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Refrigerated Containers: Making Fresh Food Possible Worldwide
04/09/2025
Key Takeaways:
- Reefer containers ensure fresh and frozen foods arrive in optimal condition by maintaining strict temperature, humidity, and ventilation control.
- Reefer containers enable consistent international trade of perishable goods, connecting farms, fisheries, and food producers to global markets and consumers year-round.
- By supporting vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture, refrigerated containers help modern producers grow and distribute fresh, pesticide-free food efficiently.
Our overall wellbeing relies largely on having access to a well-balanced diet. Enjoying fresh food, including fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish on a regular basis ensures we get the nutrients needed for maintaining health, supporting immune function, and promoting energy levels.
Fresh produce contains more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants compared to processed or preserved foods, and can often only be grown in certain conditions. Because of this, as both a business and a consumer, being able to safely ship this produce around the world is important.
This is where refrigerated containers come in. Similarly to a domestic refrigerator, these reefer containers use a temperature control unit that regulates the temperature at which goods are shipped. The temperature can be set specifically for your cargo, to maintain maximum freshness and prevent spoilage during transit.
The use of refrigerated containers has made shipping perishable goods at a lower cost possible on a large scale.
Fresh produce contains more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants compared to processed or preserved foods, and can often only be grown in certain conditions. Because of this, as both a business and a consumer, being able to safely ship this produce around the world is important.
This is where refrigerated containers come in. Similarly to a domestic refrigerator, these reefer containers use a temperature control unit that regulates the temperature at which goods are shipped. The temperature can be set specifically for your cargo, to maintain maximum freshness and prevent spoilage during transit.
The use of refrigerated containers has made shipping perishable goods at a lower cost possible on a large scale.
Reefer (Refrigerator Container) Benefits
Some of the key benefits that come from reefers include:
Growing Global Exports: Supporting Vertical Farming
One way that refrigerated containers make fresh food accessible worldwide is by supporting vertical farming practices. This modern agricultural method involves growing crops in stacked layers, making it possible to grow more food in smaller areas including urban spaces.
They also produce high-quality, pesticide free crops year-round, which must be transported efficiently and without quality loss. Because refrigerated containers can easily integrate into wider perishable goods logistics, the crops grown using vertical farming methods can be efficiently shipped to consumers around the world without delay. This helps prevent quality loss, and extend shelf-life, resulting in customer satisfaction and ultimately greater investment into vertical farming projects.
Growing Global Exports: Supporting Vertical Farming
One way that refrigerated containers make fresh food accessible worldwide is by supporting vertical farming practices. This modern agricultural method involves growing crops in stacked layers, making it possible to grow more food in smaller areas including urban spaces.
They also produce high-quality, pesticide free crops year-round, which must be transported efficiently and without quality loss. Because refrigerated containers can easily integrate into wider perishable goods logistics, the crops grown using vertical farming methods can be efficiently shipped to consumers around the world without delay. This helps prevent quality loss, and extend shelf-life, resulting in customer satisfaction and ultimately greater investment into vertical farming projects.
Bringing the World's Exotic Flavors
to Your Doorstep
Refrigerated containers are also critical in supporting the global transport of exotic produce like dragon fruit, durian, and rambutan.
The custom temperature profiles made possible by reefer containers mean that the precise conditions needed to prevent over-ripening and preserve freshness are maintained for each fruit individually.
Some refrigerated containers are also fitted with integrated ethylene scrubbers. These help to slow the ripening process by managing gas build-up, which helps prevent spoilage of exotic goods during shipping. Similarly, reefers can also be fitted with shock and vibration protection. This, combined with specialized packaging helps to minimize the risk of bruising while goods are in transit. This means that exotic fruits and vegetables reach consumers in prime condition, which helps to drive the demand and appetite for these premium goods.
This offers you additional peace of mind during long haul shipments, transshipments, or in case of delays.
Equally, the use of IoT and GPS-enabled technologies allows you to monitor the conditions and location of your fresh food cargo continually. Not only does this allow you to alert your customers in instances of delay, but it also helps your fresh goods supply chain operate more seamlessly by giving you additional insight that allows you to plan accordingly.
Features like hybrid or solar-powered reefers also help to make long haul shipping more sustainable by promoting energy efficiency. Not only is this important for organizations looking to reduce their carbon footprint, but also for the wider shipping industry.
Encouraging Waste Reduction
Another way in which refrigerated containers help with both sustainability in shipping and fresh food distribution is by encouraging waste reduction.
By maintaining precise temperatures and humidity control, spoilage is prevented, and your consumers can enjoy high-quality fresh produce. Refrigerated containers also help reduce packaging waste by being used numerous times, improving the overall sustainability of your supply chain.
Similarly, refrigerated containers are easy to integrate with predictive analytics. This helps support intelligent supply chains by providing additional data that can be used during the decision-making process. As a result, better risk management strategies can be implemented, which in turn helps reduce the chances of damage occurring to your cargo that could result in waste at its final destination.
Ask MSC
At MSC, our team of reefer cargo experts are on hand to offer bespoke refrigerated shipping solutions for your fresh and frozen goods from anywhere in the world. Discover our reefer solution or speak to a member of our team today.
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Learn MoreFAQs
How does a Refrigerated Container Work?
Reefers use an integrated refrigeration unit to maintain specific temperatures. They also regulate humidity and ventilation based on your specific cargo requirements.
What are the Main Benefits of using Refrigerated Containers?
Some of the main benefits of using refrigerated containers when shipping perishable goods include:
- Maintaining freshness and shelf life of your cargo.
- Supporting long-distance shipping of perishable goods.
- Reducing food spoilage and waste.
- Enhancing food safety and quality by maintaining optimum conditions.
- Enables year-round access to seasonal and exotic items.
How do Refrigerated Containers Help Reduce Food Waste?
By maintaining the correct conditions, reefer containers minimize spoilage during transport. Refrigerated containers also enable better cargo monitoring which helps allow proactive decision-making again helping you to avoid losses.