Ice-Loft is a Belgium SME that provides diversified intelligent cold chain logistics solutions to the storage of frozen and chilled fruit and vegetables, container yard storage and transportation from the grower to as many people as we can. And this with transportation by land, inland shipping, and overseas shipping.
Ice-Loft was formed with a vision of building a temperature-controlled storage network to provide innovative distribution solutions with a direct connection to the grower.
Ice-Loft is focused on realizing this vision through new developments in emerging markets with respect for the local growers.
The term cold chain or cool chain denotes the series of actions and equipment applied to maintain a product within a specified low-temperature range from harvest/production to consumption. A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain. An unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage and distribution activities, along with associated equipment and logistics, which maintain a desired low-temperature range. It is used to preserve and to extend and ensure the shelf life of products, such as fresh agricultural products. Such products, during transport and when in transient storage, are sometimes called cool cargo. Unlike other goods or merchandise, cold chain goods are perishable and always en route towards end use or destination, even when held temporarily in cold stores and hence commonly referred to as cargo during its entire logistics cycle.
Cold chain logistics includes all of the means used to ensure a constant temperature for a product that is not heat stable, from the time it is manufactured until the time it is used. Moreover, cold chain is considered as a science, a technology and a process. It is a science as it requires the understanding of the chemical and biological processes associated with product perishability. It is a technology as it relies on physical means to ensure desirable temperature conditions along the supply chain. It is a process as a series of tasks must be performed to manufacture, store, transport and monitor temperature sensitive products.
A cold chain is managed by a quality management system. It is analyzed, measured, controlled, documented, and validated.
