Packing for the cold chain

A provisioning order often travels from several suppliers to a marina in summer heat. The products that suffer first are the ones that need cold: fish, dairy, meat, fresh herbs. So before anything goes into a box, we sort the order into three families.

• Ambient : dry goods, bottles, pantry items.
• Chilled : fresh products kept between 0 and 4 °C.
• Frozen : kept at −18 °C or below.

Chilled and frozen products travel in insulated boxes with cold packs. They are packed as late as possible and stay closed until delivery. Heavy items go at the bottom, fragile ones at the top, and every box is labelled by category and storage, so the crew can put everything away in minutes.