We're all skating on thin ice, it was reported in the film An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Following last month's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showing incontrovertible proof of man's influence on global warming, the subject has moved centre stage. With refrigeration recognised as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, where does that leave the cold storage and distribution sector?

When 3663 First for Foodservice wanted to automate the transfer of fresh chicken destined for KFC to its two regional distribution centres (RDCs) at Royton and Banbury, it called in Industrial Automation (IAL) which set about inventing a machine to transfer a pallet-full of trays on to a set of dolleys.

Temperature control is vital to Ginsters, part of the Samworth Brothers business, in the production of 150M pies, pasties and sausage rolls at its Cornwall site. So it called on Loma Scientific to provide one of its Celsius non-invasive temperature management systems to monitor three lines.

Logitrans now offers 100% stainless steel, fully-powered pallet trucks and stackers, specially developed for wet and aggressive environments as well as severe hygiene demands. The trucks can operate in temperatures down to -30ºC.

Datalogic, the hand-held barcode reader specialist, has launched a new family of Dragon hand-held laser scanners designed to withstand the toughest environmental conditions without losing barcode reading performance and reliability.