First European Cold Chain Database has been released

The objective of the EU supported research project FRISBEE (Food Refrigeration Innovations for Safety, consumers’ Benefit, Environmental impact and Energy optimization along the cold chain in Europe) is to provide new tools, concepts and solutions for improving refrigeration technologies along the European food cold chain. At all stages the needs of consumer and European industry will be considered. Among the tasks of the project is to develop new innovative mathematical modeling tools that combine food quality and safety together with energy, environmental and economic aspects to predict and control food quality and safety in the cold chain.

In order to gain a greater insight into deviations between real cold chain data and targeted specifications, a web based platform for building a comprehensive Cold Chain database has been set up: http://www.frisbee-project.eu/coldchaindb.html

From your published work and research activities or your company's activities you have been identified as a potential contributor. As a contributor, you will have privileged access to the Cold Chain Database (by login and password) and the access to the database will be secured.

Your input will be valuable in updating and extending the already released First European Cold Chain Database which is serving as a valuable tool to people and organizations that like you have contributed and are involved in the Cold Chain as researchers or industrial players.

By contributing data in this platform (instructions are attached) you can also sign up for access to the Cold Chain Predictor software, a tool which allows you to run simulations and distribution scenarios (e.g. worst case scenario based on real cold chain data). The software also allows the user to analyze and determine the product quality status and shelf life of a food product at the different cold chain stages, using real data from the Cold Chain Database.

We appreciate how valuable your data is to your work and the effort that has been committed to collecting this data. With this database you can join forces and share data with other researchers and data holders.

We would like to thank you in advance for your input that will help in extending the First European Cold Chain Database, a valuable tool to people and organizations that have contributed and are involved in the Cold Chain.

If you need any further information please contact directly frisbee [at] chemeng [dot] ntua [dot] gr or Professor Petros Taoukis (taoukis [at] chemeng [dot] ntua [dot] gr), who is responsible for the data collection.

The Cold Chain Database has been constructed in order to develop a user friendly on line platform where collected data from all cold chain stages can be retrievable and available to be used from candidate users (consortium members, beneficiary members, industry and research institutes). One is able to retrieve time-temperature profiles of specific products along the cold chain using search criteria such as Stage/step of the cold chain, Food storage temperature range, Characterization of food, Food product etc.

As of September 2012 the Cold Chain Database consists of nearly 5000 time-temperature profiles and is being continuously updated with new data uploaded from an expanding network of contributors.

Cold Chain Predictor is a software tool designed by NTUA (National Technical University of Athens) and IRSTEA (National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, former CEMAGREF) in the framework of FRISBEE project. The purpose of this tool is to reproduce a time/temperature history by simulating a cold chain. This tool is based on nearly 5000 time temperature profiles obtained for different food products along the European cold chain. The profiles have been contributed by FRISBEE consortium members, beneficiary members, industry and research institutes to the Cold Chain Database. The Database is being continuously updated (in a monthly basis) using the data that are being uploaded from all contributors in the Cold Chain Data Collection Platform.

You can find the User Instructions and Demo Videos presenting the Cold Chain Database and Cold Chain Predictor Software at http://www.frisbee-project.eu/coldchaindb.html by selecting the "Instructions and Demos" box.