There are many stages in the lifecycle of food production and distribution where contamination could occur. As a business owner, you have a responsibility to make sure that the food you transport is safe and fit for human consumption. There are lots of steps that you can take to prevent contamination including:

• Ensuring that high-risk foods are stored at the correct temperature throughout the journey.
• Make sure that equipment is in full operational order.
• Make sure that high standards of cleanliness are maintained in the vehicle.
• Educate drivers on the importance of good hygiene and cleaning standards.
• Raw food products should be stored away from ready to eat products.
• Food items are transported in an environment away from chemicals, live animals or other contaminants.

There are steps that you can take to make sure that you don’t receive food that has been contaminated during the delivery process.

Temperature

Make sure that the food you receive is holding at the right temperature and check temperature logs throughout the journey. If the food arrives at the incorrect temperature, it should be rejected. This is important to remember because you have no idea of knowing how long the food has been outside of the acceptable zone.

Integrity of Packaging

When food items are stored at the incorrect temperature, you may be able to identify through the integrity of the packaging. It may be water damaged or spoilt in some other way. Make sure that the packaging is intact for boxes and ensure that there are no tears or rips. Many food items are delivered in cardboard boxes, so it is easy to tell if they have been compromised in some way.

Delivery Time

Make sure that there is someone on the premises to receive the delivery and make sure it is transferred to a cold or frozen store immediately.

Delivery vehicles should be:

• Sufficiently cold inside.
• Clean – the floors, walls and ceilings.
• Closed tightly to prevent pests from entering.

There are lots of things to think about during the transportation of temperature-sensitive food items and ICEOTEMP can help with this process. We are extensively experienced in temperature control distribution and we use the latest temperature recording technologies such as Transcan to make sure that any food items carried in our vehicles are safe from collection to delivery. Contact us today to learn more about our vehicles.