Food logistics and the pathway to optimisation

Food logistics faces significant challenges, such as ensuring product traceability, storing goods under optimal conditions and minimising the cost of maintaining controlled temperatures. These unique demands have led many companies in the industry to invest in automation and digitalisation to optimise their operations, enforce strict inventory control and guarantee maximum food safety.

What is food logistics?

The concept refers to the efficient management of food across the supply chain, from origin to end consumer. It encompasses a series of processes and activities, such as:

• Sourcing and procurement: purchasing and supplying raw materials and food products from producers, farmers and manufacturers.
• Storage: preserving products in suitable facilities (e.g., cold-storage or freezer warehouses) to maintain quality and food safety.
• Inventory management: monitoring and controlling stock levels to prevent overstocking or stockouts and ensure correct turnover.
• Transport and distribution: moving goods through various links in the supply chain to distribute them in good condition and on time to retail points or end customers.

Food logistics is essential to deliver products to consumers while maintaining freshness and meeting established quality and safety standards.

How to optimise food logistics operations

Streamlining logistics processes is fundamental in all sectors. But it is particularly critical in the food industry, where any mistake could impact public health. To achieve an efficient and incident-free supply chain, food manufacturers and distributors are implementing automated storage and retrieval systems.

Below are some technological solutions food businesses are adopting to meet the sector’s logistics challenges.

Automated internal transport of food products

The automation of goods flow is one of the drivers of food logistics. It increases operational productivity and speeds up internal product movements between strategic areas such as the storage zone and production lines.

A prime example is Europe’s largest sugar processing plant, where British Sugar installed a Mecalux pallet conveyor system to connect its warehouse with production. “All product movements are automated, which really accelerates inflows and outflows,” says Samuel Chapman, Purchasing Manager at British Sugar. Internal transport automation is key for this sugar producer’s logistics strategy. It guarantees agility and safety in managing 3,000 pallets a day.

In food logistics, automatic box conveyors facilitate continuous product flow. A case in point is Elaborados Cárnicos Medina, part of Grupo Medina, a leading beef producer in Spain and a benchmark in Europe. In its plant, the Mecalux box conveyor system connects the warehouse with the cutting, aging, slicing and packaging processes. With this solution, the business manages up to 680 boxes an hour at 2 °C, maintaining the cold chain to optimally preserve the meat.

Order fulfilment in food logistics

Order picking is one of the most demanding operations for food companies. In the distribution centre (DC) of agribusiness cooperative Copacol, automating the refrigerated and subzero picking area has enabled operators to fill 400 orders a day without errors. This area is outfitted with transfer cars and 306 flow channels, each with a capacity for two pallets, ensuring continuous product availability. Thanks to automation, the Brazilian coop has increased productivity by 20% and ships around 2,000 tonnes of meat every day.

Konya Şeker, Turkey’s largest sugar producer, installed a similar solution in its logistics centre in Çumra. The transfer car supplies the flow channels, where operators directly access the pallets to pick the boxes that make up each order. With this method, the company distributes 2,000 pallets containing chocolates and biscuits to supermarkets and shops across Turkey.

Continuous, safe food storage

Storage is one of the most vital operations in food logistics. Organisations in the sector require systems that guarantee safe food handling while delivering high performance.

In Spain, for instance, dairy company Esnelat (of the Iparlat Group) automated its warehousing operations to cope with increased production. The business installed 10 stacker cranes to efficiently store and ship 350,000 pallets of finished goods annually.

In Poland, Lantmännen Unibake, a leading European supplier of fresh and frozen dough for bakery and pastry production, implemented two automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs) and six stacker cranes operating 24/7. The automatic handling equipment enables the uninterrupted intake of pallets from the production centre and other warehouses as well as the distribution of 100 pallets per hour to clients throughout Europe.

Space optimisation to reduce energy consumption in cold storage

In addition to enhancing productivity and safety, food logistics companies managing refrigerated products must optimise storage space to cut down on energy use for cooling. High-density AS/RSs deliver the best results, offering agility, maximum storage capacity, high performance and efficient goods management.

For example, Bem Brasil, a frozen pre-cooked chip producer, implemented Mecalux’s Automated Pallet Shuttle system with stacker cranes in its warehouse run at -30 °C to lower energy consumption. In Portugal, Kiwi Greensun, the Iberian Peninsula’s largest producer of kiwis, commissioned an automated clad-rack warehouse that runs at a refrigerated temperature of 0 to 0.5 °C with 97% humidity. The goal is to preserve the flavour and properties of the 10,400 tonnes of kiwis stored annually.

Temperature control is crucial not just for food storage but also for beverages like whiskey. In the US, Rabbit Hole Distillery built a warehouse in for 24,500 barrels, designed to adjust to temperature changes and support the whiskey ageing process. The racking system maximises airflow between the storage levels, taking into account the temperature swings in Kentucky, which range from -12 to 48 °C throughout the year.

Software for complete traceability in food logistics

Real-time inventory management is paramount in food logistics. Full traceability of food products is becoming imperative for both suppliers and customers. To meet this demand, process digitalisation allows for rigorous and efficient stock management while maximising operator productivity.

Congelados de Navarra is a leading European producer and marketer of deep-frozen vegetables. With Mecalux’s Easy WMS, the business simultaneously supervises four automated warehouses as a single unit. Among many other functions, the software tracks palletised goods arriving from production, assigns a storage location to each item, controls inventory and streamlines pallet transfers to mixing areas. All of this is carried out in line with a key objective for any food industry company: ensuring traceability.

Food logistics: traceability, efficiency and safety

Food and beverage logistics operations require efficient, secure operations for food to reach end customers in perfect conditions. To handle inventory effectively and error-free, more food industry businesses are automating and digitalising their supply chains.

Are you looking to leverage the latest technologies to boost your business? You’ve come to the right place. At Mecalux, we specialise in automating and managing facilities for food producers and distributors with our Easy WMS warehouse management system. Be sure to contact us. Together, we’ll take your logistics processes to the next level.