Keynote Speakers

Cold chain management is critical for maintaining food quality and minimizing food loss. This research aimed to develop prototypes of real-time data loggers for monitoring temperature, humidity, and electrical consumption in cold storage facilities. These devices, installed in ten cold storages for a year, will help analyze storage efficiency. Additionally, mobile data loggers for delivery boxes will track various parameters, such as temperature, humidity, vibration, and GPS, to study the relationship between product quality and environmental conditions over the next year. A Decision Support System (DSS) was also developed to evaluate cold storage efficiency and provide management improvement suggestions. The DSS, accessible via web applications, utilizes data from the loggers, which can be retrieved online or offline. Physical simulations confirmed that temperature and storage conditions significantly affect the quality of crab meat and mangosteen during transportation. The study highlights the need for temperature-controlled transportation services for long-distance deliveries. The project's outcomes include reduced energy consumption, food loss, and enhanced food quality, with innovations that decrease dependency on imported equipment and promote environmentally friendly practices. A study on the Thai pet food industry highlighted temperature abuse in sourcing chicken for hermetically sealed containers as a significant issue. The implementation of IoT-enabled data loggers for real-time temperature monitoring is recommended to mitigate this problem. This approach could reduce production losses by 523,500 Baht per incident and save suppliers 526,000 Baht per incident by minimizing returned raw materials and associated costs. Achieving these benefits requires collaborative efforts between manufacturers and suppliers to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome.

Keywords: Cold Chain, IoT, Temperature Abuse, Decision support system, Cold chain management, Energy consumption reduction