Frozen berries should be held at -18 degrees Celsius or colder as a continuous product temperature, in sealed food-grade liners inside wet-strength cartons, on stable pallets with no overhang. Transport uses a pre-cooled reefer with a temperature log in the load, and product core temperature is recorded at both loading and unloading.
Why the detail matters
A trailer set point is an instruction to the refrigeration unit, not a measurement of the pallet core. Loading warm product into a cold trailer does not freeze it – a transport unit maintains temperature, it does not remove heat at freezing rates. That is why the pre-cooling record and the loading temperature record carry more weight in a dispute than the reefer download.
What good practice looks like
- Pre-cool the trailer before loading and record it.
- Take core temperatures between cartons at loading, not surface temperatures.
- Place at least one independent data logger in the load, at an agreed position.
- Limit dock dwell time and write the limit into the loading procedure.
- Record core temperature again at intake, before accepting the consignment.
Full controls and deviation handling are in cold chain management for frozen exports.