How to Ship Perishable Food - Perishable Shipping Solutions
Easy Perishable Shipping Solutions for Food Shippers, E-Commerce Mail Order Businesses & Staff!
If you are a business owner, business manager, or employee who sends cold, frozen, or temperature-sensitive items to customers by mail or delivery carrier, you have come to the right place.
Use the perishable shipping solutions featured here as your easy-to-follow instructions on effectively protecting your goods so that they arrive in great shape, positively impact your business profits, and keep your customers satisfied to strengthen and grow your enterprise.
Insulated Shipping & 'The User Experience' of Perishable Products
Imagine you oversee shipping at a specialty meats company offering steaks online. You have sent a package of Ribeye, New York strips, and T-bones through a mail service for a customer eagerly awaiting arrival. Now, consider just how damaging it would be to your company's reputation and profits if, when they open the package, the customer is assaulted with a disgusting, foul smell and the disturbing sight of your product, discolored, inedible, and rotting.
The kind of uproar such a nasty event can cause in today's global digital environment where any disappointed (possibly outraged) customer can sell thousands of other potential buyers on the idea that your company puts public health and well-being at risk. What might have been a simple mistake can nowadays snowball into an outrageous incident in the public eye that turns segments of buyers away from your product and over to your competition.
Thousands of businesses of all sizes across the United States make or sell products through mail and parcel delivery service to reach customers far away. These goods (billions of dollars worth) need protection from harmful temperature changes that can cause them to suffer quality loss, go wrong, or lose value during shipment from one part of the country to another. Your biggest concern as part of a perishable goods shipping service is to protect the following aspects of your products:
Visual Experience (look of both package and product) - Colorfulness, brightness, cleanliness, size, shape, and more qualities fall under the umbrella of visual user experience.
Kinesthetic Experience (feel, touch, texture) - Texture, roughness, smoothness, coolness, softness, hardness, bumpiness, scaliness, thinness, thickness, and other qualities fall under the umbrella of Kinesthetic user experience.
Olfactory Experience (smell) - Odor and scent have been used as quality measures in markets for thousands of years because the scent is a reliable indicator of the quality of a perishable commodity. Fragrance, scent, odor, bouquet, aroma, essence, and other concepts related to the attribute of smell are important throughout the perishables industry.
Gustatory Experience (taste, flavor) - Spicy, mild, salty, sweet, tangy, tart, fruity, nutty, minty, and other descriptive qualities fall under the umbrella of Gustatory (taste) user experience.
'Mouth feel' is the way something feels in your mouth while you chew and taste it, and is more of a Kinesthetic touch measurement, yet is so intertwined with the taste experience that they are more like two sides of the same coin.
Auditory Experience (sound) - People rely on sound to tell them if some foods are fresh, edible, or still within their shelf life. Sound is a useful measure of freshness and shelf life remaining (people thumping melons at the grocer, for example) as the rest because people trust what they hear.
Expiration Dates & Product Shelf Life for Perishables
EXPIRATION DATE – The date past which product quality or effectiveness degrades beyond desirable standards.
SHELF LIFE – The duration period that a product can remain consumable, useable, and marketable.
Perishables producers and manufacturers often use an expiration date on their labeling so that customers can be aware of how long they can expect the quality and integrity of the product to remain useable, edible, or practical within established guidelines.
Label expiration dates can sometimes be quite different than the actual "shelf life" timeframe, meaning some goods remain safe and useable beyond their shown expiration date. Canned goods are well known for preserving user quality experience for months or years beyond label expiration.
On the other hand, fresh produce (grapes, bananas, etc.) can lose marketable desirability too soon before targeted expiration dates if not well-taken care of in the 'Cold Chain' process.
Perishable Food Safety: The USDA-Defined Perishable Foods Danger Zone
According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), perishable foods are those likely to lose quality, suffer degraded integrity, spoil, decay, or become inedible and unsafe to consume if not kept refrigerated at 40° F (4.4° C) or below, or frozen at to 0° F (-17.8° C) or below.
