Advancing Warehousing Techniques to Maintain Beverage Quality

Quality is not easily defined. Many argue that our concept of ‘good quality’ tea and coffee can never be objective because perspectives and tastes are constantly shifting. What we can say for sure is that certain practices uphold great quality while others threaten it.

Take warehousing techniques, for example. How businesses store tea and coffee products greatly impact the flavour and freshness that customers experience. In this article, we’ll break down why that is, the risks of poor storage, and the advanced technologies leading the way for better brews.

Why Warehousing Matters

A common misconception is that because tea and coffee are shelf-stable items, they’re not perishable. While they may not spoil the same way fresh milk does, they are still natural substances that alter when exposed to changing conditions. It is why even home storage practices amongst customers can affect the quality of a morning brew.

It doesn’t matter how expensive or advanced tea and coffee harvesting practices are, as soon as they’re exposed to air, moisture, heat, and light, these products begin to degrade. Storing products in an environment where temperature, humidity, and light exposure are controlled limits the degradation process.

This is exactly why proper cold chain management and warehousing techniques are so relevant. The right storage approach can help lock in freshness and preserve the quality of the post-harvest product. The benefit of this is that products have a longer shelf life, and the quality is more consistent.

Hidden Risks in Storage

Before exploring the advanced warehousing techniques that preserve beverage quality, it is important to understand the main risks that these techniques need to address:

• Heat: Tea and coffee get their unique flavour profiles from a complex array of natural oils, tannins, and other chemicals. Being exposed to high temperatures can speed up oxidation and oil loss, which ultimately results in a beverage that tastes dull and lacks In more extreme instances, it can leave products with a sour or even rancid taste. Heat exposure can also reduce the health benefits of many teas and will diminish overall shelf life.
• Moisture: Tea and coffee are both hygroscopic. This means that they absorb moisture from the air and are thus very sensitive to changes in humidity levels. Uncontrolled humidity in warehousing can trigger mold growth, discolouration, and fermentation. The final brew then risks having a musty or ‘off’ taste. High humidity can also cause clumping in ground coffee and loose-leaf tea.
• Microbes: We’ve already mentioned the risk of mold, but bacterial development is another threat when it comes to poorly stored beverages. Both can cause the presence of mycotoxins and other contaminants that violate many food safety laws. It is what often lands businesses with product recalls and compliance

Next‑Gen Storage

The best way to mitigate against the storage risks mentioned above is by investing in cold chain systems and real-time monitoring. Cold chains ensure that tea and coffee are kept at controlled low temperatures and humidity levels from the moment they’re packaged to the moment they’re delivered. This prevents mold growth, oxidation, and other issues so that all the delicate aromas and flavours are preserved.

These systems work best with real-time monitoring built in. Sensors that track temperature, humidity, light exposure, etc, in real time ensure that even the slightest changes in the storage environment are flagged. The benefit of this is that it helps to keep these environments controlled, consistent, and free of the fluctuations that could otherwise cause spoilage. It also ensures longer shelf lives for products and assists with compliance needs, as the data collected from the monitoring systems can be presented during food safety audits.

Smart, Connected Warehouses

In the same way that cold chain systems are becoming more advanced with real-time monitoring, warehousing has had an upgrade too. Here are some of the key technologies driving the change and helping tea and coffee businesses protect the integrity of their products:

• RFID Tags: These tags can be embedded on beverage containers, packaging, and loading pallets. Anything that has been tagged can be automatically picked up by RFID readers and used to auto-update stock records so that there is always an accurate inventory count and location data. This prevents stock from being stored in incorrect areas and helps with effective planning in the cold chain.
• IoT Sensors: These cold chain essentials can track environmental factors in real time and send out a warning if, for example, there is a humidity spike in a cold room storing coffee. Another benefit is that they can be used to track the different microclimates in a warehouse and help fine-tune these environments for specific products.
• Automation: While IoT automates monitoring and data collection on environmental levels, and RFID is great for monitoring stock numbers and locations in a warehouse, there are also many other automation technologies available. Robotic arms can be used to pick and stack beverages, and automated guided vehicles can be used to move pallets, mitigating the risk of human error.

The Path Forward

A sour-tasting tea or clumpy bag of coffee can quickly alienate customers. That is why investing in quality- centric storage is so important. By building warehousing infrastructure that protects the cold chain and keeps temperature and humidity levels controlled, businesses can control the quality of their product, its shelf life, and improve the customer experience all at once.

• Nick Fryer is vice president of marketing at Sheer Logistics. He has over a decade of experience in the logistics industry, spanning marketing, public relations, sales enablement, M&A and more at 3PLs and 4PLs including AFN Logistics, GlobalTranz, and Sheer Logistics.