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Temperature controlled transportation

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What is temperature-controlled transportation?

Temperature-controlled transportation consists in conveying products from a point A to a point B, in compliance with strict health and safety standards in terms of temperature.

Temperature-controlled transportation is the best solution for ensuring perfect preservation of products requiring stable temperatures during transport. Temperature increases and decreases would lead to a change in structure, rendering these products inedible. They would develop bacteria or germs which could be potentially harmful for consumers.

This being said, temperature-controlled transportation is not only for food. Countless other products require this form of transport, including certain cosmetics or pharmaceuticals. Flowers and livestock transport also require a controlled temperature environment throughout the entire supply chain.

 

Specificities of temperature-controlled transportation

  • When transporting perishable goods, vehicles must comply with the technical recommendations stipulated in the agreement on the transport of perishable cargoes.
  • Each vehicle has its own certificate: vacuum insulated, refrigerated, cooling or heating.
  • The compliance certificate delivered by the CEMAFROID organisation must be presented during road checks.
  • New vehicles are automatically subjected to verification tests, to check their abilities.
  • Trucks must then undergo periodic checks after 6 and 9 years.
  • After 12 years, CEMAFROID inspects the vehicle and delivers a new certificate, which is valid for 6 years.

The certificate is not required in the following cases:

  • When transporting refrigerated or frozen produce over fewer than 50 miles with no bulk breakage;
  • When transporting industrial dairy products in a tank over fewer than 125 miles with no bulk breakage;
  • When transporting frozen fish and seafood products for less than one hour and fewer than 50 miles.

 

Examples and practical applications

Health standards to be complied with during temperature-controlled transportation

A set of standards exists, known as the “hygiene pack”. This text sums up all the European regulations and health and safety rules required for this very specific kind of transport. Making sure the cold chain remains uninterrupted is the foundation for truck transport in this field.

Temperature-controlled transportation for frozen produce

Frozen produce must be conveyed directly from cold chambers, in vehicles fitted with technical equipment that displays the ambient temperature for the driver and other workers to see. Temperatures are recorded during scheduled checks, in accordance with EC regulation no. 37/2005 pertaining to temperature checks in transport means and warehousing or storage premises for frozen produce aimed at human consumption.

One of the main features of this kind of transport consists in never changing the means of transport used, as this would risk deteriorating the essential qualities bestowed to the foodstuffs. The transport of classified dangerous goods is prohibited upstream from, downstream from or during the transport of foodstuffs of animal origin.

Workers must make perfectly sure it is technically impossible for any contamination to occur during loading and unloading. Changes can be made within a given vehicles, in accordance with the strict rules in force. The vehicles, equipment and staff must comply with particularly strict hygiene rules: handling equipment maintenance, cleaning and disinfecting the vehicle perfectly after transport, washing their hands.

 

Temperature-controlled transportation in figures in France in 2019

  • The temperature-controlled transportation market amounts to about 10 billion euros.
  • This figure has increased by 4% since 2014.
  • Specialists estimate that revenue = + 50% by 2025. [1]

 

Regulatory cornerstones

  • For animal-based foodstuffs, reference must be made to the decree dated 21 December 2009 pertaining to applicable health and safety rules, and to EC regulation no. 853/2004.
  • Other non-animal based foodstuffs are governed by the decree dated 8 October 2013 and EC regulation no. 852/2004.


[1] Source of the figures: https://trm24.fr/le-marche-des-transports-sous-temperature-dirigee-seleve-a-10-milliards-deuros/