If there’s been one major topic of conversation across the UK in recent weeks, it’s been the extremely warm weather being experienced – with the Met Office reporting a record-breaking high of 37.7°C during June’s heatwave.
While keeping cool may have been on everyone’s minds, both the UK’s food supply chain and the businesses it serves had complex issues to contend with, especially when it came to keeping chilled and frozen food at the correct temperatures.
And with more heatwaves on the way, this is an ongoing consideration – with strategies and processes needing to be in place to ensure businesses can continue to provide safe, quality and appetising food, and that supply chains can deliver products on time while keeping them cool.
What are the major considerations?
- Equipment failure is a potential danger for suppliers and businesses alike, with older warehouses, vehicles, fridges and freezers all particularly at risk. Checks should be performed more regularly, and maintenance scheduled where needed, during times of extreme heat. Plans should also be made to budget for the replacement of equipment nearing the end of its life.
- Products need to be moved around quickly during times such as loading, unloading and delivery or when being taken out of their chilled environment in order to prepare them for serving. This is where careful resource planning is required to ensure that there are enough ‘hands on deck’ so these processes can happen within safe handling windows.
- When product temperatures exceed safe limits, they must be disposed of – meaning more potential wastage during heatwaves. All staff involved the handling of these products must be trained on guidelines, but also made aware of how critical the mitigation of excess waste is, particularly when the risk of overheated products is so high.
- Extra refrigeration demand can drive up energy usage, in turn increasing costs – there is little alternative (although keeping equipment in good working order can help somewhat) so this must be incorporated into the budgeting process.
- At-risk stock must be used as a priority if chilled equipment does fail, before relying on suppliers to fill the space again when it’s back up and running.
Continuity is crucial
Meteorological experts including The Met Office predict hotter days and nights to come, with a 50% chance of another 40°C day within the next 12 years. We’ll see an increase in 30°C+ days, particularly in the south of the UK, and more nights where the temperature remains above 20°C.
So, it’s essential that extreme heat is treated as a business continuity issue – not just a passing inconvenience – by hospitality, education, care and other organisations handling and serving food.
Planning must include:
- Flexibility to avoid over-reliance on ‘just in time’ deliveries during heat alerts.
- Checking cold storage capacity, particularly when heatwaves are predicted.
- Heatwave delivery protocols in place, with all staff trained on them.
- Back-up menus in case chilled and frozen food supply is disrupted.
- Monitoring UKHSA Heat-Health Alerts.
- And – extremely importantly – reviewing supplier resilience: do they have contingency plans, back-up refrigerators, vehicle monitoring and alternative depots in place?
We have already seen the impact of heatwaves upon supply chains and storage, with June’s hot spell seeing the cold-storage infrastructure feeling the strain, and supermarket refrigeration failures widely reported in the media. Back in the 2022 summer heatwave, Frontiers in Environmental Science reports numerous refrigeration failures, livestock heat stress, and increased energy costs for cold storage.
With warmer weather now a very real reality each year, and temperatures on the rise (experts predict an average 5°C rise over the next quarter of a century), preparation is absolutely vital to ensure your supply chain doesn’t meltdown.
If you’d like to know more about how AVE’s vast network of suppliers can ensure your chain is best placed to remain intact throughout situations such as heatwaves, do give us a call or send an email to the team.
