Food Safety With Temperature Monitoring Indicators

The Best Way To Protect Food Distribution

Across the food distribution chain it can be difficult to maintain a safe temperature throughout the journey. The FDA highlight the importance of temperature monitoring in food safety, and the formal responsibility of the shipper (or shipper’s representative) to ensure that they meet the requirements of the Sanitary Transportation Act. During transport and handling, foods should be maintained at temperatures between 2-8°C in order to avoid the growth of dangerous and harmful bacteria such as salmonella, and prevent other signs of infection and contamination. While impact damage is usually obvious and easy to handle, temperature damage during transport is often invisible. This can cause far more harm to your reputation and finances in the long term; either by causing seriousness illness in consumers, or creating costly waste that needs to be thrown out.

Temperature Indicators vs. Dataloggers

In order to avoid this, the best solution is for suppliers to make use of indicators that can track temperature during transit, alerting the recipient of any food safety issues immediately upon delivery. Despite this, businesses sometimes use more expensive data loggers, that are not always the right tool for them. Dataloggers have the benefit of giving more detailed data, such as when and where the goods were exposed, which is perfect for more complex insurance claims. However, this level of detail is not always needed, and the data that they provide is retrospective, often coming too late to refuse a delivery.

A cheaper alternative would be temperature indicators, which designate a temperature ‘safe zone’ depending on your requirements, and immediately turn red when the barriers of that zone are breached. Indicators are a simpler, single-use, cost-effective alternative. This ensures compliance with food safety health standards throughout the entire distribution process.

Depending on your needs, Shockwatch recommends either ColdMark to monitor and measure temperature breaches between -3°C and +10°C, or WarmMark which has a larger range between -20°C and +38°C. These products have the highest accuracy on the market for indicator technology, and are easy to apply with the removal of adhesive backing. The indicators are a clear, visible deterrent to mishandling, and will alert you to temperature breaches with an irreversible, tamper-proof colour change. This encourages cold chain accountability, making temperature damage claims obvious and irrefutable, and increasing overall product quality and reputation as a result.

ColdMark and WarmMark are field-activated, and have been tested extensively in both a lab environment as well as with real-world applications. They are available in a wide variety of temperature thresholds, and are also available in rolls – allowing for rapid application if needed. Check out further benefits below:

Benefits of ColdMark and WarmMark

• Alleviates food safety concerns surrounding bacterial growth, infection, and contamination
• Ensures compliance with health standards
• Ensures quality of the product throughout transportation cycle
• Identifies potentially unacceptable product quality before delivery to end-user
• Alerts recipient to inspect contents before acceptance
• Delivers clear results
• Ensures cold chain accountability
• Individually serialised to help product tracking for internal handling and chain of custody
• Can be shipped & stored under most conditions
• Highest accuracy on the market for indicator technology
• Complete flexibility for customer requirements

To find out more about our temperature indicators, contact us today.