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In the food or pharmaceutical industry, special requirements apply to the cold chain of products. There may already be suitable solutions for conventional temperature ranges. But what about deliveries of food or medicines to the doorstep? If you are not directly at home, the problems become even greater. Andreas Siebrecht thought so too. The lover of delicious ice cream creations spoke to packaging people about his transport packaging for ice cream and the patented cooling technology he has developed for it.
Episode 21: Ice Ice Baby
Transporting visually appealing and, above all, delicious ice cream sundaes from the ice cream parlour to your own four walls is not easy. The ice cream is often not cooled properly and does not arrive in ice cream parlour quality. Andreas Siebrecht wanted to find a Packaging solution for out-of-home sales and developed GelatoPack. With the packaging, he has already been able to German Packaging Award and also made an appearance on the TV programme „Die Höhle der Löwen“. The special thing about the packaging is the cooling technology.
This opens doors for other products that need to be cooled at different temperatures but are to be delivered together. With the MultiTherm box, Siebrecht is already working on the next transport packaging that is suitable for the Transport of food or medical products should be suitable. Different temperature zones from minus to plus degrees are designed to keep products with different requirements fresh in one box.
This opens doors for other products that need to be cooled at different temperatures but are to be delivered together. With the MultiTherm box, Siebrecht is already working on the next transport packaging that is suitable for the Transport of food or medical products should be suitable. Different temperature zones from minus to plus degrees are designed to keep products with different requirements fresh in one box.
The primary factor here is the cooling temperature, namely minus 14 degrees. However, the cream on the ice cream freezes at below zero degrees and becomes liquid again at over ten degrees; it needs a cooling temperature of plus six degrees. So I need two cooling zones and the GelatoPack Box fulfils this requirement. I have patented this system with passive cooling without a power connection for the most important markets worldwide. The cooling process is therefore protected.
"Two or more zones naturally also offer the option of cooling not only ice cream, but also all fresh food products. This means that I could create two zones in the enclosed space, one at plus 60 degrees, where burgers and fries, for example, stay. The other zone is minus 20 degrees and ice cream goes in here. This gives fast food restaurants a delivery box that is perfect for delivering food. Or you could have three zones with, for example, minus 20 degrees for coronavirus vaccines, plus eight for insulin and then another 15 to 25 degrees for suppositories. Then a pharmacy would no longer need different cool boxes, but could deliver the supplies for different patients in one box.“
Andreas Siebrecht gained his knowledge of refrigeration technology from his time at an international refrigeration logistics company that produces gases. During this time, he was involved in the freezing of cakes, for example. So he has a certain amount of expertise in refrigeration, but that was far from enough for his project, Siebrecht explains:
„I also had to liaise with various educational institutes across Europe. Because to keep this cooling temperature for the ice cream constant at minus 14 degrees, you need a Phase change. And after many phone calls and a lucky coincidence, I ended up with one of the two leading researchers on phase change in the world. He then put together a research team and it took them four or five months, and then I went there with a package for testing. That's how the The result is a cooling liquid that is so crucial for the entire packaging is.“