It’s important to be familiar with proper shipping practices for transporting frozen meat. From protecting the integrity of the product to ensuring it is safe for consumption, the right techniques allows you to protect the quality of the meat and prevents spoilage.
Small changes in your strategy can mean the difference between meat remaining frozen in transit and costly losses in spoilage. Here are three important tips for packing frozen meat:
Use Molded EPS Coolers: A molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) cooler can be custom designed for your shipments with a 1.5” to 2” thickness. EPS offers the best option for maintaining a low temperature during transit while keeping transit costs low with its lightweight composition.
Opt For Dry Ice: Dry ice is the most foolproof coolant that will keep your meat solidly frozen when used with an EPS cooler. Dry ice maintains a temperature of approximately -109 degrees Fahrenheit. Block dry ice is preferable to dry ice pellets because pellets melt more quickly.
For instance, a five-pound block of dry ice will keep meat frozen for 24 hours, whereas you will need 10 pounds of dry ice pellets to protect meat for the same time period.
If you cannot obtain dry ice, water-based gel packs or blocks are your next-best option. Keep in mind that water-based solutions will not keep meat frozen because they stabilize at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. They will only slow the thawing of the meat.
Pack Carefully: The EPS cooler should allow the meat and dry ice to fit snugly inside. Open space allows for warmer air pockets to form. If you cannot opt for a custom cooler design, be sure to pack any residual space with packing peanuts, bubble wrap or paper.
In addition to optimizing the cooling efficiency of your shipment, a wrong-sized cooler may needlessly drive up shipping costs. A larger-dimension cooler will be more costly than a compact choice.
Ideally, you should place the meat in the cooler and then place the dry ice on top. Cooler air shifts down, while warm air moves up, so placing the dry ice on top of the meat is a better option.
When you need to ship frozen meat, trust the experience and expertise of Plastilite. As the industry leader in post-consumer EPS recycling and the home of the ControliQ system, we have the solutions that protect your food shipments. Contact us today to learn more.