Use cases by sector
Cold chain breaks: what to record and when to report
Half an hour out of range may be nothing or everything. What decides it is what was recorded.
A temperature deviation is not automatically lost product. It can be a badly placed sensor, a door open during unloading, or a real problem. The difference between scrapping a lorry and not scrapping it is almost always the quality of the record, not the deviation.
What you must be able to show
| Element | Why |
|---|---|
| The full curve, not the peak | Half an hour at 9 degrees is not eight hours |
| Where the sensor was | A sensor by the door measures something else |
| What was done on detection | The reaction weighs as much as the reading |
| And who decided what | With a name and a time, not "it was decided" |
Important
The third and fourth are forgotten and are exactly what gets asked for. A temperature record with no decision attached proves there was a deviation and does not prove you managed it — which is what gets judged afterwards.
The protocol in the moment
- 1
Log the incident as soon as it is detected
With the real time. Writing it up at day's end already costs credibility.
- 2
Photograph what you can see
The display, the goods, the seal. With a provable date.
- 3
Segregate the affected product
Identified, until someone decides. Not in the same place as the rest.
- 4
And decide against written criteria, not from memory
With criteria written in advance, the decision takes minutes and is defensible.
Watch out
The costliest mistake is waiting for full information before recording. Record what you know with the time it happened, and expand later. A record created three days after is worth far less even saying exactly the same.
When to notify outside
Windows for the last are short and run from delivery. So the incident should reach whoever claims the same day, not when someone reviews the paperwork.
Worth knowing
This fits batch traceability: the incident is recorded against the affected batch, not loose. If you later need to narrow what left and where to, it is already linked.
›What if the carrier keeps the record?
Request it and keep your own copy: in a claim, their record is their version.
›Is a photo of the display enough?
As support yes; the continuous record is what proves duration.
›Keep all records or only incidents?
All. Without the normal you cannot show that one was an exception.
A real case
The situation
A warehouse detects a two-hour deviation in a chiller.
What you do
- Logs the incident with the real time and photos
- Segregates the batch and applies the written criteria
What you get
Releases most of the product with a documented decision, instead of scrapping it all as a precaution.
The situation
A cold-chain break is spotted at unloading and nobody knows how long it was out of range.
What you do
- Records temperature at every handover, not only in transit
- Notes the incident at the moment of receipt
- Alerts whoever must decide before accepting the goods
What you get
The decision to accept or reject is taken with data and in the moment, not three days later.
The situation
Goods out of range are accepted and a claim follows.
What you do
- Records the incident on receipt
What you get
The acceptance is explained and the claim holds up.
The situation
The log lives in the lorry's unit and never arrives.
What you do
- Collects the log on completing the job
What you get
The proof reaches the file.
The situation
There is a dispute about which leg broke it.
What you do
- Compares the records of both handovers
What you get
The dispute closes on data.
The situation
Nobody knows how many breaks there were this quarter.
What you do
- Checks incidents by period and by route
What you get
The pattern shows and the cause gets tackled.
The situation
The client is warned late and has already sold the product.
What you do
- Warns as soon as it is detected
What you get
The client can decide while they still can.
The situation
The incident is noted in a notebook in the warehouse.
What you do
- Records it in the shipment's file
What you get
The record outlives the notebook.
This article answers
- cold chain break what to do
- temperature records in transport
- temperature deviation incident
- when to discard chilled product