The concept of reducing the industry standard minimum temperature adhered to across the frozen food supply chain is attracting global attention. -18°C (or 0°F) has been the standard for well over 100 years, however evidence is growing that for most products this setpoint could be overly risk averse and that transitioning to a higher setpoint (for example -15°C) would not affect food safety or overly impact food quality and could be an opportunity to significantly reduce energy use and associated emissions without the need for major legislative change or significant financial investment.
Although the early signs are promising, more research and collaboration is needed to fully assess the potential of a set-point change and what the new temperature could be.
The Cold Chain Federation is committed to working with our members and in collaboration with partners across the frozen food supply chain to support the UK approach to revising temperature setpoints for frozen food and in particular to ensure that the UK’s cold chain infrastructure is ready to adopt a less risk averse approach.
On this page we will post updates of the latest information, research and case studies as this initiative develops.
INCREASING TEMPERATURE SET POINTS FOR FROZEN FOOD
This report provides an overview of the theory behind the global initiative to assess temperature set points for frozen food storage and how the UK cold chain could reduce energy use and slash emissions.
This report is a call for action, it sets out the broad actions needed to progress the concept in the UK and how the Cold Chain Federation will work with our members and other stakeholders across the food supply chain to fully explore how we can all turn up the dial on frozen.
HAVE YOUR SAY
We have launched a new member survey to capture member’s views on turning up the dial on frozen food.
Feedback will be used to help us understand different views from across the membership on the issue of raising temperature set points in the frozen food supply chain.
We are specifically looking for views on how set points are currently determined, opinions on how an increase could be implemented within temperature-controlled logistics operations and what the associated risks, or challenges, might be.
The results of this survey will be published during summer 2024.