Food Distribution and Cold Chain Integrity

Proper management of incoming food products, ingredients and packaging material is the first stage of food safety control within a distribution system.  Food distributors need to make certain their suppliers and transporters are delivering safe, wholesome and unadulterated products to their doors.  This is of particular concern with incoming frozen and refrigerated products.  The importance of establishing the cold chain integrity of products arriving at your location before accepting those products into inventory cannot be overemphasized.  As a distributor of food products do you:

·        Source products from qualified vendors?

·        Independently verify your vendor’s food safety programs?

·        Temperature check all incoming shipments at receiving?

·        Verify the temperatures during transportation to your location?

·        Utilize carriers that have a documented food safety program?

·        Adequately train your staff for their respective responsibilities?

·        Have signed Supplier Quality Assurances (SQAs) with your vendors and carriers?

If you answered No to any of the above questions you may have significant food safety risks in your operation.

A comprehensive understanding of how products are handled before they arrive at your door is essential to appreciating how they move through the supply chain from “Field to Fork”.  You may be able to verify the temperatures in your freezer and coolers, provide calibration records for all temperature monitoring equipment, show records of storage temperature at hourly intervals while the product was in your facility, or that the product was shipped out on temperature controlled conveyances that were clean and sanitary. However, if you cannot show records of how the products were controlled before they came into your possession then all is for naught. Incoming products must be inspected thoroughly for any signs of temperature abuse prior to receiving. If any abuses are detected then immediate and effective Corrective Actions must be ta ken and documented.  Properly trained and equipped staff at receiving is your first line of defense against compromised products.

It is important to remember that temperature sensitive products are generally transported by reputable carriers who have adequate control procedures in place. However, as a food distributor you should have processes to ensure this is the case, and that the controls can be independently verified. Products may be “cross-docked” several times prior to delivery, and many cross-dock or transfer facilities are not refrigerated. Food products may sit for several hours at ambient temperatures prior to being loaded onto the vehicle that delivers it to your door. Temperature abuse is a cumulative effect and having product sitting at ambient temperatures for two hours here and two hours there can add up to a significant hazard. This may be compounded by the time of year (for example, summer months when ambient temperatures can exceed +30°C).  Also, if shipments are less than truckload (LTL) then several stops may have been made prior to your facility. Doors may have been opened to ambient temperatures for extended periods of time.  When refrigerated products warm, bacterial counts on the products can increase significantly. If the bacteria are pathogenic a considerable safety risk can be present.  Temperature abuse can also shorten shelf life and increase “shrink”. 

So remember, no HACCP or HACCP based food safety program operating in your facility can be truly effective without a strong set of operating procedures to monitor the integrity of food products before they even reach your receiving door.