Content area
Full Text
1. Introduction
Cold chain management (CCM) has been growing in the past few decades. Unlike traditional supply chain management, the goods in cold chains, such as pharmaceutical products, chilled food and frozen food, generally a have shorter shelf life and higher sensitivity to the surrounding environment, i.e. temperature, humidity and lighting intensity (Gormley et al., 2000). It thus requires certain refrigeration and dehumidification systems throughout the entire cold chain in order to maintain the prescribed environmental conditions. In particular, the ambient temperature for handling goods in a cold chain varies from −25°C to +10°C, depending on the type of goods (Lana et al., 2005; Soyer et al., 2010). However, when handling goods in an environment with such a low temperature, special attention should be paid to the potential risks that may directly affect the product quality and operational efficiency. Companies may suffer loss if any potential risks emerge along the cold chain. For instance, in 2017, Lucky’s Market tossed all temperature-sensitive food, including cheese, juices and fresh cut meat, because they were stored at 16°C (~60°F), and could not meet the storage requirement for keeping the products below 40°F (Nerbovig, 2017). About 1 in 6 Americans get foodborne illness annually from tainted food which is handled under improper temperature (Wein, 2014). On the other hand, excessive exposure of food handlers to a cold environment may cause serious health effects and contribute to accidents of death and injuries (Rice, 2014). In total, 15 workers died and 26 workers were injured at a Shanghai cold storage facility due to unexpected ammonia leakage (Laurence, 2013). The above reported cases show that the occurrence of cold chain risks affects not only the product quality and consumer health, but also the safety of personnel who work in the cold environment. Therefore, an effective risk monitoring system, especially for: product quality risk; and occupational safety risk, is vital to track and evaluate the levels of risk throughout the cold chain. In general, product quality risk is the degree to which a product does not satisfy customers’ requirements that is caused by product deterioration and contamination throughout the cold chain; occupational safety risk is the degree of exposure to workplace hazards, such as an extraordinary cold environment, among different...