The pallet was turned away at the store ramp with the wrap still intact, went back into the vehicle within minutes, and now the driver is on the phone asking what to do. Drive back to the depot, wait at the door, or sit tight until someone writes a report? The three answers come from different places, because food legislation prescribes how a temperature reading has to be taken, while what happens to the goods standing on that ramp is settled by the law of sale.
From the moment the pallet is reloaded, two clocks run together: the temperature of the product, and the question of which document will be on the table months later. If the store read a figure on its own handheld, that figure is a claim, and unless a proper inspection is arranged on the seller's side, no second record is ever created to set against it. The order of the first few decisions therefore shapes the dispute as much as it saves the goods.
Which reading binds afterwards. One paragraph settles which measurement counts in the official control of frozen product temperature. Under Article 3(1) of the Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on the Selection of Sampling Points and the Method of Measurement for the Official Control of Temperatures of Quick-Frozen Foods Intended for Human Consumption (Communiqué No. 2015/34, Official Gazette 31/7/2015-29431), sampling points are selected in accordance with Annex 1 and sample temperatures are measured by the method in Annex 2. Other methods with national or international validity may be used only if they have been verified against the method in this Communiqué; in case of non-conformity the measurements are made again by the Annex 2 method, and methods that cannot meet the requirements of that method may not be used at all.
Where in the load the sample is taken is not left to either party either. Section 1 of Annex 1 requires the type and quantity of the selected packages to represent the warmest points of the consignment under inspection, while 1.2(a) provides that during carriage samples are taken close to every openable door or door leaf, at both the lower and the upper level. For unloading, 1.2(b) lists five critical points and requires sampling from at least four of them:
| Sampling point at unloading | Wording given in Annex 1 |
|---|---|
| Lower and upper points near the door | no reason stated |
| Top rear corners of the consignment | farthest point from the cooling unit |
| Centre of the consignment | no reason stated |
| Middle of the front face | nearest point to the unit |
| Top and bottom corners of the front face | nearest point to the unit air return |
The instrument itself is described as well. Section 5 of Annex 2 calls for an accuracy of ±0.5 °C over a measuring range of -20 °C to +30 °C, a display resolution of 0.1 °C, a response time reaching 90% of the difference between the initial and final readings within three minutes, and a valid calibration certificate. A handheld pulled out of a coat pocket on the ramp, with no certificate or with whole-degree resolution, still works as a warning sign on site, yet it carries none of the weight Annex 2 would demand once the reading is contested.
Who is answerable for goods that were refused
Putting the pallet back on the vehicle does not by itself move responsibility to the seller. Article 226(1) of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 obliges a buyer who alleges that goods sent from another place are defective, where the seller has no representative at the buyer's location, to take provisionally the measures necessary to preserve the goods, and states plainly that the buyer may not return them to the seller without having taken those measures. On a frozen pallet the obligation translates into two very concrete things: the temperature of the place where the goods wait, and how long they wait there.
Every hour spent on the ramp also has an equipment side. The glossary of WHO Technical Supplement 15 defines a passive system as one that "maintains a temperature-controlled environment inside an insulated enclosure, with or without thermostatic regulation, using a finite amount of pre-conditioned coolant (chilled or frozen gel packs, phase change material and the like)" (Supplement 15, Glossary, "Passive systems"). The words "finite amount" at the heart of that definition describe the time budget being spent while the argument goes on. What follows is our reading rather than the document's rule: in a reefer set-up those hours are paid for by the unit running at the ramp, in a passive set-up by a reserve measured before departure; both run down, though the size of one of them is known before the vehicle leaves.
If you want that reserve sized before the vehicle pulls out, our page on frozen carriage without a reefer works through the equipment and the arithmetic behind it.
Where the goods are liable to spoil quickly, the law goes one step further. Article 226(3) entitles the buyer to have them sold through the court at the buyer's location, obliges the buyer to do so where the seller's interest requires it, and holds the buyer liable for the resulting loss if the seller is not notified as soon as possible. On a frozen consignment that means an evening decision on the ramp carries a price if it is left to the following morning: once notification slips, the argument moves off the temperature figure and onto the damage caused by the delay.
Article 226(2) explains why the steps are taken in that order: the buyer is obliged to have the condition of the goods established without delay and in due form, and if this is not done, the burden of proving that the alleged defect existed at the time the goods reached the buyer falls on the buyer. So a pallet reloaded on the strength of a figure read at the ramp, with no inspection carried out in due form, leaves the burden of proof sitting with the party that refused it.