In today's price-competitive global marketplace, many businesses work toward a practical goal to keep frozen shipments well below 32° F rather than adding the significant extra costs involved in staying at 0° F and below for extended periods (a job best suited to freezers). They do so successfully since shipping has become efficient with overnight and two-day options.
Some exceptional cases may require the added expense of 0° F (-17.8° C) or below packaging set-ups—for example, extra-long distances or when a package will sit in uncontrolled temperatures for extended periods. Most of the time, meat products by mail are shipped with the 'well below freezing' standard if the transit time is shorter than a couple of days.
You will need to verify standard insulated shipping practices for your specific products to learn the best-case scenarios with a good balance between cost and level of thermal protection.
There is also a "Temperature Danger Zone" with perishable foods between 40 F° and 140 F°, within which harmful bacteria growth can get out of hand to cause food poisoning. Food Service vendors must be aware of this as a regular part of daily operations.
Perishable Foods - The Dangers of Microorganisms and Bacterial Growth
Food-related perishable shipping programs have two main types of bacteria to war against: Spoilage Bacteria and Pathogenic Bacteria.
Spoilage Bacteria are responsible for spoiling food, resulting in loss of taste, texture, and aroma.
Pathogenic Bacteria are microorganisms that make humans ill if ingested.
If the temperature gets too high, microorganisms increase growth and spread, putting product safety at risk. If the temperature is too low, the product can become significantly damaged.
The 'COLD CHAIN' Keeps Your Perishable Products Safe Until they are in Your Customer's Hands
Although many perishable foods are stored at proper temperatures to prolong shelf life from the outset, that cannot stop all harmful bacteria and microbes and, at best, only slows their growth. The longer an at-risk item sits in storage, on transport vehicles, and warehouses, the more time, temperature, and natural processes damage its quality.
To counter quality loss or product damage risks, company owners, managers, and employees should develop an effective insulated mail-order shipping program that protects perishables as close to their source as practical to their point of delivery, plus a little extra, as in the case of meat or frozen food packages that might have to sit on a doorstep for a few hours until the recipient gets home from work.
Doing so means putting a series of steps to control thermal temperature ranges from start to finish, referred to as a Cold Chain process. The Cold Chain's purpose is to maximize product integrity during travel, prevent inventory loss, lower costs, improve profits, satisfy the customer, strengthen your brand, and grow your business.
How Cold Chain Logistics Keep America's Perishables Safe and Secure
Depending on the type of product, target markets, sales volume, and other factors, your Cold Chain could be as simple as removing a perishable item from refrigerated or frozen storage, then sealing it in an insulated shipping package or kit along with a cold source to help maintain the proper temperatures, and taking it to the post office, FedEx, or UPS for a satisfactory delivery to a client across town, across the state, across the country, or on the far side of the world.
Other companies might have such a huge sales volume or highly specialized products that they must use 3rd Party vendors, extensive cold storage facilities, contract delivery carriers, refrigerated trucks, warehousing space, airline or boat arrangements, and more.
Your Cold Chain must be tailored specifically to your business needs and those of your customers, considering account product type, starting location temperatures, insulated package set-up, receiving location temperatures, distance to be traveled, and geographical weather trends from starting point across the different region to the destination.
Specialized insulated containers, cold or frozen refrigerants, and related shipping supplies (corrugated boxes, packing tape, absorbent padding, etc.) are also an essential part of your Cold Chain procedures. To keep perishables safe, you should use high-quality, industry-standard materials to guard both the thermal integrity and the physical safety of your cargo.
"What if my Perishable Product is Not a Food?"
Meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and other types of foods are just some of the products that qualify as perishable. Still, hundreds of non-consumable items also require protection from excessive heat or cold to maintain their integrity and shelf life. So, whether perishable for eating or another use, it still needs protection when sent by mail or package carrier for delivery.
