Loading is finished, the lid is shut and the display is blank or the needle does not move. The insulation of the container and the working of the gauge are separate things, but a dispatch decision needs both: the container protects the goods and the gauge shows it.
For quick-frozen food the answer is clear. Turkish Food Codex Notice 2014/48 (Article 4) requires ambient temperature to be recorded at frequent, regular intervals during storage and transport with suitable measuring and recording devices, and the records to be kept with date and time for at least one year. For storage during distribution one easily visible thermometer is enough; a blank display does not meet that either.
- Fit the spare gauge or a portable logger; write the device ID, measurement point and start time in the trip record.
- With no spare, and only where the shipping contract asks for no temperature record, measure by hand at departure and delivery and add the interval between the two readings and the outside temperature.
- Open the fault the same day as a container fault: container ID, symptom and time found. Without that record the same container goes out unmeasured again tomorrow.
Two readings, at departure and arrival, do not show the peak in between. The record says so plainly, and it does not satisfy a buyer whose contract asks for continuous recording.
To keep the fault from repeating, put battery changes in the maintenance calendar and keep the spare gauge in a drawer in the loading area. A spare locked in the warehouse office is not collected at the morning departure, and the run leaves unmeasured again.
