Food and Drink Logistics

Food freight is judged on remaining shelf life at delivery, not on transit time. A consignment that arrives two days late has not simply arrived late, it has arrived with less sellable life, and in fresh categories that can be the difference between a full sale and a write-off. Nostrac Shipping plans food and drink movements backwards from the date the product has to be on a shelf.

Temperature Regimes We Handle

Getting the regime right matters more than the mode. The wrong setpoint on the right vessel still ruins a load:

• Frozen — Typically held at −18°C or below for meat, seafood, bakery and frozen ready meals. Frozen cargo tolerates a longer transit and therefore opens up deep-sea routings that fresh product cannot use.
• Chilled — Usually 0°C to +4°C for meat, dairy and prepared foods, with tighter windows for specific products. Chilled cargo is time-critical and normally moves by short-sea, RoRo or road into European markets.
• Fresh produce — Setpoints vary by commodity and some crops need controlled or modified atmosphere to slow ripening. Mixing produce types in one reefer is a frequent cause of spoilage because the optimum conditions conflict.
• Ambient and dry — Long-life groceries, beverages, dry goods and packaging. Cheaper to move, but still sensitive to condensation and to loading alongside odour-transferring cargo.
• Beverages and wine — High value per pallet and vulnerable to temperature swings in transit. Insulated liners or reefers set to a moderate ambient are often worth the premium over a standard dry box.

Cold Chain Discipline

Most cold chain failures are procedural rather than mechanical. The controls that prevent them:

• Pre-trip inspection — Reefer units are PTI tested before loading. Insisting on a current PTI record is the cheapest insurance available on a temperature-controlled booking.
• Pre-cooling and loading discipline — The container is brought to temperature before product goes in, and the doors stay shut. A reefer unit is designed to hold temperature, not to pull warm product down to setpoint.
• Data logging — Independent loggers alongside the unit's own record give you evidence of the actual temperature history. Without that data, a rejected load at destination becomes an argument you cannot win.
• Stow and airflow — Product must be stowed to let air circulate through the load, not blocked against the bulkhead or stacked above the load line. Correct stow does more for temperature integrity than a lower setpoint.
• Plug and monitoring plan — Every handover point is a risk. Reefer plug-in at terminals, on vessels and during any interim storage should be confirmed in the booking rather than assumed.

Export Certification for Food and Drink

Certification, not freight capacity, is what usually holds a food export up. The requirements depend on what the product contains:

• Products of animal origin — Meat, dairy, fish, eggs and honey exported to the EU need an Export Health Certificate signed by a certifying officer, and the consignment must enter through a Border Control Post with the correct pre-notification lodged by the importer.
• Composite products — Goods containing both processed animal product and plant ingredients sit in their own category, and whether a certificate is needed turns on the specific composition. This is where exporters most often get caught out.
• Plants and plant products — Fresh produce, seeds, grain and certain wood packaging need phytosanitary certification, and some commodities face prohibitions or additional declarations.
• Fishery products — Exports of wild-caught fish to the EU require a validated catch certificate, alongside the health certification. Storage and processing statements may also be needed where the fish has been handled in a third country.
• Import into the UK — Incoming plant and animal products are risk-categorised, with certification and pre-notification requirements set accordingly, and medium and high risk consignments may be called for inspection.

Common Failure Points

• One certificate delays the whole trailer — On a groupage load, an incomplete certificate for a single pallet holds every other consignment on that vehicle. Sending a certified consignment groupage is a commercial decision, not a neutral one.
• Certificate details do not match the goods — Net weights, batch identifiers, establishment numbers and product descriptions have to agree across the certificate, invoice and packing list. Inspectors compare them.
• Shelf life was not built into the routing — A cheaper deep-sea routing that adds eight days is not cheaper if it removes eight days of sellable life.
• Labelling was treated as a separate problem — Destination market labelling, language requirements and date formats fail at the border as reliably as missing paperwork, and cannot be corrected in a container.

Who We Work With

• UK food and drink producers exporting into European and Gulf markets
• Importers bringing fresh produce, seafood and ambient grocery into the UK
• Beverage producers and drinks brands shipping palletised finished goods
• Meat, dairy and seafood processors with regular certified consignments
• Wholesalers and distributors needing consolidated inbound loads and buffer storage
• Manufacturers importing ingredients and packaging on a production schedule

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an Export Health Certificate to send food to the EU?

If the product contains anything of animal origin, in most cases yes. Meat, dairy, fish, eggs and honey require an Export Health Certificate signed by a certifying officer. Composite products containing both animal and plant ingredients are assessed on their specific composition, so some need certification and some do not. Purely plant-based and many shelf-stable processed products fall outside the requirement but may still need phytosanitary certification.

What temperature should my consignment travel at?

Frozen product normally travels at −18°C or below. Chilled product is typically 0°C to +4°C, though specific categories have tighter tolerances. Fresh produce varies by commodity and some crops need controlled atmosphere. We set the regime against your product specification rather than applying a default, and we will tell you when a mixed load makes a single setpoint unworkable.

Can food move on a groupage service?

Ambient food moves on groupage routinely. Temperature-controlled and certified consignments are riskier, because a documentation problem on one pallet delays the whole vehicle and every temperature excursion is shared. For high-value or short shelf-life product a dedicated load is often the cheaper answer once the risk of a rejection is priced in.

How do you protect shelf life on longer routes?

By planning the routing around the product rather than the rate. That means choosing short-sea or road over deep-sea for fresh categories, avoiding transshipment where the plug-in history cannot be evidenced, minimising handover points, and confirming reefer monitoring at each stage. Where the numbers do not work, we say so rather than booking a sailing that will not hold the quality.

What happens if the temperature record shows an excursion?

The value of independent data logging is that you know before the buyer does. A short excursion during loading is a different conversation from a sustained failure at sea, and having the trace lets you assess whether the product is still within specification and pursue the right party. Without logger data you are relying on the carrier's own record.

Do you handle food imports into the UK as well as exports?

Yes. Incoming plant and animal products are risk-categorised under current UK border rules, which determines the certification needed and the likelihood of inspection at a Border Control Post. We handle the pre-notification, the customs entry and the onward delivery, and we plan for the possibility of a hold rather than treating it as an exception.

Can you store product in the UK before distribution?

Yes. We arrange ambient and temperature-controlled storage and can hold stock as a buffer between arrival and distribution, which is often necessary when a container's worth of product needs to be released to several customers over a period rather than all at once.

Which markets do you cover for food and drink?

Our core lanes are the UK to and from Europe, the Gulf including the UAE, and Central Asia. We have direct operational presence in the UAE and Kazakhstan, which matters for perishable cargo because someone at destination needs to be able to act quickly if a consignment is questioned on arrival.

Talk to Nostrac about your requirements and we will tell you what is realistic before you commit to it.

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