IARW and WFLO members: trained to protect your product.

At the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW) our members understand the importance of protecting you and your customers--ensuring the highest quality and safety of your food products throughout the distribution cold chain.

That's why IARW and its scientific and educational foundation, the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), are continually updating and improving the products and services we offer to the frozen food industry.

For example, we recently completed our annual WFLO Institute at the University of Oklahoma, which drew a record crowd of more than 300 students from public refrigerated warehouse (PRW) companies. Several people from frozen food companies also participated--we always welcome our customers to this highly focused educational event that offers training in all aspects of cold storage operations and caring for refrigerated products.

This Institute is a prime example of our dedication to training and food safety. If you are going to entrust your product to a cold storage company, you want to make sure they have access to and participate in the most up-to-date educational programs available.

Reflecting the top concerns of the times, this year's Institute opened with an "Excellence in Performance Seminar" covering the many aspects of warehouse security. The three-hour program covered a broad range of topics and provided in-depth information on safeguarding facilities and customer products.

"In addition to all the traditional security issues such as inventory theft and pilferage, warehouses today must be concerned about cargo theft, possible bio-terrorist activity, and other issues," says Mike Henningsen, chairman of WFLO. "So we felt it was necessary and appropriate to lead off the Institute with this important seminar."

The program featured leading authorities on warehouse and distribution security who offered insights that benefited everyone from managers to front-line employees. This type of future-focused training and education is what ensures that the PRW industry is protecting the intersts of you and your customers at every turn.

The sessions included 41 classes in seven educational tracks three levels of training. These tracks cover major operational areas such as facilities management, finance and productivity, food science/food safety, human resources, logistics management, risk management, and warehouse technology.

Every participant took home a copy of the industry textboook. Successful Refrigerated Warehousing, that serves as a reference guide on the many topics covered in the Institute.

Within the public refrigerated warehouse industry, the Institute is available only to IARW member companies--so I urge you to watch for warehouse suppliers that display and advertise their membership in our organization.

WFLO also publishes the Commodity Storage Manual, widely recognized as the "bible" of the refrigerated foods industry. It's clearly the "gold standard" when it comes to the latest information on proper scientific storage procedures, relative humidities, and other data on the more than 200 different food products. Every paper in the manual is reviewed and updated by scientific authorities every three years or less, so no part of the manual is more than three years old.

Members of the WFLO Scientific Advisory Council and other scientists contribute to the Commodity Storage Manual and continually look for ways to expand and improve this important publication. This year's updates include a new section of french fries (which used to be part of the potato section), and plantains have been added to the banana section.

The Commodity Storage Manual is available only to AIRW members and customer companies like yours that choose to join WFLO.

I also want to highlight the newest version of WFLO's popular Industrial Scale Food Freezing Simulation Software (Version 3.0). Completely updated to reflect the latest knowledge and computer modeling techniques, it provides the best calculation available to determine how long it takes to cool, freeze, or temper a wide range of products in differing quantities and storage configurations.

These times estimated are critical in calculating energy costs, choosing freezing or thawing techniques, scheduling operations, determining productions capacity, maintaining product quality, preventing temperature abuse that could result in liability expenses.

Finally, IARW is proud ot announce the publication of the 2003 International Directory of Refrigerated Warehouses & Distribution Centers and Blue Pages, a complete listing of public refrigerated warehouses available to the food industry. This edition details billions of cubic feet of refrigerated warehouse space worldwide. Updated descriptions for each facility provide a complete profile of capacity and capabilities.

Directory listings appear geographically by country, state, province, and city and include data on warehouse capacity, temperature range, key personnel, truck and rail docks, financial references, and specialized services. All member facilities are also listed alphabetically.

A popular feature of the directory, the "Buyer's Guide of Products and Services for the Global Cold Chain," (also known as the "Blue Pages") contains a complete listing of suppliers to the refrigerated warehouse and food distribution industry.

These companies are members of the IARW Cold Chain Products and are indexed according to the types of services and equipment they offer.

The first copy of the directory is free to companies in the perishable food business using public refrigerated warehouse space; additional copies cost $18 each.

For information on these and other products, as well as WFLO membership information, I invite you to contact us at 301-652-5674.