Here's an overview of our cold chain packaging testing for your attention, as tested on mock dispatches of Caninsulin.

Getting the conditions right:

Each test involved packaging an insulin vial in the temperature controlled envelopes with the varying ice and gel packs. The cold packs were not to come into direct contact with the vial. All tests carried out were for 24 hours as a minimum and tests were checked with an infra red thermometer upon opening, and temperatures logged. The temperature was always recorded by testing a porous surface (the label on the vial itself) for its temperature, as per the directions of the thermometer.

What were the tests?

All in all there were 8 seperate tests over 3 instances. These were as follows:

Test 1 - Premium envelope with ice pack

This was a 24 and 48 hour test performed in-house (as we wanted to see if the premium envelopes could manage 48 hours).

The envelopes were opened 24 hours after packing to see if they were still below the minimum required temperature, which they were. The temperatures recorded were at 7.4 degrees and 6.9 degrees respectively. We resealed and tested at 48 hours and they were both at 17 degrees.

Test 2 - Standard envelope with gel pack

This test was as above but put through the delivery chain by sending out through FedEx to ourselves. Caninsulin was packed at 10am and treated as a regular order would be. It was delivered the next day at 11am (25 hours), and the temperatures recorded were 2.5 and 3.1 degrees respectively. The standard outperformed the premium but this is unimportant as both were well within range.

Test 3 - Standard envelope with ice pack
Premium envelope with ice pack
Standard envelope with gel pack
Premium envelope with gel pack

As mentioned before these were delivered by FedEx 22 hours after packaging but not opened until 24 hours had past. The recordings were 3.3,3.3,3 and 2.9 degrees respectively.

VioVet uses gel ice packs in standard thermal envelopes based on the results provided by the above testing.

You can read Hydropac's guarantee here (gel ice pack manufacturers): https://hydropac.co.uk/faqs/

Written by: Adam