Cold-chain basics for food businesses: keeping every link cold

The links in a typical cold chain

Where the chain usually breaks

• Handovers: food waiting on a dock, pavement or kitchen floor between one refrigerated step and the next.
• Transport without refrigeration: chilled stock moved in ordinary vans or on two-wheelers over long distances.
• Overloaded receiving: a large delivery arrives during service and sits out while staff are busy.
• Mixed loads: frozen and chilled items in one vehicle at a compromise temperature.
• Power cuts at any stage, especially in small stores without backup.
• Opening and closing: repeated door openings in transport and display.

What a restaurant or shop controls

You can't run your supplier's truck, but you control the two ends of your own link: what you accept and how you store it. FSSAI's published Schedule 4 gives receiving temperatures of 5 °C or below for potentially high-risk chilled food and −18 °C or below for frozen food. Probe deliveries on arrival, check packs for signs of thawing and refreezing, and reject or quarantine what fails, under your receiving procedure.

Then move cold stock into storage first, before anything else. Schedule deliveries outside peak service where you can, and make sure there is space in the refrigerators for them.

Choosing and working with suppliers

• Ask how the supplier keeps product cold in storage and transport, and whether they record temperatures.
• Agree delivery temperatures and what happens to deliveries that arrive warm.
• Ask for chilled and frozen goods to be delivered in refrigerated or properly insulated transport.
• Keep records of suppliers and deliveries; FSSAI's schedule expects records of raw materials and their source of procurement.

Transport and conveyance principles

FSSAI's published Schedule 4 says conveyances and containers should be designed and maintained to keep the temperature, humidity and other conditions food needs, should be kept clean, and should be cleaned and disinfected between loads where different foods or high-risk foods such as fish, meat, poultry and eggs are carried. If you move food between your own sites, such as from a central kitchen to outlets, those principles apply to you.

Monitoring the chain

Temperature records are what connect the links. Data loggers that travel with a consignment, or that sit in cold rooms and transport, show where temperature rose and for how long. For a small business, a probe reading at receipt and a log of storage temperatures may be enough to show your link held. Larger and multi-site businesses benefit from continuous monitoring with alerts.