Cold chain under inland strain

Cold-chain pressure is moving inland, where food warehouses now have to handle more product variations and more order types inside the same temperature-controlled buildings. (blog.sourcelogistics.com) Source Logistics said April 7 that inland hubs such as Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta are absorbing more balancing work as port routing spreads across West Coast, Gulf and East Coast gateways. The company said the same pallet may now be used for big-box retail, independent grocery, e-commerce fulfillment and subscription kitting. (blog.sourcelogistics.com) In that shift, the bottleneck is not just square footage. Source said operators increasingly need frozen, refrigerated, chilled and controlled-ambient zones under one roof, along with lot tracking, expiration-date visibility, kitting, labeling and repacking inside cold rooms. (blog.sourcelogistics.com) A stock keeping unit, or SKU, is one sellable version of a product, such as a flavor, size or package type. SupplyChainBrain reported in November 2025 that warehouses now have to track more SKUs while filling online orders, store replenishment, direct-to-consumer parcels and business-to-business shipments from the same facility. (supplychainbrain.com) Cold storage operators are also dealing with older buildings and higher retrofit costs. Food Logistics reported in February 2026 that the average age of U.S. cold-storage infrastructure is 42 years and that new cold-storage construction can top $300 per square foot, versus roughly $75 to $100 for standard warehouses. (foodlogistics.com) That leaves less room for error in food and beverage flows, where a wrong pick, a missed lot code or a delay moving product between temperature zones can create waste, spoilage or compliance problems. Source said customers are asking third-party logistics providers for flexibility and visibility, not only storage capacity. (blog.sourcelogistics.com) The compliance backdrop is tightening even with a delayed federal deadline. The Food and Drug Administration said its food traceability rule under Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act is meant to speed the identification and removal of contaminated food, and the agency has proposed extending the compliance date by 30 months to July 20, 2028. (fda.gov, federalregister.gov) Large providers are already responding with new models instead of relying on older public-warehouse layouts. DHL Supply Chain said in February that it signed a memorandum with RLCold to develop more than 5 million square feet of temperature-controlled facilities across North America, including multi-temperature distribution centers. (dhl.com) Source Logistics says it operates 25 locations with 5.6 million square feet of Food and Drug Administration- and Safe Quality Food-compliant space, while its website lists 5.8 million square feet across dry, ambient, refrigerated and frozen capacity. The pitch from providers is less about storing overflow and more about running mixed-channel, temperature-sensitive inventory with fewer handoffs. (foodlogistics.com, sourcelogistics.com) The inland squeeze is turning cold storage into a process problem as much as a real-estate one. Operators that can control temperature, trace lots and cut picking mistakes inside one network are positioning themselves for the next round of food and beverage demand. (blog.sourcelogistics.com, foodlogistics.com)