INNOVATIONS IN TRANSPORTATION OF MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS

Sa？etak It is well known that during the transport and storage of meat and meat products, biological, chemical, mechanical or organoleptic changes may occur, i.e. the quality of products decreases. In the transport supply chain, each link is extremely important. Therefore, the storage, preservation and transportation of meat and meat products must take place under the constant supervision. In addition, transport vehicles should comply with food safety, hygiene and technical requirements. In Croatia, road transport is the predominant mode of transport of agricultural food products, including meat and meat products. Former transport of fresh and frozen meat from the slaughterhouse to the market takes place in trucks with refrigeration chambers, and the entire transportation system is included in the so-called “Cold chain”. Based on the collected data and their analysis, the aim of this paper is to show the complexity of the process of the preparation, transport and storage of meat and meat products. The benefits of an efficient, well maintained cold chain are: cost reduction; keeping quality of the goods (products) and loss reduction - waste and return of goods. The transport process involves a series of unpredictable factors that influence changes in temperature within the refrigeration chamber. However, objective of cold chain monitoring is to ensure the quality and safety of products throughout the distribution chain. For this reason, the research project ？intelligent container“ developed a container that enables, through combination of technology and computer software packages, quality monitoring of distribution processes to optimize logistics processes in order to minimize losses in transport and storage