IN Brief:
- Seven partners are working across six countries to reduce operational barriers affecting chilled and frozen food SMEs.
- The €1.19 million project will establish six cross-border hubs and test a common business support programme.
- Work covers packaging, cold chain logistics, documentation, hygiene procedures, resource efficiency, and circular operating models.
COOL-BORDER has entered its first implementation phase after partners from six Central European countries met in Istria to begin a project addressing packaging, logistics, documentation, hygiene, and waste barriers affecting smaller frozen and chilled food businesses.
The Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE project brings together organisations from Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. It has a budget of around €1.19 million, with 80% provided by the European Regional Development Fund, and is scheduled to run from September 2026 to August 2028.
Partners plan to develop a common support programme and establish six cross-border hubs where companies and regional organisations can identify practical barriers and test ways of reducing them. The programme covers reusable and lower waste packaging, cold chain processes, transport documentation, hygiene procedures, and more circular operating models.
Cross-border chilled food movements combine several technical requirements within the same transaction. Temperature control, packaging performance, hygiene, transport documentation, and differing administrative practices all have to align before goods can move efficiently between processors, logistics providers, and customers.
Smaller businesses often have fewer specialist resources to manage that combination. A multinational manufacturer can distribute compliance, engineering, procurement, logistics, and quality work across dedicated teams, while a smaller processor may have a limited technical staff dealing with many of the same obligations.
COOL-BORDER is structured around that operational gap. Instead of developing a single machine or packaging format, the project will adapt tools and methods from previous regional work into a shared support system. Six hubs will connect businesses with local organisations, while a pilot programme will test approaches across the participating territories.
Packaging is one of the main areas because chilled and frozen products combine demanding protection requirements with pressure to reduce material use and waste. Reusable formats can cut disposable packaging, but they introduce questions around return logistics, cleaning, inspection, ownership, and the number of trips required before reuse becomes commercially and environmentally worthwhile.
Cold chain optimisation brings a similar set of trade-offs. Frozen and chilled goods need controlled temperatures throughout storage and transport, making energy use and asset utilisation major operating costs. Better route planning and consolidation can reduce journeys, but dwell times, loading practices, packaging performance, and food safety controls still have to remain within specification.
Documentation is another core workstream. Cross-border food movements generate records covering hygiene, product handling, transport, and commercial requirements, and inconsistent procedures can turn administrative friction into delayed or rejected shipments. Common information practices can reduce some of that burden even where the underlying national regulations remain different.
The project’s €1.19 million budget is modest beside capital spending on cold stores, processing lines, refrigerated vehicles, or distribution centres. Its purpose is consequently centred on how existing infrastructure and operating systems are used rather than replacing physical assets on a large scale.
That gives the project a practical benchmark. A common method that helps SMEs reduce packaging waste, avoid unnecessary journeys, or simplify documentation without requiring major capital expenditure could be adopted more quickly than an infrastructure-heavy solution.
Interreg records seven project partners across seven regions, supported by 80% European Regional Development Fund financing. The consortium includes regional development and research organisations, with Salzburg University of Applied Sciences participating and the South-Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency acting as lead partner.
The multinational structure also creates a test of whether the same support model works across differing regulatory and commercial environments. A process that solves a documentation problem in one market may still need adjustment elsewhere, while reusable packaging requires return routes that can operate across the same borders as the food itself.
Food waste reduction runs through several of these issues. Temperature excursions, damaged packaging, delayed deliveries, and administrative failures can all render food unsaleable even when the underlying product was manufactured correctly. Preventing those losses requires coordination between production, packaging, warehousing, and transport rather than an intervention at only one point in the chain.
The Istria meeting brought the partners together to establish cooperation structures and begin the first activities. Implementation now moves into the development of the hubs and the common support programme before the project progresses to wider testing.
By its scheduled conclusion in August 2028, COOL-BORDER will need to demonstrate that its methods can translate into operating changes rather than remain guidance material. Useful results will be measurable in packaging decisions that survive distribution, cold chain improvements that preserve product quality, documentation that works across borders, and lower waste without shifting cost to another part of the operation.
