In recent years, on the one hand, with the accelerated pace of life, young consumers have gastrointestinal disorders and other health problems are common, which also led to the market for probiotic products have an urgent demand, thus quickly promote the development of the probiotic market, which is superior to the development of the lactobacillus market; on the other hand, due to the awakening of the national health concept and the improvement of consumption levels, also led to the rapid rise of the lactobacillus market. There are many brands in the market, which dazzle consumers. Lactic acid beverages are classified into sterilized (non-live) and unsterilized (live) types according to whether they are sterilized or not, and the two have different mechanisms of action on intestinal health and different preservation methods. The active type lactic acid bacteria drink contains a large number of lactic acid bacteria that are kept alive, which helps to keep the good bacteria and bad bacteria in the intestinal tract in a balanced state and alleviate the problems of diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, loss of appetite and other gastrointestinal disorders. It meets the demand of healthy consumption. Its storage and transportation process must be carried out in the cold chain to ensure that the product temperature is under 2~8℃ cold chain conditions. Departure from the cold chain will lead to a decrease in the number of active lactic acid bacteria, which will lose its regulating effect and affect the taste of the product. Humpback whale customers, as the leading producer of active lactic acid bacteria industry, need to keep a good grip on the cold chain transportation and storage to improve the activity and quantity of lactic acid bacteria, ensure the nutritional quality and escort the health of consumers.

Challenge

For consumers, it is generally best to keep lactic acid bacteria drinks in the refrigerator. This is because the culture temperature of lactic acid bacteria is about 37℃. Preservation temperature close to this temperature will easily lead to excessive fermentation of lactic acid bacteria and sour taste. The most important feature of the humpback whale customer lactic acid beverage products is that they are rich in active bacteria. These active bacteria are the key to promoting intestinal function in these products. Active bacteria can only survive at low temperatures. If stored at room temperature for a long time, the active bacteria will die in large numbers. Customer products need to be refrigerated at 2-10°C. With the national standard of 1×106 CFU/ml live bacteria, for example, the number of live bacteria will be eliminated to 1×105 CFU/ml on the 3rd day of storage at room temperature, and the number of live bacteria will be reduced by an order of magnitude every 3-4 days, and it is estimated that almost all of the live bacteria will die in not many days. In addition to the reduction of the number of live bacteria, a bigger hidden danger of high temperature storage is product spoilage. Customers need to ensure that all aspects of the active lactic acid bacteria product processing, storage, transportation, distribution and retailing, and up to the consumer, are always at the cold temperature necessary for the product. Failure at any one point will result in a breakdown of the entire chain. Customers need to transport the drinks from lactobacillus inoculation into cold storage, loading into cars for refrigerated transport, then unloading after delivery to the destination, and then the product into local cold storage for distribution, all in a series of refrigerated transport. Resolutely put an end to the problems of low temperature lactic acid bacteria drinks not preserved at low temperature, room temperature posing as low temperature, etc. The whole cold chain requirement from production to transportation, to storage to distribution is extremely important to ensure the quality of customers' products.

Solution

In the cooperation with the customer, Humpback Whale monitors the temperature of lactic acid beverages during transportation by providing portable products, and pays moderate attention to the vibration and bumps during transportation to avoid excessive activity caused by vibration exceeding the threshold due to the speed of the vehicle and road conditions, and manages the cold chain of storage warehouses through LoRa gateway with temperature and humidity probes. All the temperature and humidity data of transportation and storage environment and transportation vibration data are collected in real time, accurately and effectively, and the drivers and managers at all levels are notified of any information exceeding the threshold value through WeChat, SMS and Internet management platform in time to ensure product quality and achieve good results. The case involves humpback whale products including but not limited to portable cold chain version, portable precision instrument version, LoRa gateway, LoRa temperature and humidity probe, etc.