Guidance on achieving reasonable working temperatures and conditions during production of chilled foods

Achieve the desired degree and duration of product chilling while maintaining appropriate working temperatures for production personnel

Temperature is a key factor in the assurance of safety of chilled foods. The food industry has to achieve the desired degree and duration of chilling of the product (from production through to release of the product) while maintaining reasonable working temperatures for personnel in chilled production areas. This document was produced to demonstrate practical approaches and equipment that can be adopted to address these conflicting objectives effectively. Three contrasting scenarios are considered:

• Factory at 13-16°C - providing reasonable working temperatures but demanding product prechilling and rapid throughput to maintain adequate product chilling
• Factory at 8-13°C where measures such as localised cooling and protective clothing might be necessary to ensure product safety and worker comfort
• Factory at 0-8°C where operator discomfort and potential long term health risks might require particular attention

The guide covers the relevant legislation relating to health and safety, food hygiene and product issues for chilled food operations. It deals with hazards and assessment for the safety of both operator and product. Guidance is provided for chilled food producers on engineering and hardware options, factory design, thermal comfort and protective clothing to minimise the risk to worker comfort and health.

Contents

• The chilled food industry
• The chilled food market
• The challenge to industry
• Problems in meeting the challenge
• Legislation
• Health and safety legislation
• Hygiene/product legislation
• Hazards and risk assessment
• Product and environment temperature
• Chilled foods
• Environment temperature limits
• Product temperature limits
• Risk assessment
• Hierarchy of control for thermal comfort
• Engineering and hardware options
• Factory design
• General issues
• Design/structure
• Air handling
• Thermal protective clothing
• Worked example
• Checklist
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendices
• Warming times of foods
• Standards of thermal comfort
• Neutral clothing insulation and operative temperatures
• Duration of limited exposure and operative temperatures
• Thermal insulation of clothing
• HSE information sheet: workroom temperatures

Who should use this guide?

Written specifically to address the needs of technical, production and safety personnel within chilled food operations, this guide can also be used by HSE inspectors assessing what measures are reasonably practicable to meet the requirements for employee health, safety and welfare.

The guide was prepared by a joint committee of experts drawn from the chilled food industry, the Health and Safety Executive, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, Leatherhead Food Research Association and Silsoe Research Institute.

Sample Pages

Sample pages from the document are available.

Softcover - 45 pages