What do meat, seafood, desserts and dairy products have in common? You can ship them all frozen. With the proper packaging and shipping option, your frozen food shipment can reach its recipient while maintaining the same quality and freshness it had when you sent it.
So, learn step by step how to ship frozen food, what it costs and how to manage food safety risks in transit.
How Much Does it Cost to Ship Frozen Food?
Shipping prices fluctuate no matter what you’re looking to ship. However, shipping frozen food has added considerations that can affect the price. These factors can affect the cost of shipping frozen food:
- Parcel weight: Heavier packages typically cost more to ship. Packages containing frozen food also weigh more because of the necessary cooling packs.
- Destination: Where you’re shipping to and the distance matters when calculating shipping costs. The farther away you ship, the more expensive it will be.
- Packaging costs: Appropriate packaging, including gel packs and dry ice, is necessary for ensuring frozen food gets to its destination safely.
- Shipping speed: Frozen food cannot stay in transit for too long or it risks spoiling. Often this results in needing express or expedited shipping.
- Climate: The temperature and time of year can affect cost. In warmer climates, there is more of a concern about spoilage, which affects appropriate packaging and shipping speed.
- Type of frozen food: Depending on what you’re shipping, packaging considerations and shipping needs may vary.
- Shipping method: Several carriers can ship frozen food, including major carriers like FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) but also specialized cold shipping companies, all of which charge different rates.
What Are the Risks of Shipping Frozen Food?
The biggest challenge when shipping frozen food is ensuring it doesn’t spoil before it reaches its destination. Food that is improperly packaged or stays in transit for too long can spoil and cause foodborne illness. Hot and humid weather can also speed up spoiling, so it’s best to be extra careful when shipping frozen food during the summer.
The best way to keep food frozen when shipping is dry ice or frozen carbon dioxide. While dry ice has fantastic cooling properties, it’s also considered hazardous. Because of the dangers of dry ice, it needs to be placed in a vented bag that protects your hands and allows the carbon dioxide gas to escape. Also, you must correctly label the box as containing dry ice to comply with shipping regulations and reduce risk.
5 Steps for Shipping Frozen Food
Follow these five steps to ship frozen food safely.
Step 1: Get the Correct Packing Supplies
Correctly packaging frozen food is essential for its safe arrival at its destination. Major carriers recommend preparing your frozen shipment for a minimum transit time of 30 hours. The exact packing materials vary slightly based on whether you’re shipping with dry ice or gel packs, but this is what you’ll need:
- 2-inch thick urethane insulated box or similar insulated shipping container
- Vented plastic liner
- Sturdy corrugated cardboard box
- Packing peanuts, bubble packs or wadded newspaper
- Carton sealing tape
- All required labels
- Dry ice and gel cool packs
- Gloves for safely handling dry ice
Using the proper supplies to package your frozen food shipment can help it stay colder for longer. You may be able to purchase these shipping materials from restaurant supply stores, packaging materials suppliers like Uline and online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc.
Step 2: Freeze Food Fully Before Packing
To best extend a frozen food package’s transit window, you want to ensure food is frozen solid before packaging. The moment you pack your frozen food shipment, the clock starts ticking as the temperature slowly rises. Ensure food is frozen so that your package can begin its journey as cold as possible.
Step 3: Pack the Box
Along with using the right materials to ship food with dry ice, the way you pack the box is vital for ensuring the product is frozen when it arrives at its destination. First, line the insulated container with the plastic liner. Then, add a refrigeration layer of dry ice at the bottom. Next, add your product and add more dry ice on top.
After ensuring that all dry ice blocks and gel packs are as close together as possible, fill any empty space with packing material to slow down dry ice sublimation. Then, close the insulated container’s lid and place the entire package in the sturdy corrugated box. Finally, tape the box shut but not airtight, and add all necessary labels.
Step 4: Make Sure the Box is Labeled Correctly and Safely
If you’re a company looking to ship food to consumers, be sure to comply with all Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food regulations for food distribution that apply. Also, mark your package as perishable and include the internal temperature needed to ensure that the food inside doesn’t spoil.
When shipping using dry ice, there are some additional considerations. Because dry ice is classified as a hazardous material, any box containing it must be labeled as follows:
- Packaged marked “Dry Ice”
- UN 1845
- Net quantity of dry ice in kilograms
- Class 9 label
- Name and address of the shipper and recipient
Step 5: Find a Carrier That Specializes in Refrigeration
While most major carriers allow you to ship frozen goods, shipping times can be unreliable, and weekends are not typically included in delivery estimates. This uncertainty can affect food freshness and your business’s reputation.
Companies shipping frozen food may want to consider choosing a shipping method that uses reefer trucks or refrigerated trucks. Depending on the size of your company and shipping needs, a refrigerated trucking company may be able to offer better rates and safer food handling.
Shipping Across State Lines
Shipping frozen food between states typically doesn’t pose too much of a challenge for consumers or FDA-approved food manufacturers or distributors. But there may be additional agricultural regulations to take into account depending on what you’re shipping.
The main drawback for interstate frozen food shipments is the added time and money for shipping long distances. Because of the extended transit time, it can also be more difficult to ensure food freshness.
Dry Ice Shipping for Frozen Food
Shipping frozen food can present a few added challenges, but with the right materials and shipping partner, you can ship practically any frozen food.
FAQ
Gel ice packs are an excellent option for shipping food that needs to stay cold but not frozen. They are also good for supplementing dry ice for a frozen shipment.
The item’s weight and outside temperature affect how long dry ice lasts for shipping. Generally, a 2-pound piece of frozen food with 5 pounds of dry ice will last 24 hours.
The number of dry ice shipping packs you need depends on how heavy your item is, how long it will be in transit and the weather. Most carriers have a chart available that will help you estimate how much dry ice you need for a particular shipment.