How to transport frozen food? Basic requirements and features of transportation

Few people know how to transport frozen food so that it does not spoil and maintains its presentation. You will need specialized transport, a stable temperature without fluctuations, and a logistician who follows the mandatory rules. You cannot move goods without a package of documents, this risks confiscation. Before the provision of a service, an agreement is concluded where each party acquires obligations and rights.

Requirements for the transportation of frozen products

Transportation of frozen products is carried out by vehicles with specific climatic equipment - refrigerated trucks.

Peculiarities:

• have a sanitary passport;
• undergo sanitary treatment before departure - confirmed by the act;
• there is equipment for cooling the air in the cargo compartment.
• availability of ventilation and air conditioning.

Food transport vehicles are driven by experienced drivers who have a health certificate. They are required to monitor that there are no sudden temperature fluctuations along the way. Transport specialists are required to know how to deliver cargo in a timely manner and eliminate possible risks of damage and failure to meet deadlines.

Transportation of frozen food to Moscow or another city is trusted to logisticians. This is a guarantee that the cargo will be delivered quickly while maintaining temperature conditions.

These requirements are relevant for delivery:

• semi-finished products;
• seafood, fish;
• livestock products;
• berries, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits;
• ice cream;
• butter.

Vehicles for transporting products are equipped with units that maintain temperatures in the range from -25 to -18°C.

Heat-saving insulation box

If these two options don't suit you, look for a bag made of thick fabric. Using the internal dimensions, cut out the parts for the insulation box. Thin insulation with foil can be bought on the market; it bends and cuts well. Glue the edges of the box with foil tape. The better you make the box, the longer the food will last. Cold accumulators are also needed to maintain cold. If you have them in your freezer, grab them. If not, then you can take plastic bottles or a heating pad, pour water into them and freeze them. Wrap chilled or frozen foods in paper or newspaper - this will create a thermal insulation effect. And remember, every time you open the bag, a large amount of cold is lost.

What documents are required to transport frozen food?

A package of papers is a guarantee that the cargo is being moved legally, complies with sanitary standards, and is not contraband. Lack of documents for transporting products threatens with fines, confiscation of the shipment, and administrative liability.

Primary documents:

• Consignment note - TTN displays data about the driver, car, and route. Issued in four copies. The document indicates a list of units.
• A waybill with the current date is issued before departure on the flight.
• Service agreement for the transportation of frozen meat and other perishable products.

In the absence of an agreement, the driver is given a stamped power of attorney. It displays the list in the batch, the recommended temperature regime, information about the sender and recipient.

Additional package of papers for road transportation of products:

• Consignment note - provided that the consignment note does not contain complete information about the cargo being delivered.
• Check.
• Quality certificates, sanitary passport.

The list of papers may vary depending on the type of shipment being delivered.

Thermal containers for fishing

Thermal containers. With the arrival of the warm season, many fishermen face a very difficult task: how to save bloodworms, maggots or worms while fishing, because these baits, sometimes worth their weight in gold, are extremely sensitive to overheating.

An equally serious problem arises with the preservation of the catch - perch and roach brought from fishing, which have lain all day under the merciless sun in a cramped cage in shallow water (and often just in a plastic bag), emanate such a “scent” that even the neighbor’s cat is disgusted turns away from the offered treat.

It was easy and simple for the fisherman in the winter - fish chilled on ice, and even more so freshly frozen, could easily endure transportation for two or three days in a backpack, fishing box, or even just in the trunk of a car. The live baits remained in good health for just as long, carefully laid out in foam boxes, where they were neither hot nor cold.

With the onset of summer, you have to rack your brains: what to pack for transportation with all this perishable and so dear to the fisherman’s heart - you shouldn’t take a refrigerator with you...

But why not? Indeed, of all the methods of long-term storage of organic substances, cooling has been the most accessible to humans since ancient times. Cold is the simplest, most effective and, importantly, environmentally friendly method of preserving natural products, widely used in the food industry.

For example, even unprocessed fish, cooled to +3°C, can be stored for 3-5 days without loss of taste, and freshly frozen fish at a temperature of -16...-18°C can be kept in the freezer for months without losing nutritional value. In this regard, modern insulated containers, more often referred to simply as coolers, are undoubtedly of particular interest to fishermen.

