‘Smartcooler’: New cooling packaging for online food deliveries

Deliveries of fresh food ordered online are booming. Meal box suppliers such as HelloFresh and online supermarkets such as MyTime or AllYouNeed Fresh are using the Internet as a new distribution channel for their food – as are specialised suppliers of caviar, speciality meats and vegan products. Suitable cooling packaging is essential to ensure that these temperature-sensitive foods are kept cool in transit. As a specialist in this segment, ECOCOOL has developed ‘Smartcooler’ packaging to meet this need. Made of synthetic fleece, this mailing bag has outstanding insulating properties. Another of the new product’s distinguishing features is its exceptional sustainability.

The Smartcooler is a welcome addition to Dr Florian Siedenburg’s product portfolio. “During talks with customers, two things became clear to us. Firstly, there is a growing number of consignors who want to send ‘heterogeneous’ boxes. By this we understand packaging that is suitable not only for refrigerated products, but also for dried goods and even cold-sensitive products such as herbs.” Solutions with separate insulated pouches in a large transport box – such as ECOCOOL’s competitively priced ‘Coolmailer’ packaging – have proven to be highly effective for this type of shipment. Unlike fully cooled packages, every product can be transported in optimum conditions – this also cuts costs. “The second thing we are increasingly noticing is a higher demand for sustainable packaging materials. The Smartcooler synthetic fleece bag is the perfect solution, as it is made of 80 percent recycled PET bottles and is 100 percent recyclable,” says Siedenburg. The structure of this bag means it has good insulating properties and is completely odourless. “Right from the beginning, we were impressed by the technical properties of this solution and the value for money it offers,” explains the expert. At present, there is a choice of three standard sizes (S, M and L).

The Smartcooler’s cooling performance is also impressive. As with all ECOCOOL products, the professionals carried out extensive climatic chamber testing to verify the Smartcooler’s performance before launching it on the market. “We can say with a clear conscience that the Smartcooler is one of the best-performing cooling packaging solutions for food on the market,” says the CEO. The experts from ECOCOOL tested the Smartcooler’s performance in a 48-hour experiment using 1.5 kilograms of Coolpack cooling elements (three at 500 grams each) at temperatures ranging from 18 to 30 degrees Celsius (average temperature: 19.6°C). The result: with this combination, the Smartcooler achieved an excellent cooling time of 42 hours.

“The Smartcooler really doesn’t have to fear comparison with commercial EPS boxes or other types of refrigerated packaging. We also make a point of advising our customers to use logistics providers that guarantee delivery within 24 hours,” stresses Siedenburg. Quite apart from the performance of the cooling packaging, this is in the interest of the end-customers, who rightly demand particularly high quality when purchasing fresh foods.