IFS 4.15.3, check vehicle temperature of external transport
Hi there,
In the IFS food standard is written in 4.15.3:
'Where goods must be transported at certain temperatures, before loading, the temperature inside the vehicle shall be checked and documented.'
And I was wondering how people manage these standard with external transport.
Some questions which pop-up:
- What do you use as standard? When is it to warm or cold?
- What kind of corrective actions could be taken?
- What is the purpose of the measurement? I mean you have contracts/agreements with transporters about the transporttemperatures. They know which temperatures the vehicles should be. And it is only at that moment. You don't know the temperature of the whole trip to delivery.
I'm interested about your thoughts.
Regards,
Marinka
Then Marinka, I do this: first of all I ask the transporter that the temperature of the truck is set in the range I prefer and it makes a real contract.
Then during the trip use insert in the truck of the data logger that arrived at Destiny is unloaded and tells me the whole history of temperature during the trip.
So I can see if it was constant and I can record it relative to the transported lot. I hope I was helpful
Hi Claudia,
Thank you, however this standard is about before loading. How do you control that? When the truck arrives to pick up an order?
We will make a truck wait to be loaded until the temperature lowers to an acceptable level. We make it known to the customer or reciever or transport that the truck must be X degrees or less at the time of loading and that the truck will be held until which time an acceptable temp is achieved before loading. Our shipping team documents any deviations via email to me and I include it in a spreadsheet for trending. It usually only takes once ot twice of being late for their next appointment before the drivers understand the specification.
We have a alot of "repeat drivers" so they generally know the drill before they arrive.
If you were to ever have a situation when there is evidence of temperature abuse affecting the quality and/or safety of your product at destination, you would need to ensure that your documentation is adequate to conduct an investigation into the root cause. Ensuring that the vehicle was the right temperature before you loaded your product provides a starting point, and temp loggers can identify if there was a point during delivery in which temperature was compromised. If you suspect that your carrier is the source of a temperature deviation, your contract is only a piece of paper - if you don't have evidence of their actions, then you have no recourse.
As for a standard, you would use the temperature requirements of your product, plain and simple.
In the IFS food standard is written in 4.15.3:
'Where goods must be transported at certain temperatures, before loading, the temperature inside the vehicle shall be checked and documented.'
This is a very straight forward requirement.
If you require that your product be transported at (example) 35 degrees, then prior to loading you verify the interior temperature of the trailer (or verify by the reading of the refrigeration unit. If the trailer is not at your designated temperature you simply have them stand in place until it is. You are required to document the temperature and that normally includes info on what is being loaded, trailer #, trucking company, temp at time of loading, etc.
Also, any reputable firm will have the refer preset for what they are shipping...........refrigerated trucks should run at 44F as a maximum and 33F as a lower (so as not to freeze refrigerated product)
Frozen refer trucks should be set at 23F or lower
to verify you can use a infra red or laser thermometer pointed at the floor (not the ceiling), but bear in mind, they do not tell you the AIR temperature, but the surface temp...................or put a regular thermometer on a skid in the truck and wait to see what it says
(i never take refer readings at face value because you don't know when/how they were calibrated)
Some questions which pop-up:
- What do you use as standard? When is it to warm or cold?
For food safety reasons, it should be <40F.
- What kind of corrective actions could be taken?
Infra red Temp guns or other temp monitoring devices should be used to determine the temp of the vehicle prior to loading of a perishable product containing load. If temperatures are found higher, driver of the vehicle should be advised to lower the temperature of the reefer. A 20 min cooling period should be allowed for proper cooling of the product holding area. Once the temperature is achieved (<40F), product can be loaded. As mentioned in one of the above post, most of the drivers are scheduled regularly at one place, so if the same driver is coming to your place, he/she will be prepared next time and you might find the vehicle below desired levels at arrival.
- What is the purpose of the measurement? I mean you have contracts/agreements with transporters about the transport temperatures. They know which temperatures the vehicles should be. And it is only at that moment. You don't know the temperature of the whole trip to delivery.
I wish if everyone could do what they say/commit in modern times :headhurts: , unfortunately that is not the case. Also there are chances of the reefer breakage, driver negligence, etc.
There are data loggers or TTR (time & temperature recording devices) that companies use to verify the maintenance of cold chain and to record if any deviation occurred during the transit of the product.
Here is a good read by Global Chain Alliance (refer to page # 34 for the checklist that you might need to maintain as part of your records and checks):