These comfortable, functional and durable products have replaced the soft and therefore short-lived cooler bag, which has sunk into oblivion, widely known in its native country from the dacha boom of the 70s of the last century. By the way, float swimmers were the first to appreciate the obvious advantages of this transport container, having once and for all solved for themselves the problem of transporting live bait and bait.

A modern insulated container is a plastic box with double walls, the space between which is filled with a material with low thermal conductivity, most often polyurethane foam. The container is tightly closed with a lid made similarly or (in small-volume models) without filler, and in this case inert air is used as an insulator.

The thickness of the walls and lid is the most important indicator that determines the thermal insulation properties of the cooler; the larger it is, the slower the temperature changes in a closed volume. It is believed that a tight fit of the lid to the box is a prerequisite for any cooler, since the flow of air from outside dramatically changes the temperature inside the box.

Thermal containers

Containers intended for long-term, about 24-36 hours, storage of food, as a rule, have a soft ring gasket between the box and the lid. Some models provide complete tightness with this design; even if turned upside down, such a cooler will not leak, flooding the seats or trunk of the car with its contents or melted water.

The container lid can be either separate or quick-release on hinges or hinged. Removable lids are more practical for cleaning and washing the cooler; they are convenient to use as a tray or an impromptu dining table. Some of them have round recesses in which plastic cups stand steadily.

And although these recesses are designed to hold large plastic bottles (kegs) in the container, it is very convenient to have a snack on the move in a moving car without knocking over a glass of tea or coffee. In the closed position, the lid can be secured either by the projections of the hinged handle or by spring frog locks.

The lock handle is simple and functional, but this simplicity hides some inconvenience: in the locked position, the handle is turned to the side, adjacent to one side of the drawer, and if the cooler is pressed by some things in the trunk of the car or to the back of the seat, it will not be possible to open the drawer quickly . In addition, such a container can only be carried by holding the handle, which is not always comfortable when you have fishing rods and a box with fishing “stuff” in your hands.

Coolers with loops on the body for a shoulder strap seem more convenient, however, carrying a 35-liter container filled to capacity on your shoulder is unlikely to be a pleasure. Thermoplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene are used as materials for containers. These plastics are quite durable, easy to clean from food residues and dirt, do not retain odor and are hypoallergenic.

We recommend reading: How to Preserve Boletus Boletuses Raw

Containers made of PE are practically eternal if they are not placed close to an open fire and are not thrown from the tenth floor onto the pavement. A good friend of mine “retired” his 15-liter Campingas cooler after 5 years of intensive and impeccable service only because he acquired a larger model designed for food for a group of five people who don’t mind having a tasty meal in the great outdoors.

Thermal containers

An insulated container does not cool the food placed in it; strictly speaking, it is just a thermos. And a thermos is called, as one feldkurat, the hero of Jaroslav Hasek’s book about the good soldier Schweik, used to say, “a vessel that keeps food or drink at its original temperature...” Let’s forgive the drunken feldkurat, for whom Schweik served as an orderly, for his ignorance.

The temperature in a thermos, alas, gradually changes, and in our case with frozen or chilled foods, it slowly increases. To slow down this process, cold accumulators are placed in the container when transporting chilled substances - plastic, sealed flat containers with a special solution poured inside.

Before the trip, they are frozen in the freezer of a household refrigerator and, depending on their own capacity (approximately 0.5 to 1 liter), they cool the internal volume of the cooler for 6-24 hours. Of course, this time can vary greatly depending on the volume of the container, its insulating properties and filling density.

The larger the volume of the cooler and the more fully it is loaded with products at the same temperature, the slower this temperature will rise. Accordingly, the more often the container is opened and closed, the warmer the surrounding air and the less the internal volume of the cooler is used, the sooner the temperature in it will rise, which means the faster the precious catch frozen at the fishing base will melt.

Of course, a fisherman does not live by fish alone, and procuring food is not the most important thing in fishing. If you want to know the 5 most effective ways to catch large bream, then this is the place for you. It's always nice to refresh yourself with a cool drink that suits the environment under the scorching sun. One day in June, while spinning on the Oka River near Moscow, I had the opportunity to drink kvass from a plastic bottle that had lain until lunch in the trunk of a car left on the open bank.

