Retail and chain stores
Replenishment from depot to shelf: appointment windows, goods-in temperature and the back of the store.
In retail the cold chain is judged at one point: the moment the goods reach the shelf. Everything before it - the depot, the vehicle, the dock - is preparation, and everything after it belongs to the cabinet. What breaks in between rarely shows up in a report; it shows up in shelf life.
Where the chain actually breaks
Not on the road. On a store round the goods spend most of their exposed time standing still: waiting for a delivery slot, waiting at the back of the shop while staff are busy, waiting between the stockroom and the cabinet. A vehicle that cools the body air stops protecting the goods the moment they leave it.
What the rules ask
Türkiye's Food Hygiene Regulation requires the cold chain to be maintained and recorded for goods that need refrigeration, and it frames carriage in terms of vehicles and/or containers - both are expected to hold the appropriate temperature and to allow it to be monitored. For quick-frozen food the target is -18 °C or lower, with a brief rise of at most 3 °C allowed in transport, distribution and the retail cabinet.
What a closed container changes in a store round
The cold travels with the goods rather than in the body. Only the box for the drop being made is opened, so the other stores on the round are unaffected. A wheeled container rolls straight into the stockroom, which removes the wait at the back of the shop from the temperature account. And because the vehicle stays standard, the rest of its volume carries dry goods on the same trip.
Equipment
GEBHARDT Isotec TBX containers (410-1500 l, on wheels or on a pallet, 0…+2 °C and -21…-25 °C regimes, ATP and HACCP certified for food transport) with eutectic plates and freezing racks; GEBHARDT roll containers for in-store movement; EPP thermoboxes for small drops. Send us your round - stores per trip, cases per store, target temperature - and we will size the set with you.
Frequently asked questions
Who measures the product temperature on a store delivery?
The measurement is taken at goods-in by the receiver, from the product itself; the record kept through carriage sits with the sender. Neither replaces the other, and in a dispute both are read together. With the logger inside the container it becomes visible whether the warming happened on the road or during the wait at the back of the shop.
What can be done about goods waiting at the back of the store?
A container keeps working as long as it stays shut, so a wheeled box is rolled straight into the stockroom and the goods wait inside it. The moment store staff become available then falls outside the temperature account. Where the wait is long, the size and the number of plates are chosen accordingly.
How many stores fit into one round?
The limit is set not by duration but by how often the box is opened and by the volume per store. In the closed-container arrangement only that store's box is opened at each drop, so the rest of the round is unaffected. Send us your route and the cases per store and we will work out how many boxes the trip needs.