Nobody in ready-meal distribution says they have given up on refrigeration. Everyone refrigerates: there is a cold room at the depot and a cabinet at the outlet. The chain breaks in the part between them - the forty minutes, the hour, sometimes the three hours before the goods reach the shelf.
Why this job differs from other cold work
The difference comes down to three points:
- Small loads, many drops. One outlet takes three crates; the round is twenty outlets.
- The product is finished. The heat step is behind it, and reheating is not a corrective tool.
- The drop is fast. Door open, crate out, signature; nobody waits for the cooling to recover.
Put those three together and a system that cools the body starts over at every drop. A system that cools the box never stops.
What the rules ask for
Among the general principles of Türkiye's Food Hygiene Regulation there is a plain clause: for foods that cannot be safely held at ambient temperature, and particularly those requiring refrigeration, the cold chain must be maintained. Among the specific duties of the food business operator, maintaining the cold chain and recording it are listed side by side. The record is part of the job, not an extra.
The same regulation allows the goods to be held at ambient temperature for limited periods, provided no health risk arises, to permit practical steps such as preparation, carriage, storage, display and service. The critical words are limited periods and no health risk: that is not an exemption, it is an exception that has to be measured and defended.
Which product travels under which regime
| Product group | Carriage regime | Critical point |
|---|---|---|
| Salads, mezes, dressed items | Chilled, 0…+2 °C | A frost mark reads as poor quality, so the plate regime is chosen accordingly |
| Sandwiches, wraps, ready portions | Chilled | Condensation on the packaging, humidity management |
| Deli and sliced products | Chilled | Slicing multiplies surface area, so warming accelerates |
| Dairy desserts | Chilled | Skin forming and water release on the surface |
| Frozen ready meals | -18 °C or lower | The brief rise tolerance applies only in transport and distribution |
The arrangement that works on the ground
Preparation for the round starts the day before. The plates freeze through to the core on the freezing rack, the container is cooled with its lid shut, and in the morning the goods go in and the lid closes. Along the route the box is opened only at the drop it belongs to.
The most visible gain shows up on the loading dock: there is no need to hold the vehicle while the body pre-cools. The container is already prepared, and the same morning the vehicle can still do a dry-goods job.
What it does not solve
A closed container does not solve the cabinet at the outlet. Once the goods are on the shelf, temperature is the buyer's responsibility, and that is often the weakest link in the chain. What the container provides is that everything up to that link becomes measurable and arguable. When the product temperature taken at handover and the container record are kept together, the boundary of responsibility stops being vague.
What is used on the Isotec side
On small rounds the EPP thermobox; at medium scale the smaller Isotec TBX sizes; as daily volume grows, the pallet-based sizes. For ready meals the size range is what decides: the TBX comes in nine sizes from 410 to 1500 litres with 500-700 kg payload. The regimes are 0…+2 °C and -21…-25 °C, the containers are ATP and HACCP certified for food transport, and the holding time GEBHARDT states runs up to 24 hours with eutectic plates or dry ice.
The way to the right size runs through the route, not the product list: how many drops, how many minutes between the longest pair of them, how many centimetres of body you have. Send those three to Aris Makina; the size and the plate regime follow from them.
