Temperature control of a cold room

Can anyone share their experience how to monitoring the temp inside the cold room?? how often to check the temperature?? Many thanks

Dear Carine,

Get a supplier to install a data logger setup. Continuous remote monitoring with alarm options.

Now becoming necessary for some audits (but maybe not ISO 22000, no idea).

Rgds / Charles.C

Is there a necessary until this extend (with alram), i thought calibrate the temperature gauge is good enogh..

To carine:

My opinion is, if the items stored in the cold room are sensitive then a data logger or even an alarm should be good enough. While for the calibration of temperature gauge, how frequent do you carry out this, monthly? Adequate?

Dear Yong YM:

Cold room just storage the ice, actually the cold room just for temporary transition point only, i think less than 24 hours, then load into lorry. i plan calibrate the temperature gauge yearly, what do u think??

Dear carino,

I presume the current temperature gauge is fixed / displayed ?

Bimetallic type ?

How do you plan to calibrate it ? IMEX, temperatures around -18degC not so easy to simulate unless you hv a certified portable unit to compare against (recommended by me). Or are you going to detach / send it out for calibration ?

What is yr proposed product corrective action if calibration is shown unacceptable after 1 year ?? The method above allows more frequent checks, eg monthly, which I wud hv thought less likely to invite awkward auditorial questions.

As I said,some requirements, like alarms, may depend on yr intended audit standard.

Another common occurrence is that, even with plastic strips, temperatures may show significant fluctuations when doors remain open for extended activities and / or refrigeration coils are inefficiently defrosted. Auditors are often quite good at spotting such things. This is one reason why continuous monitoring has become popular to buyers.

Rgds / Charles.C

If the temperature control is critical (or even a CCP), e.g. if the foodstuffs are ready to eat, you should really challenge whether room temperature monitoring is good enough. In my experience, sensors often get frozen if placed incorrectly and also they are often not near the food itself. The most worrying thing though is that a room sensor is often only calibrated yearly, whereas a handheld one is normally calibrated weekly. I've also had engineers turn off the alarms on such systems without thinking of the consequences (because they're a "hassle"!) It's also worth considering where it alarms. If it's just an alarm on the room, it's easily bypassed. If it's a text to a phone, it's easily switched off and the person might not be on site.

IMO I'd have room sensors with alarms but back that up with shiftly checks of the air temperature with an air probe attached to a handheld unit. If the air temperature is OOS, you're also then in the right place to check product temperatures and move product if necessary.

I'm a big fan of datalogging with automatic alarms for this application.

Set up to continuously monitor the temperature and you also have lots of useful information to analyse issues in the cold store (Investigate temperature rises - people leaving doors open/defrost cycles not set up correctly).

I don't normally like to make recommendations but I have had some great kit from Comark:

Typical Temperature Sensor for Datalogger

Wireless Monitoring

It is useful to have several probes in the coldstore picking up the warmest and coldest temperatures.

I personally would calibrate quarterly, but would not get hung up on this if you cross check your cold store thermometer and product temperatures every day/shift.

Regards,

Tony