Seeing two different numbers for the same product in two official documents makes anyone stop. Mince is the clearest case: the table in the ATP roadside inspection guide of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure says +3 °C, while the regulation on specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin says 2 °C.
The two texts answer different questions
The ATP figure answers a question about equipment: which marking class must the vehicle hold to carry this product. The food-law figure answers a question about the product: what internal temperature must it be at.
The first describes the vehicle, the second the load. They do not collide; they overlap.
| Question | The text that answers it | For mince |
|---|---|---|
| Which class must the vehicle hold | ATP and the related regulation | the classes on the +3 °C row |
| What must the product's internal temperature be | animal hygiene regulation | 2 °C |
| How is it measured and recorded | Food Hygiene Regulation and related communiqués | record with date and time |
Which one binds in practice. Both bind, from different sides. An inspection checks the vehicle's marking class against the ATP table and the product's temperature against its own law. A shipment can be non-compliant on product temperature while its ATP class is perfectly in order.
The working rule is plain: of the two figures, the narrower becomes the operating target.
Knowing the gap between the two figures also tells you which document to open when building a cold chain with the vehicles you already have.
The frozen side has the same pattern
The communiqué on quick-frozen foods gives -18 °C with a short-term tolerance of three degrees. The ATP inspection table lists ice cream at -20 °C. The ice cream communiqué requires at most -18 °C during carriage, storage and offer to the final consumer, with a short-term rise of no more than 3 °C.
Three texts, three points of view. Again the narrower band becomes the operating target.
Which number goes into the contract
The acceptance temperature agreed between buyer and seller can be written narrower still, independently of the law. That produces three figures: what the law requires, what the contract says, and what the operation aims at. A business that does not keep all three on one line cannot show which one it was right against when a dispute arrives.
The identity of the measurement
Moving between the figures also changes what is being measured. Food law speaks of internal temperature; a transport record usually shows air temperature. Writing both onto the same line is what makes it arguable later which one was actually taken.
Three lines in the shipment file
- The product's internal temperature limit in law
- The marking class the vehicle or container satisfies
- Which point the record measured: air, or the core of the product
