Hi PSC,
Thanks for yr interesting post.
IMO this topic is mainly commercial semantics mixed with a dash of Food Science. And specifically UK food semantics. Legally valid UK definitions for “ambient food” seem to be elusive.
I suspect there is no official UK definition of “ambient food”. If there is, I could not find it. The nearest reasonably brief one I could think of (à la post 7) is a product which is shelf-stable within its stated shelf-life/storage temperature and which is not officially temperature-classifiable as a chilled food.
The FSA document in post 7 is perhaps the nearest guideline to an official UK opinion and also apparently “relates” to EC Regulation 852/2004.
Note that there is no specific mention in the FSA document of any of the entities – ambient/chilled/frozen foods. There is an occasional mention of “ambient temperature” which is also undefined but may seemingly be estimated as applicable to this FSA document (see below)
As I interpret the FSA document (eg para 24), from a temperature POV, “chilled foods” are required to be held at a maximum of 8deg C. The precise reason for choosing 8 degC is afai could see unspecified but I predict it relates to UK refrigerator tolerances.
Accordingly the lower UK temperature bound in my above suggestion for AF would be a value > 8 degC with a (so far) undefined upper limit.
BRC seem to have an alternative opinion to FSA albeit with an equally unexplained origin. Perhaps the former is intended to be more (geographically) general.
I wonder if any other country actually, commercially, uses “ambient food” terminology.?
I think the OPs original UK response was not unreasonable although numerically ambiguous.
Personally I would not advise a customer that there is no upper limit.
Here’s an example for when the commercial semantics went wrong –
http://www.express.c...t-sausage-rolls
PS - Sadly my confidence in Wiki has been shattered by their definition of chilled foods –
Chilled food is food that is stored at refrigeration temperatures, which are at or below 0 – −5 °C (32–23 °F). The key requirements for chilled food products are good quality and microbiological safety at the point of consumption. They have been available in the United Kingdom, United States, and many other industrialized countries since the 1960s
.
(But I daresay it’s valid somewhere)
PPS - heres an interesting analysis of "ambient" -
http://www.worldwide...rds/tw-amb1.htm