Cool Chain Quality Indicator
The Cool Chain Quality Indicator (abbreviated as "CCQI") – established by the Cool Chain Association (CCA) and Germanischer Lloyd (GL) – is an industry standard which measures reliability, quality and skills in temperature-critical logistics like food, flowers and plants, some chemicals, pharmaceuticals and human blood. It uses a benchmarking system to assess transparent and comparable quality measures.
Goals and standards
The aim of the CCQI is to improve the consistency of cool chains across the globe,[1] that includes Perishables and Temperature Sensitive Products (PTSP) carriers (airlines, road haulers), handling agents, forwarders, perishable centres, airports, warehouses (long- and short-term cold stores) and containerized and conventional ocean transport. The CCQI has very similar requirements close to any other quality management system of the ISO 9000 type. The organization that attempts the certification must identify each operation in which it handles temperature sensitive products. For each of these operations, their processes are compared against the standard’s Master Tables. The standard is created in a manner which endorses the qualitative assessment of technical installations, processes and staff qualifications and makes it possible for a company to compare itself with competitors but also to improve its own performance[2] The Master Tables for each part of the supply cold chain represent guidelines that shall make sure that the temperature sensitive product will be delivered at the right temperature starting at the field and finishing at consumption. This standard seeks to allow operators to carry out a check for conformity with state-of-the-art practice and provides a quantitative evaluation for cool chain quality[3]
Footnotes
External links
- CCA (Cool Chain Association)
- CCLink - Port de Barcelona
- Supply Chain Network
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News, “Keeping Cool” by Daphne Allen and David Vaczek