Unless we work in the food industry, we don’t realize the long chain of things that need to happen before food gets from the field to our refrigerators. Food transport may span thousands of miles, and food may change hands multiple times before it makes it to the supermarket shelf, and thence to our homes.
The food “cold chain”, as it’s called, aims to maximize freshness and minimize food-borne illnesses, as a break in the chain can be deadly. The chain is a highly interconnected system of high-tech processing facilities, transport vehicles and shipping containers, which work together out of the view of the general public to preserve food quality and safety.