China’s refrigerated and frozen food safety lifeline

China’s refrigerated and frozen food safety lifeline
Anhui Jinxue Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd.
Specializing in the construction of various cold storages
: Cold storage manufacturers
The so-called food cold chain refers to the easy After the rotten food is purchased from the place of production, all aspects of product processing, storage, transportation, distribution and retail, until the hands of consumers are always in the low-temperature environment necessary for the product to ensure food quality and safety, reduce losses, and prevent contamination of the special supply chain system.
After seeing the above, many people will think that cold chain is a modern technology. In fact, human meat products have a long history of refrigerated storage.
Looking back at history, natural refrigerators have appeared since the Warring States Period
In the history of human civilization, the refrigerated storage of meat products has a long history. In the history of our country alone, there are only a few records on how to store meat products. There are many. Long before the emergence of industrial civilization, the technology of using primitive refrigeration methods to store meat products already existed. However, due to the restrictions of geographical and climatic environment conditions at that time, this storage method of refrigeration meat products relied on natural conditions. It is not yet widely used.
In ancient China, there were many techniques for food preservation and preservation, including cellaring, warehousing, refrigeration, sand storage, wax coating, fruit mixing, etc. The techniques for preserving meat were mainly salting and refrigeration. .
Salt is an important raw material for meat preservation. The Shang and Zhou salt stoves and salt cooking tools unearthed from Shuangwang City in Shouguang, Shandong Province indicate that the salt production industry had already appeared as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
In addition, among the unearthed cultural relics identified as being from the Spring and Autumn Period, there is a cultural relic called Bingjian. Jian is a tool for holding ice and looking in the mirror. It can also be used to prevent heatstroke and cool down or to refrigerate meat. Therefore, it became popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Generally speaking, the outer layer of the ice mirror is made of wood, while the inner layer is bronze.
Using the low temperature in the well to maintain the quality of food has already appeared in the Warring States Period, and it can be called a natural refrigerator at that time. At the archaeological site of Gelao Village in Xinzheng City, Henan Province, a cellar well was discovered, which was a refrigeration well used to store food.
The ice cellar ice storage and refrigeration industry is now taking shape
It can be said that the constantly improving refrigerated storage technology of meat products is the crystallization of the wisdom of working people in the production and life process for thousands of years, and it has also promoted the development of diet. cultural development.
In old Beijing, about meters east along the gap moat, there is a water channel under the old city wall that connects the moat to the city's water system. The outlet of the water channel in the city is just below the Jishuitan Temple. Through this waterway, spring water from Xishan Mountain and Yuquan Mountain outside the city flows into the city along the river.
In the northwest corner of the original Deshengmen Gate Tower, there is an alley called Bingjiakou. In the past, whenever there was a cold and windy winter, the water in Jishuitan and Taiping Lake would freeze. At this time, workers from the ice factory near the entrance of the ice cellar began to fetch ice from the lake. They used special ice fetching tools to remove ice from the lake. The thick frozen ice surface is cut, and large ice cubes cut into one meter square are lifted to the shore through chutes, and then transported to the ice factory. The ice cubes are placed in the ice storage pit and stacked layer by layer. The ice blocks are separated by thick straw areas. Finally, all the ice blocks are carefully covered with heat-insulating straw and other materials. When the weather is hot in summer, the stored ice will be taken out for the market. Used to relieve summer heat.
Until the early 1990s, the ice factory in Bingjiakou Hutong was still in use. Later, due to the advent of artificial ice technology, the ice factory in Bingjiakou disappeared, and the huge ice storage pit left behind was transformed into Youth Lake.
There are several ice factories in Beijing like Bingjiakou. The more famous one is located at Doushanmen on the east side of Beihai Road, and the other is located in the southeast of Shichahai. The ice stored is not only used by royal dignitaries, but also common people drink sour plum soup to cool down in summer. etc., they are also used for ice.
Ice factories and ice cellars were an important form of the refrigeration and refrigeration industry under the conditions at that time.
From year to year, my country's meat industry has changed greatly, which has also led to the rapid development of the construction of meat food cold chain logistics system.
First of all, the growth of meat production requires the follow-up of the construction of cold chain logistics system. The country's total meat production has increased from more than 10,000 tons to 30,000 tons. The total capacity of cold storage across the country is also increasing.
Secondly, changes in the structure of meat products require the construction of a cold chain logistics system. In 2019, national meat consumption was dominated by hot fresh meat and frozen meat. In the past three years, Shuanghui Group has invested in the production and sales of cold fresh meat, and the supporting refrigerated processing, storage, transportation, and sales logistics systems have made great progress.
In addition, the popularity of household refrigerators has extended the cold chain logistics of meat products to urban and rural households. Storage methods such as curing and air-drying are gradually replaced by refrigeration.
From 2009 to 2013, my country's meat industry maintained its growth momentum and continued to promote the construction of the meat food cold chain logistics system.
In 2019, there were nearly 10,000 cold storages across the country, with a total capacity of 10,000 tons, including 10,000 tons of refrigerated materials, 10,000 tons of frozen materials, mechanical refrigerated train vehicles, mechanical refrigerated vehicles, and refrigerated ships with a tonnage of 10,000 tons.
However, even today, the development of cold chain logistics for meat products in my country is still in its infancy, and a large-scale and systematic cold chain logistics system has not yet been formed. Compared with the needs of developing modern agriculture, household consumption and expanding exports, There is still a gap.
1. The proportion of meat products circulating through the cold chain is still low, far lower than the level of developed countries in Europe and the United States. Each link lacks systematic, standardized and coherent operation, resulting in broken links.
2. Infrastructure capacity is seriously insufficient. The per capita cold storage capacity is only kilograms. The ratio of refrigerated and insulated trucks to freight trucks is only .3. The existing refrigeration and refrigeration facilities are generally old and aging, and the regional distribution is unbalanced. It is responsible for the fresh agricultural products in the country. Key logistics nodes such as large agricultural wholesale markets with wholesale trading functions lack refrigeration and refrigeration facilities.
3. Technology promotion lags behind. Post-production pre-cooling technology for fresh agricultural products and commercial processing methods such as grading and packaging in low-temperature environments have not yet become popular.
4. The development of third-party cold chain logistics enterprises lags behind, the mechanism of high quality and low price has not been formed, and the service system has not yet been fully established.
5. The legal and regulatory system and standard system are not perfect, and a legal and regulatory system that regulates the behavior of market entities in all aspects has not yet been established.
Anhui Jinxue Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd.
Specializes in the construction of various cold storages
: Cold storage manufacturers