Additionally, some perishables are not just temperature sensitive but time-sensitive as well, needing to be in the hands of the consumer quickly before natural processes take their toll on appearance, texture, smell, taste, useability, or other feature of quality.
When perishables fall outside protective temperature ranges during shipping transport, while sitting in a warehouse, or waiting in long-term storage, they can degrade from exposure to microorganisms, break down chemically, lose base material integrity, or become a health hazard resulting in damaged inventory, higher losses, smaller profits, bad product reviews, and customers taking their business elsewhere.
Suppose your product begins to break down at too high or low a temperature during long-distance transit (or while sitting in holding storage awaiting transit). In that case, it qualifies as perishable and needs to be in a thermally secure package both when shipped and when stored.
Fortunately, you can easily take preventative measures to address these challenges using modern technology, space-age materials, and a proven insulated shipping strategy.
Insulated Shipping Supplies Used to Ship Perishables
A lot can go wrong when you ship frozen foods or fresh perishable items by mail through a shipping carrier like USPS, FedEx, UPS, and others.
When shipping food, your package moves armored in thermal protection, running a gauntlet of risky factors from high temperatures to bacteria growth, any of which can deteriorate the product. Therefore, your top priority is to set your package up correctly at the start so you can send it and forget your worries except for tracking its arrival.
With FDA regulations and restrictions on shipping perishables becoming stricter, diligent small business owners and managers have to take great care when it comes to food safety because of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Failing to do so can lead to penalties, fines, losing business, and eating into profits.
Winning the battle against time and nature requires the best shipping supplies your shipping budget allows so you can strike a balance between shipping costs that affect your business and excellent customer satisfaction that grows your bottom line.
Ensuring your perishable item is shipped in the proper, temperature-sensitive environment is critical to minimizing loss, preventing spoiling, and guaranteeing each delivery arrives fresh and intact at its destination.
The proven, most practically effective way for businesses to ship perishables through the mail is by using Perishable Shipping Boxes (also called Insulated Shipping Boxes or Cold Shipping Kits) made up of a heavy-duty cardboard box with a sturdy EPS Foam Shipping Cooler inside. That shipping cooler, nicknamed a 'styrofoam cooler' by the public, is the thermal wall of defense keeping out warmer air.
Your styrofoam shipping cooler then contains a cold source, plastic-wrapped or bagged product, absorbent material, and maybe a couple of other shipping supplies to keep your perishable cargo safe. Look at the list of supplies used in typical perishable shipping boxes.
- Styrofoam Shipping Coolers - The #1 Perishable Shipping Solution for Mailing Temperature-sensitive Food
EPS Foam Coolers are the backbone of perishables shipping by mail or carrier, protecting millions of packages annually with their lightweight but superior thermal quality. EPS Coolers come in all sizes, shapes, and wall thicknesses depending on cargo needs and you can have them customized for unusual product shapes.
USPS, FedEx, and UPS all recommend against using cheap foam coolers for food shipments. Instead, suggest using a higher quality shipping cooler with a thicker wall, such as LoBoy Shipping Coolers, to reduce heat transfer and make the package more secure against costly damage.
The most common resource used for extending the shelf life of temperature-sensitive products is Expanded Polystyrene Cooler, commonly (and mistakenly) referred to as a Styrofoam Shipping Cooler.
With a decades-long track record of insulated shipping success, the Styrofoam Shipping Cooler and Extra-Large Styrofoam Shipping Cooler for Bulk Perishables is the ever-reliable workhorse of the Perishables Food Shipping business community.
Superior insulation, lower shipping costs, lower shipping supply costs, proven technology, and a completely reusable and recyclable resource have made it America's top Cold Chain tool.
