Cold Truck Temperature when loading

may i know, when want to deliver fozen products which have -18^o c, so the cold truck need to warm up earlier to what temperature range? if warm up to -15 is it enough? any do any journal or food safety requirement this before?
thanks ffor clarify me.

In my opinion, you would need to cool the truck before you load your frozen products. As to what temperature range is required, that is very subjective.

Simply said, you would need to verify the condition of the product when loaded at the temperature that you have set. For example, if you want to load it when it is at -15'C, then you have to make sure that at that temperature, the product quality is not compromised.

I would suggest that you record the cooling temperatures of the truck, and plot it in a graph to clearly show how fast your truck cools.

The requirements would tell you the same, that you should ensure product quality and safety, and it is really up to us how we want to do it, although there is an already common procedures for certain requirements.

Just my 5 cents worth. Anyone else would like to add?

Regards,
Eugene

Dear sk2,

In the case of contracted roll-on / roll-off frozen product container trucks, I believe that they must typically pass a preliminary “pre-cool” test at the container depot which is part of the container supplier’s procedure to ensure that the unit is in satisfactory condition for frozen transport (this is also relevant to the cargo insurance). The receiver then uses the continuous record chart attached to the container to verify (eg BRC requirements) that the specified temperature was attainable before he accepts the container and initiates loading product into it. The maximum acceptable limit maybe varies (international standard ??) with the company / specific load etc . (Presumably maximum -18degC or colder ).

It is crucial that the cargo is “adequately” frozen before loading (eg <=[-]18degC and retains this integrity during loading – this is related to product form / ambient temperature / loading speed - technique etc

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear sk2,

In the case of contracted roll-on / roll-off frozen product container trucks, I believe that they must typically pass a preliminary “pre-cool” test at the container depot which is part of the container supplier’s procedure to ensure that the unit is in satisfactory condition for frozen transport (this is also relevant to the cargo insurance). The receiver then uses the continuous record chart attached to the container to verify (eg BRC requirements) that the specified temperature was attainable before he accepts the container and initiates loading product into it. The maximum acceptable limit maybe varies (international standard ??) with the company / specific load etc . (Presumably maximum -18degC or colder ).

It is crucial that the cargo is “adequately” frozen before loading (eg <=[-]18degC and retains this integrity during loading – this is related to product form / ambient temperature / loading speed - technique etc

Rgds / Charles.C

Most trucks these days will actually have a trans scan system, which continuously records the temperature of the chill / freezer unit during its operation.

http://www.iifiir.org/en/doc/1044.pdf

This is a good link. if you read about transporting in the UK it says that temperature should raise more than 3 degrees from minus 18. (that is minus 15)

Hope it helps

Hello SK2,

I agree with everyone; I just want to add that it's better you directly have the good temperature in your cold truck, but when you open your doors the temperature increases quickly.
So you don't need to have the right temperature at the beginning; furthermore it decreases quickly as soon as you ride. When I was in charge of quality in a meat factory, I required 20 mn to arrive at -18°C, it's easy because of the inertia of the products : the more you have in your truck, the more it will be easy to have the right temperature; if the delay was over, drivers had to phone me in order to know how to react - to come back, to continue...

Last, you have to realize that the time you load your goods is very important, you have to reduce your loading to minimize the temperature of your products.

Hope it will help you,

Regards,

Emmanuel.

I agree with Emmanuel. I had headache for same problem last time when CarreFour coming to audit my previous company. The company trucks do not have strong freezer system, usually need whole day to process "pre-cool" to -18 degC. So my way to settle was just load the frozen stock in short time and close the truck door for 20-30 minutes before the truck start journey. The inertia of the products really help in increase the truck temperature.

Quoting Emmanuel-
"Last, you have to realize that the time you load your goods is very important, you have to reduce your loading to minimize the temperature of your products."

This is the most important aspect.

Following factors should be considered as well:
1. Time taken for loading, arrangement
2. Type of packaging used for the food stuff
3. Size of the vehicle
4. Efficiency of the cooling system

Air temperature drops suddenly, but pre-cooling will help to reduce surface temperature.

