The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently allowed blueberries from Chile to be fumigated on arrival at US ports. This offers exporters that are unable to fumigate at country of origin an alternative so they can ship. It also creates a need to recool those berries immediately.
Not all US port cold storage facilities or nearby 3PLs (third-party logistics providers) have pre-coolers, which can be used for recooling berries. But for those that do, the ability to quickly and thoroughly remove heat from fruit, and thus preserve shelf life and salable weight while reducing the need for repacking, is a benefit they can provide to their customers—and in some case, retailers themselves.
“Recooling is different than pre-cooling,” according to Jim Still, founder and president of Global Cooling Inc, which invented and manufactures both the Jet-Ready and Rapid-Cool pre-coolers and recoolers. Global’s factory is at the Philadelphia Navy Yard industrial complex, near PHL airport and all the ports of Philadelphia and South Jersey.