- Extra-large Bulk Coolers
Insulated Bulk Shipping Coolers are the largest size that has a roomy enough cubic foot capacity to store and ship several types of perishables at once or several different sizes of temperature-sensitive products, all under the same thermal protection. Gaylord box-sized Insulated Shipping Coolers such as the independent lab-tested LoBoy Super-Ice Cube Large or Super-Ice Cube Extra-Large offer shipping managers more flexibility when it comes to mixing and matching perishable types and sizes to sending more products in a single load.
- Inside: 38 X 38 X 30 (inches)
- Outside: 42 X 42 X 34 (inches)
- Capacity: 25.07 (cft)
- Ext. Capacity: 34.71 (cft)
- Inside: 38 X 38 X 56 (inches)
- Outside: 42 X 42 X 60 (inches)
- Capacity: 46.8 (cft)
- Ext. Capacity: 61.25 (cft)
- Corrugated Shipping Boxes
Manufacturers of boxes used for insulated shipping of perishable products do so in the form of heavy-duty, corrugated cardboard for added strength to help protect the styrofoam cooler inside, holding the cooling source and temperature-sensitive product.
- Package Wrapping Such as Plastic Sheets or Bags
FedEx, UPS, and USPS each suggest a 2mm thick heavy-duty plastic liner or watertight plastic bags for wrapping and securely sealing the products so that the cold sources don't touch them, and the plastic helps control moisture and condensation runoff. Contents like meat and seafood are double-bagged in thick plastic for this purpose.
- Dunnage & Filler
Some shipments end up with excess left-over space that is useful for even more excellent protection by filling that space with cushioning, padding, or stabilizing material that restricts movement and provides a form of padding against hard knocks.
Foam packing peanuts, shredded newspapers, or crumpled butcher paper are typical examples of dunnage used for insulated perishables shipping. Dunning can add not just cushioning but serve as an added thermal protection layer as well as provide moisture control benefits.
- Temperature Trackers & Data Loggers
Some perishable cargos have so much riding on maintaining the most extended shelf life possible that managers use digital temperature data loggers and other temperature tracking devices, often enclosed, to monitor the temperature inside the container for its entire shipment.
Modern technology accurately monitors insulated package temperatures no matter where the package waits on the ground. Information provided can be passively tracked, intermittently broadcast, or set to provide continuous alerts during travel. The readings offer details on temperature variations at locations along the transit route, swings in temperature that violate the required range for the vulnerable cargo, time sitting at storage or warehouse locations, and reveal poorly managed cold chain obstacle points.
- Heavy-duty Adhesive Tape, 2" Wide (or 3")
Modern, high-strength adhesive packaging tape adheres effectively with enough strength to prevent perishable shipping boxes from opening during handling and transit. Adhesive tape is typically applied all around the outside of the shipping cooler lid to seal it to the styrofoam cooler bucket (bottom) and in an 'H' Pattern on the outer carton to seal the flaps closed.
NOTE REGARDING DRY ICE: If shipping perishables with Dry Ice, never wholly seal the lid shut or the outer box so that expanding CO2 gasses have a way of escaping. Failure to vent your package can result in an explosion, ruining your product and customer relationship.
- Wrapping & Cushion
Keeping moisture contained and compartmentalized is an excellent way to keep trouble away from insulated cargo. One way to do this is by using a thick watertight mylar plastic bag or wrapping (2-mil minimum) as an outer layer for perishable products that can melt or thaw or shipments that contain liquid. Wrap all items in a way that protects them from naturally occurring condensation that can occur even within the best-made and well-prepared insulated packaging.
- Shipping Labels and appropriate documentation
Government regulations require unique labels on their packaging to make everyone aware that they require special consideration (for outside and, in some cases, internal). For example, packages using dry Ice, certain meats and medications, some types of animals or aquaculture, etc., may require unique labels and documentation. Everyone who ships a perishable package is responsible for knowing the rules and regulations for sending their product type.
- Cold Sources
Your insulated package must maintain a stable temperature range throughout its journey from your location to all warehouse and vehicle connections leading to your customer. Since the styrofoam shipping cooler's job is to prevent warmer temperatures from entering, you need a very cold cooling engine to ensure your perishables don't start warming up before delivery.