Bobby Krishna

Thannks you for your all advice and information..i very apprecaite it..

i'm involved in manufacturing ice industry. Our truck do not have refrigeration system, but with insulation box (truck body), because to us , our product just a ice and once melt ,no product , no issues to us because customer won't consume the melted water. Unfortunately, this statement didn't accept by the auditor, how can we maintained the condition as just ice n not ice water when loading into lorry. Anyone can giveyou idea or comment about this?? And FYI ,my company not going to invest refigeration system on it, because cost involved.

I do not check the truck temperature during loading, i just check the product temperature. For frozen foods generally it takes 3-4 hours to get over -10.

i'm involved in manufacturing ice industry. Our truck do not have refrigeration system, but with insulation box (truck body), because to us , our product just a ice and once melt ,no product , no issues to us because customer won't consume the melted water. Unfortunately, this statement didn't accept by the auditor, how can we maintained the condition as just ice n not ice water when loading into lorry. Anyone can giveyou idea or comment about this?? And FYI ,my company not going to invest refigeration system on it, because cost involved.

Dear Carine,

Even if you are not dealing with frozen foods, I guess you still need to monitor the temperature of your storage, loading room, and your truck.

Of course no costumer would accept the melted ice, but how about the cost of your production and transportation? Non-refrigated system is a risk for an ice industry, from the way I see. Therefore you will need to ensure your truck temperature is met the standard during the transportation.

I dont know the standard for ice manufacturer, but I can give you some references that might givin you a hint:

This is a paper about "The use of ice on small fishing vessels" Try section 2, 3 and 5:
http://www.fao.org/d...00.htm#Contents

This is about "Icemaking Plant":
http://www.fao.org/w...0E/x5940e00.htm

And the PDF attached is Codex standard for handling frozen foods. Enjoy.


Regards,


Arya

Thanks for posting the links and document Arya.

Is this helpful to you Carine?

Greetings,

ALSO

• It depends upon the product and shelf life???
• Product state: Quick frozen / IQF / Deep frozen / Frozen. and packing (also plays important role)
• How much time taking to load in particular size of container?
• Temperature data loggers available? or how you were monitoring !!!

These are the things needs to know before loading...

Dear Carine,

Getting a bit off the original topic but never mind.
Obviously if yr particular audit standard (?) contains specific requirements, these will hv to be fulfilled.

IMEX, delivery of block ice is often carried out in non-refrigerated transport of many varieties ( ). Having rejected certain styles due to my fear of contamination risks, I am not surprised that an auditor might find fault with such systems. Not sure which type of truck design you are referring to ?
The simplest set-up which I would hv thought wud be auditorially acceptable both hygienically and temperature-wise would be to use fully enclosed trucks with appropriate, food-compatible, cladding surrounding the ice. This then becomes visually analogous to a (refrigerated) container / ice storage room. I hv seen synthetic cladding of the Al/foam/Al sandwich type (relatively expensive) and much simpler setups using straight metallic (prob.stainless steel?) sheeting. Regardless, these options will require some temperature monitoring to validate their operational effectiveness.

Rgds / Charles.C

i'm involved in manufacturing ice industry. Our truck do not have refrigeration system, but with insulation box (truck body), because to us , our product just a ice and once melt ,no product , no issues to us because customer won't consume the melted water. Unfortunately, this statement didn't accept by the auditor, how can we maintained the condition as just ice n not ice water when loading into lorry. Anyone can giveyou idea or comment about this?? And FYI ,my company not going to invest refigeration system on it, because cost involved.

Hi Carine

Do you not check the condition and temperature when loaded and on delivery?

Regards,

Tony

It seems to me that you are transporting frozen foods (including ice), then you need to verify that the product will maintain its temperature from loading to unloading.

If you are only transporting a relatively short distance, journeys of say less than half an hour, then you could probably get away with using no refrigeration whatsoever provided you know that the goods will go straight into a freezer at their destination.

However, if the product is going to be on a vehicle for a considerable period of time and if your vehicle's refrigeration unit takes a hell of a long time to come down to temperature, then you need to run it a good while before loading the product, at least until it comes down to minus 15.

And I must say that I am somewhat shocked at the idea of transporting ice without a freezer unit! Unless of course they are huge blocks of ice, of near arctic proportions, I would definitely say that freezing during transportation would be necessary.