Food Safety Guides
Reefer Container Loading: What a Supervisor Should Check
A reefer is a transport unit, not a cooling unit. It holds temperature; it does not bring warm product down quickly. Most temperature claims trace back to what happened in the hour before the doors closed.
Before loading
- Container interior clean, dry and odour free
- Door seals, floor and T-bar channels in good condition
- Unit pre-cooled to the set point
- Set point, ventilation and humidity settings match the booking instruction
- Temperature recorder installed and started where required
During loading
- Product temperature measured and recorded on a sample of pallets
- No product left waiting on an unrefrigerated dock
- Pallets loaded without blocking the air delivery and return
- Load stays below the red load line
- Pallet count and lot numbers checked against the packing list
After loading
- Doors closed promptly and seal applied
- Seal number photographed and recorded
- Unit running and showing the correct set point
- Report issued with photographs of each step