IATA CEIV Pharma: What Does It Mean for Your Cold Chain Packaging?
Short answer: IATA CEIV Pharma is the air freight certificate for pharma handling. It does not set direct requirements for the packaging itself, but in practice CEIV-certified chains expect four things from your cold chain packaging: substantiated insulation performance, predictable, consistent performance, documentation and traceability per shipment, and a data logger in the shipment.
For anyone shipping temperature-sensitive products by air freight, IATA CEIV Pharma is an important quality mark. But what exactly does that certification involve, and what does it mean for your choice of packaging?
What is IATA CEIV Pharma?
CEIV stands for Center of Excellence for Independent Validators. IATA, the international trade association for aviation, developed this certificate specifically for pharma air freight. Airports, handlers and airlines that obtain the certificate meet strict requirements for temperature management, training, infrastructure and procedures.
What do CEIV-certified parties expect from your packaging?
CEIV certification does not impose specific requirements on the packaging itself, but it does on how the chain as a whole functions. In practice, that asks the following of your packaging:
1. Substantiated insulation performance
Your packaging must demonstrably be able to hold the right temperature under the expected conditions. How long a combination of box, insulation and coolant holds the temperature range depends on the outside temperature, the filling and the cooling elements. Test the configuration on your own route.
2. Predictable performance
Packaging that performs for a long time on one occasion and much shorter on another is difficult to plan with. Consistency starts with the production of the boxes. We have had our own production since 1972 and work with an ISO 9001 certified quality system.
3. Documentation and traceability
For each shipment it must be clear which packaging was used, when coolant was prepared, and what the temperature history was. Record this yourself in a fixed procedure.
4. Temperature monitoring
A data logger in the shipment is in practice a fixed component. There are different kinds: with USB read-out, real-time, single-use or returnable. View our range of data loggers.
Which questions should you prepare for?
A handler or forwarder who works with CEIV often asks the same questions. If you have these answers ready, the intake goes faster:
- What is the temperature range of the product?
- How long is the total journey time, including waiting time and transhipment?
- Which packaging configuration is used, and has it been tested?
- Which logger goes with it and who reads it out?
- What is the procedure in the event of a deviation?
Specific to air freight
Air freight is fast, but the route consists of more than the flight itself. The product is collected, delivered to a handler, weighed, loaded on a pallet or into a ULD, transported and unloaded again at the other end. Every step can cause waiting time. Plan with a margin, therefore.
- Weight: EPS is light. That helps with freight costs.
- Format: pay attention to the dimensions of the box and the pallet. Also read building a pallet for air freight.
- Protection: for larger shipments, thermal pallet covers or air cargo covers can play a role.
- Waiting time: ask your forwarder how long your shipment is expected to stand on the ground and whether that can be in a cooled space.
Where it goes wrong in practice
- The box is packed too early and stands waiting for hours before the shipment departs.
- The logger is at the bottom, not with the product.
- The recipient does not know that the logger has to be read out.
- There is no agreement on who makes contact in the event of a delay.
You will find more examples in perishables in air freight.
Practical: how to use a logger in air freight
- Start the logger at a fixed moment and note that time, so that you can link the data to the shipment later.
- Place the logger in the middle of the cargo, with the product and not against the wall or a cooling element.
- Set the measuring interval to a value that suits the journey time. A short interval gives more detail, but fills the memory faster.
- Agree who reads out the logger and how the data is stored.
- With a return shipment, check that the logger has been reset before it is reused.
You will find more about choosing a logger on our page about data loggers.
How to get started?
If your company wants to ship pharma by air freight for the first time, we typically go through:
- An intake conversation about your product requirements, transit times and destinations
- An initial proposal for packaging and cooling configuration
- A test shipment with data loggers and temperature analysis
- Documentation and standard operating procedures for your forwarder
Frequently asked questions
Does my packaging have to be CEIV-certified?
No, the certificate concerns the parties in the chain. For the packaging, however, the chain asks for a substantiated configuration and monitoring. Your forwarder can tell you what he expects.
How do I know whether my forwarder works with CEIV Pharma?
Ask him directly. A party that is certified can show it.
Please contact us via our contact page for a no-obligation conversation with our pharma advisers. See also cold chain packaging for air freight.
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