The Two Main Cooling and Cold Sources Used When Shipping Perishables
- Gel Ice Packs
Commonly called Gel Packs, they are a saving grace for the food shipping industry. Shipping perishables with gel packs is far easier than with Dry Ice, although some deep freeze scenarios are better suited for Dry Ice (very large cuts or loads of meat, for example).
When flexibility and shipping schedules allow, Gel Ice Packs are a cheaper, safer, and less revenue-wasting way to maintain low temperatures across possibly hundreds of miles of changing postal zones.
Nobody at your company has to take specialized training for handling hazardous materials, and there are no restrictions on how much gel ice refrigerant you can use.
LoBoy Gel Ice Packs are Non-toxic, biodegradable, and reusable. Customers put them to use if there's no policy for easy, free returns for sanitation and reuse in future shipments.
How Much Gel Pack Refrigerant Will I Need?
Freezing time for Gel Ice Packs ranges from just a few hours for individual units to weeks for massive pallet-volume amounts, depending on the size, quality, and type of freezer cooling unit used.
*The amount of gel ice packs on how much product you're shipping, the size and wall thickness of the shipping cooler you're using, and the estimated distance and duration of shipping times.
However, if you're using gel ice packs, it is recommended that you use roughly 1 pound of gel ice packs for every cubic foot in the container every 24 hours (1 day).
For instance, say your container measures out to be four cubic feet, and it will take two days to transport your shipment of seafood.
1 pound of gel ice packs x 4 cubic feet x 1 day (2) = 8
Accuracy in testing package arrangements will prevent product damage from too few units and wasted profits from including too many.
- Dry Ice (CO2 - frozen Carbon Dioxide)
Shipping with Dry Ice is a great way to keep perishable products deeply hard frozen throughout shipping transit and into the hands of the customer. Unlike Gel Packs, Frozen Carbon Dioxide (CO2) comes with risks, warnings, and regulations that must be learned and followed.
Dry Ice is frozen Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas that is first liquified under tremendous pressure and then reduced to temperatures so low that it becomes solid, yet when exposed to normal air, begins to sublimate rapidly (turn directly from a solid back into a gas) until whatever solid form it took utterly disappears.
Touch Dry Ice while Wearing Gloves
Do not touch Frozen CO2 with bare skin. Dry Ice is so cold -109.3°F (-78.5°C) that handling it without gloves or other protection can cause frostbite.
Dry Ice Evaporation - Vent Perishable Shipping Package to Compensate
Dry Ice sublimates (evaporates) into gas about five or ten pounds in 24 hours depending on the quality and density of your insulated shipping cooler.
Arrange the package containing the coolant so that the gas buildup from evaporation does not cause a breach or other damage due to rapid expansion.
Handle Dry Ice in a Ventilated Area Only!
Breathing the gas from the evaporating solid can also be dangerous, so you should only open any package containing it in a ventilated area.
These potential hazards are why companies using it must follow strict government, airline, and shipping carrier regulations for their safety and that of everyone handling the package.
How much Dry Ice Do I Put Into My Shipping Package?
The lower your cargo temperature during package assembly, the less Dry Ice you may need since, for example, it takes more coolant to keep an above 0°F/°C shipment protected than a below 0°F/°C one that is already extremely cold.
Calculating how much Dry Ice your shipping package will need is very important, but because of the many different factors among packages varying from company to company, the best way to determine Dry Ice requirements is to test your estimated shipping package arrangements to eliminate the risk of using too much or too little.
If you use too much, money is wasted from unnecessary weight and volume. Use too little, and the inside temperature of your package could rise above acceptable levels.
One important rule to remember is that Dry Ice is better for short-term insulated shipping (Overnight to 2-Day) because of its short-term usefulness. The longer the package transit, the more coolant required, the more room it takes up, the heavier it is, and the greater the shipping cost related to potential profit.
