The Importance Of Risk Management In The Cold Supply Chain

Risk management within the cold supply chain provides an important part of logistics processes. The cold chain has its many specificities, which consist of a series of activities that must be ensured in order to maintain the required set temperature of the product. For the success of the process in the cold supply chain, it is necessary to minimize every possible risk. In this way, the quality of easily perishable products would be maintained. Standardisation (ISO standards) of the cold chain supplies in this context contributes to its quality and functionality. For the purpose of researching this paper, a survey was conducted on 205 respondents. The main goal of the research was to improve that in the trade of frozen products it is necessary to manage the risks of the cold supply chain in order to ensure the quality of products and services. In the research, it is evident that a large number of consumers encountered products that were under an impermissible temperature that is not set by the standards. 55.1% (113 respondents) confirmed that they encountered a product that was thawed and refrozen. Furthermore, the respondents encountered another problem, damaged packaging of frozen products, which can also have major consequences for the product itself, because the packaging itself has the function of maintaining freshness. Therefore, the problem is not always in the set temperature itself. The survey also mentions problems related to finding damaged goods and broken goods due to poor conditions, as well as the risk of open refrigerator doors, which half of the respondents encountered. In this case, it is necessary to manage risks in the cold supply chain using and applying the requirements of the ISO 28000:2022 standard (risk management in supply chains) as well as using certain risk management tools and analysis.