The Chill Chain

We recently had, for us, a rare failure in our chilled food supply chain, a delivery that was not to temperature. The delivery from our wholesaler did not feel cold to the touch. So I checked the condition of some products with our temperature probe and discover that it was at 11 degrees centigrade. Too warm to accept for sale so I sent the consignment back.

A conversation with our suppliers transport manager quickly gained their acceptance of this and an agreement was made to have the stock repicked and delivered next day. Their credit manager called to confirm with us what we had returned and arranged for the delivery to be credited. During the evening their night shift transport manager phoned to ask about delivery arrangement for the following morning and agreed that we would be first drop. The lorry arrived as expected at 7.30 and we had recovered our range availability with only half a day of inconvenience.

The Food Standards Agency gives a great deal of advice to businesses on the website and they give specific guidance on the management of chilled food. The maximum temperature for this type of product is 8 degrees centigrade so our rejected delivery was outside the safe zone and therefore had to be rejected.