SUPERMARKET EQUIPMENT
Monitoring Success
Jason Webb, managing director, Electronic Temperature Instruments discusses how supermarket refrigeration temperature monitoring is the future for food safety and preservation.
A
midst rising energy costs and the current fruit and vegetable shortage biting the UK, preservation and avoiding food waste
is a prominent challenge for many supermarkets. Many are implementing measures to equip consumers with the means to preserve their food for longer, such as Co-op removing ‘best before’ dates on many of their fruit and veg products. Supermarkets are having to look introspectively at how they store and stock their produce in the safest, cost effective, longest lasting means. Due to the cost of living crisis, consumers have changed their purchasing and usage habits. Therefore supermarkets must facilitate these expectations and necessary changes. In another move from Co-op earlier in 2022, it removed ‘use by’ labels on its own-label yogurts. This
26 April 2023 •
www.acr-news.com
followed a study from the Waste Resource Action Plan (WRAP) that found 42,000 tonnes – worth £100m – of yoghurt is thrown away from home fridges every year. This response from major supermarkets should help to enforce a change into how consumers approach their own food consumption and wastage. The responsibility of good quality, safe and reliable storage, before reaching the customers refrigerator, depends on the methods deployed by supermarkets to ensure maximum longevity of their fresh produce. A key factor in this challenge is how produce is
stored within supermarket refrigerators and cool rooms. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it is a legal requirement for businesses to store cold foods at 8˚C or below. This temperature must be
monitored and maintained at all times to ensure the prevention of harmful bacteria, such as e-coli and listeria. There are steps that must be taken to
ensure the consistency of these temperatures as per the recommendation of the UK Food Standards Agency. Things such as not overfilling the refrigerators as a means to reduce the energy consumption, may appear to be an attractive cost-saving initiative, yet it endangers the consistency of temperature within the refrigerator. Overfilling reduces the cold air circulation within the refrigerator and can lead to warm pockets forming and spoiling produce, even when the refrigerator as a whole has its temperature set correctly. It is essential that when
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