Conducting internet searches can offer suggested amounts per pound of perishable cargo. Still, often these numbers are unrelated to your specific situation, although it tends to generate extra revenue for Dry Ice manufacturers and retailers who don't know your situation.
In some scenarios, the volume and weight of the Dry Ice can be greater than that of the perishable cargo itself, making your shipping costs mostly about shipping coolant than shipping product.
When putting together the numbers, do shipping tests first to account for factors such as the amount of cargo, quality (density) of the shipping cooler, cooler wall thickness, the distance of transit, hours of transit, outside air temperatures across shipping zones, expected wait times and temperatures (cold or warm?) at storage locations.
Your Dry Ice provider can help you get the figures all sorted out in combination with package testing.
Sources for Dry Ice Hazard Mailing Requirements:
United States Postal Service guidelines for Dry Ice Shipping can be found by clicking here.
Federal Express (FedEx) guidelines for Dry Ice Shipping can be found by clicking here.
UPS guidelines for Dry Ice Shipping can be found by clicking here.
Dry Ice can be used as a solo cooling agent or in combination with Gel Ice Packs, an option often used by shippers looking for a backup source that outlasts Dry Ice long enough to ensure there is at least one source keeping products cold after Dry Ice has evaporated.
Pre-Cooling Your Perishables Before Assembling Your Shipping Box
One of the great advantages of EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) Foam Shipping Coolers is that they do not need to be pre-cooled, unlike hard shell metal or plastic coolers that can cause your product to melt if you don't lower the surface temperate of the hard cooler.
Hardshell coolers also heat up faster during transit and require more cooling agents, are far heavier than foam coolers (far higher shipping cost), and the price range is astronomical by comparison. Styrofoam Shipping Coolers, on the other hand, are always ready to be packed and shipped.
That stated, your perishable product is probably vulnerable to hot ambient temperatures that can quickly start product degradation and accelerate the clock running out on its already short shelf life.
The practical standard for assembling perishable shipments for mail delivery is to do it in a Cold Room or other Pre-Cooled Shipping Space where your packages are safe from warm air.
Since your foam cooler, corrugated box, and other shipping supplies need to be standing close at hand for efficient package building, you save time and headaches by placing all of your insulated shipping supplies in a pre-cooled space, so there's no running back and forth and no 'letting the cold air out when running in and out of the room.
Assembling your temperature-sensitive perishables in a pre-cooled area to prevent rising temperatures is in keeping with USDA recommendations and will avoid unnecessary melting and bacterial growth, as well as prevent a shortened product shelf life.
What Types of Perishables can you ship by mail? And what types of products need to be packed in temperature-safe containers?
Let's quickly check out the types of perishable products that need to be shipped in temperature-safe containers (and how you can ensure they're safely packaged through the delivery process).
USPS defines anything perishable as "anything that can deteriorate in the mail and thereby lose value, create a health hazard, or cause an obnoxious odor, nuisance, or disturbance, under ordinary mailing conditions.
The mailable perishable matter may be sent at the mailer's own risk when it is packaged as required and when it can be delivered within appropriate and reasonable time limits to prevent deterioration."
Six of the most popular types of perishables you can ship by mail:
1. Food, Meat, and Seafood
The most common perishable shipped across America every day is food. Meat, seafood, poultry, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and many more. These foods must be kept at low temperatures (and sometimes freezing) using gel ice packs and styrofoam shipping coolers. This ensures they stay fresh and prevent any potential spoiling or deterioration.
2. Beverages, Drinks, Specialty Alcohols
Along with food products, the second most common perishable sent by mail is beverages.
Milk, cream, and fruit and vegetable juices can also grow bacteria if not packed properly. They can begin to spoil if they're not packed with proper insulation and gel ice packs to keep the temperature of the shipment low.
Another common beverage retailers must be careful with is specialty alcohol or liqueurs, as well as certain ales or beers. Depending on the type of alcoholic beverage, it may require a cool temperature to properly preserve the drink.
