Food Safety Focus | Pre-Cooled is the Coolest Way to Be

Food Safety Focus

Hello All Team Members!

I hope this message finds all of you and your families safe and well,

I wanted to talk to briefly today about pre-cooling trailers we load.

All refrigerated and frozen product trailers and containers must be set at the correct temperature set point for the products being loaded and be pre-cooled before loading. That means a frozen transport trailer or container should be pre-cooled to at least 32 degrees F before we load it with frozen products. Why is that? I’m glad you asked.

Having the inside temperature of the trailer dropped down below 32 degrees F before loading will help prevent the product from getting too warm during the loading and transport process. (Cooler loads should be at least 40 degrees F before loading). This is in exception to outbound loads containing dry ice, of course. The dry ice will help products stay at the correct temperature even without being loaded in a temperature-controlled trailer, if packed properly.

Remember too that the temperature sensor that is letting you know what the inside temperature of the trailer is, isn’t up against the side walls of the trailer. In the hot summer months, the inside walls of the trailer could be even warmer than what the temperature read out on the trailer says, due to the high heat from the sun. This is important to keep in mind when sending loads to the South or out West in high temperatures. Avoiding having product directly touching the walls of the trailer is a good idea, whenever possible.
I hope you enjoyed this short message today and as always, thank you for all you do to provide safe food for our families each and every Day!

Justin Straka – Food Safety Manager

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Author: Trish Metts