Latest / Internet of Things with Fexingo: Connected Devices, Sensors, and Industrial IoT / How IoT Sensors Are Preventing Food Spoilage in Cold Supply Chains
Transcript
- Lucas: So, you know that bag of salad you bought last week that went slimy two days before the date on the bag? Luna: Oh, I hate that. It feels like such a waste. I always check the dates now. Lucas: Right, and we usually blame the grocery store or ourselves for not eating it fast enough. But the real villain is often the cold chain — the temperature-controlled supply chain that moves perishable food from farm to fridge. Luna: I've heard the term 'cold chain' before, but I don't think most people realize how fragile it is. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the number that got me: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 14 percent of food produced globally is lost between harvest and retail. A huge chunk of that — roughly 12 percent of all food — is due to temperature breakdowns in transport. That's over $35 billion dollars a year in losses. Luna: Thirty-five billion. Just from things getting too warm or too cold. Lucas: And that's just the direct cost. It doesn't count the wasted water, energy, and labor that went into growing and processing that food. So there's a massive incentive to fix it. And the fix, increasingly, is IoT sensors. Luna: We've talked about sensors in factories and warehouses. But what's different about the cold chain? It's moving, for one thing. Lucas: Right — the container is a truck or a shipping container that's bouncing down the highway. So you need rugged, battery-powered sensors that can transmit data from the middle of nowhere. And you need them to track not just temperature, but also location, humidity, shock, and even door openings. Luna: That's a lot of data. How do you even get it off the truck? Cellular? Satellite? Lucas: Most of the newer solutions use cellular IoT — lte m or nb iot, the low-power wide-area networks. They're cheap, use very little battery, and work in most places trucks drive. One company that's doing this really well is called Tive. They make a small, reusable sensor about the size of a deck of cards that you toss into a pallet of produce. Luna: And that little box can tell you if the chicken breast you're shipping hit 45 degrees for four hours? Because that's a food safety violation. Lucas: Exactly. Tive's sensors record temperature every ten minutes and can alert the shipper in real time if something goes out of range. They also track location, so you know exactly which truck or warehouse the problem occurred in. They claim their customers see a 40 percent reduction in spoilage claims. Luna: Forty percent — that's huge. But what's the catch? I assume these sensors aren't free. Lucas: They're not. A reusable Tive sensor costs about $150 to $200 upfront, plus a cellular data plan. For a large shipper moving thousands of pallets a month, that's a real investment. But they also offer a pay per shipment model where you rent the sensor for a single trip — about $30 per shipment. That lowers the barrier for smaller operators. Luna: So you can test it on one route, see if it saves you more than $30 in spoiled goods, and then scale. Lucas: Exactly. And the data itself has value beyond just alerts. Shippers can analyze historical patterns to find which routes or carriers have the most temperature excursions. Some are even using the data to negotiate better rates with carriers — 'Your trucks run two degrees warmer than the competitor, so we're going to pay you less or use someone else.' Luna: That's pretty hardball. But if the data is accurate, it's fair. So where does the cold chain go next? What's the frontier? Lucas: The next big thing is integrating IoT data with blockchain for an immutable audit trail. Imagine a retailer like Whole Foods being able to verify that every case of organic berries was kept at exactly 34 degrees the entire trip — and it's all recorded on a distributed ledger that no one can tamper with. Luna: That would change food safety recalls entirely. Instead of having to throw out everything that could have been contaminated, you could pinpoint exactly which pallets were at risk. Lucas: Right. And regulators love that. The FDA's Food Traceability Rule, which took effect earlier this year, requires certain foods to have more detailed tracking data. IoT sensors are the only practical way to comply at scale. Luna: Okay, so we've got the technology, we've got the business case. But what about energy? These sensors are running on batteries — if they're shipping from Chile to New York, that's weeks of continuous data transmission. Lucas: The newer low-power cellular modules can last up to a year on a single charge if they're only transmitting every few minutes. And some companies are experimenting with energy harvesting — using the temperature differential between the cold cargo and the outside air to trickle-charge the battery. Luna: That's clever. Use the cold itself to power the thing that's monitoring the cold. Lucas: Exactly. And look, this isn't just about food. Pharmaceuticals, vaccines, even cut flowers all need cold chains. The global cold chain logistics market is about $250 billion and growing at over 15 percent a year. IoT sensors are becoming the connective tissue of that entire system. Luna: You know, if today's conversation gave you something useful — maybe you're in logistics and thinking about a pilot — the way these episodes stay ad-free is through listener support. If you're able, head over to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps us keep digging into topics like this without any sponsor interruptions. Lucas: Yeah, totally. It's a small gesture that makes a big difference for us. And we genuinely appreciate every single person who chips in. Luna: Alright, back to the cold chain. One thing I'm curious about: are there any limitations on the sensor side? Like, can they handle freezing environments? Lucas: Most are rated down to minus forty degrees, both Celsius and Fahrenheit. That covers frozen food. But there's a challenge with condensation when you move from a cold truck into a warm warehouse — the sensor can get water inside. So you need good IP ratings. Tive's are IP67, so they can survive being dunked. Luna: Dunked in water or dunked in chicken juice? Because that's the reality. Lucas: Both, probably. And the other limitation is that the sensors need to be paired with software that actually acts on the data. A lot of companies buy the hardware but then ignore the alerts. You need someone on the operations team who's empowered to call the truck driver or reroute a shipment at 3 AM. Luna: So it's not just a technology problem — it's a process and culture problem. Lucas: Exactly. The best sensor in the world doesn't help if nobody reads the dashboard. But the companies that do operationalize it — they're seeing spoilage rates drop by a third or more. And that's good for their bottom line, and good for the planet. Luna: I think that's a great note to end on. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And thanks to everyone listening. We'll be back next time with another angle on the connected world.