Revolutionizing Fresh Food Distribution

Stepping away from doorstep delivery specifically and exploring the cold chain on a more macro level, the prepped perishable food industry needs to ensure that from source to retailer shelf, there is no break in the cold chain (that is, until the product meets consumers’ hands). Every break introduces some level of degradation, leaving the food much less fresh and safe.

Whether for meal kit delivery or prepped perishable options at the retail level, a food safety standard as stringent as the one that continues to work for mainstream retail industry must be adopted. But to get there, and address the growing consumer demand for freshness and convenience, the industry needs to be ignited with fresh thinking, fresh technology, and food safety accountability.

The Keys to an Effective Solution

New delivery solutions are being developed, but change doesn’t always come quickly, and there are still many details to work out before we’ll see broad adoption of a different way to get fresh meals to consumers—conveniently and safely.

Ultimately, an effective distribution system for prepped perishable food needs to meet key criteria:

• It should connect existing industry infrastructure and allow each part of the perishable food ecosystem to function in its core competency and not seek to rebuild the fresh food industry, but connect it to work more efficiently; and
• It should adhere to the standards of the Global Food Safety Initiative and manage the cold chain along the entire delivery route, maintaining a safe temperature—not too cold and not too warm—for the entire journey, including the hours after the food has been delivered to the consumer’s doorstep.

Different players in the fresh food category are taking individual approaches. FreshRealm, for example, is building a national infrastructure that enables companies to quickly and safely deliver fresh meal kits, and prepped and prepared foods, to customers both direct-to-doorstep or to retail store shelves.

FreshRealm has streamlined all of the production and distribution steps for the grocer to allow fresh prepped meal kits to get from farm to store shelf or doorstep in 48 hours. This entails:

• Starting with high-quality ingredients sourced from the same producers that are featured in high-quality natural food supermarkets;
• Having meal kits made to order—first prepped in regional facilities, according to a standardized ingredient SKU set—and then sent to stores directly for retail sale or packed in the FreshPorter shipping container for safe delivery to doorsteps via FedEx or UPS; and
• The proprietary dynamic ice algorithm to mathematically calculate optimal quantities and locations where food and ice are to be placed inside the FreshPorter depending on the forecasted temperature range along the delivery route and at the delivery location.

The FreshPorter maintains an optimal temperature range of 32.5 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit with no electricity or consumables until 9 p.m. on delivery day, even when the outside temperature is high, low, or even both during the same delivery route. Once the FreshPorter is delivered and unpacked, the user simply peels off the original shipping label to reveal a prepaid return label underneath. The FreshPorter is left on the doorstep for automatic pickup and returned to FreshRealm, where it’s sanitized and reused.

A Unified Focus

What needs to change to safely democratize fresh food? What’s the solution?

Don’t only invest money in marketing to the changing needs and tastes of today’s consumer, which is the focus of many current meal kit companies, but also invest in developing infrastructure that allows the industry to be safe and more efficient. More innovative technology and solutions need to be developed and embraced to support the consumer demand for fresh, convenient foods, whether on store shelves or delivered directly to their homes. Collaboration is key to put these building blocks together.