3. Ready-to-Eat & Prepared Meal Kits
Another commonly shipped perishable growing in popularity every year is meal kits. Freshly packaged, ready-to-eat meal kits delivered from retailer to home are becoming more commonplace due to the growth of e-commerce and convenience for busy professionals.
According to a Chicago food industry consulting firm, Pentallect, "Meal kits are now a $2.2 billion business and continue to gain speed…" They go on to predict that the "annual growth will be 25-30% over the next half-decade."
Because these meal kits have already been prepared to eat, there's an even bigger need for proper packaging and gel ice packs to maintain temperature.
Some of these meals will be sitting at a homeowner's doorstep for hours before they come home from work, which means they need to be kept outside of Food Safe's "danger zone" of 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent rapid bacteria growth.
4. Plants/Agriculture, Fish & Reptile Farming
Flowers, plants, live animals, and other agricultural products have been challenging for agriculture and flower industries to ship for decades. Even though many delivery trucks in these industries may be air-conditioned, flowers, plants, animals, and other forms of agriculture can quickly wilt or be damaged if not stored and cooled properly.
Certain plants and animals have to be kept at low temperatures to survive. Certain live animals, such as lobsters or crabs, must be properly cooled with gel ice packs and styrofoam shipping coolers to stay alive.
Also, if the environment around plants or flowers is altered for too long, it can prevent them from receiving oxygen or nutrients through the soil. Low temperatures also slow the growth of potentially harmful microorganisms or other bacteria growing alongside the plants.
Making sure the temperature is cool enough will not only help the plants survive but will also ensure they live a long life. This ensures that Mother's Day or Valentine's Day delivery is a meaningful one.
5. Medications
Several specialty medications must be kept within strict temperature ranges to ensure they arrive at their destinations safely and in a suitable condition.
These medications have to be shipped by a process called cold chain logistics, which can involve refrigerators, cold storage facilities, and shipping containers (CTA). These processes are in place to help temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals make it from the factory or pharmacy to the destination without damage.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines the requirements of appropriate storage conditions for various drugs.
Because of e-commerce and demographic statistics, mail-order pharmaceuticals are growing in popularity yearly. As e-commerce software becomes more sophisticated, personalization and demographic information will allow an even more significant increase in mail-order drug deliveries over time. Even Uber offers a pharmacy delivery service.
6. Anything That Could Melt
The final most popular perishable you can ship by mail is anything outside the items above that could melt if the temperature is not maintained correctly. There are thousands of consumer items that could melt if left in the heat or the sun. Various perishables in this category include:
- Cosmetics (i.e., lipstick)
- Wax items (i.e., crayons, candles)
- Collectibles (i.e., tapes or record albums)
- Miscellaneous plastic items (i.e., beads, utensils, toys, auto parts, etc.)
Small business owners and retailers must ensure they're aware of the possible damage or alterations during the shipping process if they have a heat-sensitive product. Providing sufficient insulation by using styrofoam coolers to package any of the products above is vital to keep temperatures low.
For Temperature-Sensitive Shipping, Use LoBoy Styrofoam Shipping Coolers!
These six categories make up the most popular products small business owners are shipping out daily across America that require proper temperature-sensitive packaging.
Whether you're shipping steaks, seafood, beverages, medicine, or other perishables, you must take the proper precautions to ensure your products arrive safely and intact at your customer's door.
Thankfully, it's never been easier to protect your temperature-sensitive goods using LoBoy Styrofoam Shipping Coolers, Extra-Large Styrofoam Shipping Boxes, Styrofoam Coolers, and LoBoy Gel-Ice Reusable Cold Packs.
Would you like more information on ensuring your perishable products get delivered perfectly every time? To ship your perishables using styrofoam shipping coolers and ice packs for coolers, contact the LoBoy Perishables Shipping Team Toll-Free at (888)243-1112.
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