Guide To Shipping With Dry Ice
Ship With Dry Ice For These Advantages
Dry ice shipping keeps your shipment cold easily and inexpensively. With three times the cooling capacity of ordinary wet ice, pound-for-pound, it's very cost-effective. Your product stays clean and dry; no messy water melt from wet ice, or mess from broken gel packs.
Most shippers of food or biological specimens which must be kept frozen, insist on shipping on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday unless they are holidays. Special container systems have been developed for shipping with dry ice. Foods such as cheesecake or steaks are protected by the dry ice ship container to maintain their palatability. Specimens shipped with dry ice may be classified as hazardous and thus need secure packaging such as Saf-T-Pak® or Source Packaging Of N.E.® or Worldwide Medical Express®.
Dry Ice Shipping Regulations
For air transport, the amount of dry ice per parcel is limited to 5 pounds or less, but it's generally unlimited for ground shipments. Shipments containing dry ice must carry a Class 9 DOT miscellaneous hazardous material warning label, and must be clearly marked "Carbon Dioxide Solid, UN1845" or "Dry Ice, UN1845". With 5 pounds of dry ice, the package would need to be delivered within 24 hours, as the recommendation for ordinary cooler use is 10 pounds per day. Biological material is often a dry ice ship, which may have additional special requirements provided by the cold chain industry.
Links for shipping with dry ice, information and regulations:
- The US Postal Service Guidelines for Shipping with Dry Ice
- Fedex (USA shipping) Guidelines for Shipping with Dry Ice
- UPS Guidelines for Shipping with Dry Ice
- ICAO Packing Instruction 602 (Infectious Substances)
- ICAO Packing Instruction 904 (Dry Ice)
Containers To Ship With Dry Ice
The shipping container, like any dry ice container, must be automatically vented to prevent pressure buildup as the dry ice sublimates to carbon dioxide (CO2). Many vendors, such as Frozen On Time, have developed containers for specific products. The product is protected by specially-molded insulating foam which protects the product and keeps the dry ice from touching it, and then the foam assembly slides into the pasteboard exterior container. Be sure to observe the dry ice safety precautions when handling dry ice.
Ship Food With Dry Ice
Many food items can be flash frozen with dry ice and shipped great distances. Flash freezing brings us most of our fish, both commercial fisheries products, and our personal catch from the fishing trip.
Where Can I Get Dry Ice for Shipping?
Dry ice and shipping containers are available at 29 locations throughout the United States. Please call one of our offices to arrange to pick up dry ice.
Ship Food With Dry Ice: How Much Do I Need?Get dry ice and shipping container information at any of these 29 locations. The container brand names and vendors mentioned herein are intended to be examples only; the mention does not imply endorsement by Continental Carbonic Products, Inc.
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