> Logistics platform<\/strong><\/td> Break in transport traceability \u2194 storage<\/td> Automatic dockside synchronization<\/td><\/tr> Last mile<\/strong><\/td> No suitable GPS solution<\/td> BLE sensor + delivery smartphone<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Regulations: EN12830 and EN13486<\/h2>\n\n
EN12830: the compliant temperature recorder<\/h3>\n\n
EN13486: the periodic verification of sensors<\/h3>\n\n
How can we guarantee continuous traceability throughout the supply chain?<\/h2>\n\n
Sensors for every link in the chain<\/h3>\n\n
Two types of gateway, depending on the context<\/h3>\n\n
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