Afternoon all,
I have a question I am hoping someone might be able to help out with?
As an agent/ broker if we have a third party haulier delivering a frozen meat product into a customer, is there a minimum accepted temperature required for delivery of frozen according to or as set out by BRC (ie if the product is loaded on the vehicle at -18’C but it arrives at a lower temperature, is there a minimum before the product should be rejected?)
If the actual vehicle temperature has not gone down (according to the haulier vehicle read out) but the customer states that a surface temperature reading of the product shows it as more than -18'C ( ie -11'C) should the product have to be probed at core temperature in order to get a definitive temperature read out or should this be enough to accept a rejection of the product from the customer?
Thanks
Hi carterpoultex,
I'm not in UK but offhand cannot remember any official UK (or EC) limits for temperature of frozen cargo at delivery.
IIRC there is a UK organisation representing transporters of frozen goods who do set vehicle air temperature control criteria for their "services". Unsure whether the latter include product values at delivery.
HACCP plans i have seen seem to use various delivery limits ranging from ca.< -12 to < -18degC (ca. -15degC seems popular). IMEX surveyors of shipped frozen goods typically use a lower limit ca.-12degC at exit of manufacturer during transfer into a container.
Some Regulatory requirements exist from FSA, eg -
https://www.food.gov...ozen-foodstuffs
BRC may offer a recommendation in their Interpretation Guidelines.
Other than the above, i daresay it becomes contractual with respect to Limits and Procedures.
Alternative non-destructive procedures, eg Codex, for estimating the temperature of packed frozen cargo exist other than the method you refer.
Interested to hear other inputs.