The International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) is a nonprofit organization which researches and tests various packaging formats. It develops also standards for the packaging transport industry. The ISTA are the industry leaders in package performance testing and are at the forefront of Responsible Transport Packaging.
With extensive research and testing behind the ISTA standards, many companies are requesting that their packaging be tested to specific ISTA standards.
Most importantly manufacturers of cold chain packaging can test with ISTA ambient profiles and demonstrate the performance of their systems. As a result, customers can then compare alternative suppliers packaging performance with the same ambient challenge.
Cold Chain Packaging Operational Qualification
The ISTA ambient profiles are a great place to start Operational Qualification (OQ) testing. Many cold chain packaging manufacturers “pre-qualify” the shipping system using representative payloads and test to ISTA’a summer and winter profiles.
The ISTA is an international organisation with a heavy influence from the USA. It has a broad scope that encompasses packaging and transport standards but pertinent to this conversation is a sub-group focusing on pharmaceuticals. This sub-group is active in the preparation of guidelines that can be useful in the industry. Some of the more informative are:-
- Temperature profiles for summer and winter in North America
- Temperature profiles for summer and winter in Europe
Why use ISTA Standards?
More Information
Environmental chambers are used to create a challenging ambient temperature to qualify the cold chain shippers.
CoolPac are specialists in pharmaceutical cold chain. We consult, test, manufacture and source the best aspects of cold chain products while keeping a pharmaceutical perspective. It’s with these key competencies that bring added value to your business.
