Practical monitoring of the chill chain.

Monitoring of temperature of chilled products at fresh food terminals is integrated into the quality assurance program of a retail chain. Each batch of products is examined on the receiving dock and rejected if the temperature is found above 7 degrees C, 5 degrees C being the legal maximal temperature. Measurement of temperature of processed meat products delivered to our company over a period of 14 months indicates that temperature abuse of chilled foods is not uncommon. Consistent rejection of batches because of high temperature resulted in a drop in the number of violations.