Frozen regs left out in the cold
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by Colin Sowman and Ian Wylie • Reefer operators and rental companies are spending thousands of pounds to meet new European regulations which, health officers admit, are almost impossible to enforce.
The Quick-Frozen Foodstuffs (Amendment) Regulations, took effect from 1 September.
These require food transporters as well as manufacturers and retailers to fit instruments for monitoring and recording the air temperatures in which quickfrozen food is stored and transported.
The regulations also require records to be kept for at least 12 months.
Rental giant CTR says it has modified 1,600 of its trailers to meet the regulations, but claims a lack of enforcement by environmental health authorities is allowing many reefer operators to flout the law.
Reefer operator association Transfrigoroute UK, says its 70 members have all fitted temperature recording equipment at a cost of £700 a trailer. But its director Graham Eames says at least a quarter of operators in the industry are not complying.
Eames, managing director of reefer operator Hargrave International of Spalding, adds: "Cowboy operators are not bothering to fit the equipment because they've seen from day one that the regulations are not being enforced."
The institute of Environmental Health Officers admits the regulations are not being properly policed.
"We don't have the power to check trailers on the highways and it's almost impossible to get hold of the vehicles at delivery depots," says assistant secretary Ann Goodwin.
"Many of the larger retailers won't award contracts to hauliers without the equipment, so we're having to rely on self-monitoring within the industry."