Have you ever tried hot kvass? And don’t try to do this: it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others... By the way, even if you’re traveling for just one day, the cooler will do an excellent job, keeping all the food products in perfect and fresh condition, and you won’t have to choke on hot cucumbers and soggy, tear-producing sausage.

As for the external bulkiness of coolers, no one suggests that a single fisherman should carry a 35-liter container. I chose the Colorado7 model for myself; it fit perfectly into my backpack, allowing me to pamper my family with almost 6 kg of zander and pike fillets, brought (by train!) from a business trip to the Lower Volga.

If you have a car, and approximately 65% ​​of all urban fishermen get to the reservoir in this way, and even in a company of 3-4 people, a cooler is unlikely to be superfluous. Such a container is also extremely useful for winter fishing during group trips. All products for lunch for a team of 4-5 participants are perfectly placed in a 15-liter container.

Even at 25 degrees below zero, freshly prepared cutlets or dumplings perfectly maintain the “working temperature” in a thermos container, and having a home-style snack with the whole group accompanied by laughter and jokes is not at all like gnawing stone-frozen sandwiches with cheese and “doctoral paper” alone. "

Currently, insulated containers are produced in a fairly wide range of models, differing in size (and, accordingly, useful volume) and having various design features, which largely determine the scope of use and consumer properties of these products.

The short explanatory instructions attached to them do not always fully reveal these very properties. For example, the time indicated on Campingas coolers for increasing the temperature inside a closed volume to +15°C within 17 or 24 hours at the initial temperature of the products placed there is +5°C does not give an idea of ​​how long it will take for frozen fish to thaw in these containers.

In addition, the named parameters given in instructions or advertising brochures are not always comparable in assessing the thermal insulating properties of containers from different manufacturers, which makes it difficult to choose when purchasing. For an objective comparison and a more complete determination of the consumer properties of different coolers from the angler’s point of view, this testing was carried out.

The simplest method was chosen: an ice briquette was placed in each of the tested containers, frozen in a household freezer at a temperature of -18°C. The volume of the ice block was modular, that is, it was proportional to the useful volume of each cooler.

Since the Rabbermaid container had a minimum capacity of 5 liters (and the 1 liter CH-M20 cold accumulator is ideal for it) and considering that a simple ice briquette of the same size not enclosed in plastic has different melting dynamics, an ice block was chosen as the module volume 1.5 l. In this way, a ratio of 5:1.5 was maintained in each tested container.

Tap water was frozen in a plastic ice cream container, and the finished ice block was placed in a cooler. In large containers, briquettes were placed in a single block to reduce the area of ​​evaporation and more accurately imitate frozen fish. All containers were in a room with a constant temperature of +18°C.

Thermal containers

After 6, 12 and 24 hours of exposure, the amount of melted water was measured using a chemical measuring cup with an accuracy of ±10 ml, after which the water was again poured into the cooler. Minor experimental errors due to heating of water during measurements were not strictly taken into account. The time of complete melting of the ice was recorded and the water temperature was measured.

Based on the data, a graph was constructed, from which it can be seen that the optimal time for storing ice (and therefore frozen fish) for almost all tested containers lies within 28-34 hours. This is quite enough to, say, bring fish from Astrakhan to Moscow or St. Petersburg safe and sound.

However, I note that in a large cooler used for transporting frozen fish at a recreation center, it makes sense to put a plastic grid about 1 cm high on the bottom. Since a certain amount of water inevitably forms inside the container, it, flowing to the bottom, defrosts the fish lying below, and two or four grilles from the kitchen sink will eliminate unwanted contact.

Playmate Elit, IGLOO, USA. Dimensions - 26x40.5x37.5 cm; useful volume - 14.5 l; weight 2 kg. The container is made of PE, has an original hinged sliding lid with push-button fixation on the carrying handle. The thickness of the end walls is 16 mm, the side walls are 22 mm, which, even with a non-thermal insulating and not perfectly tightly closing lid, showed a completely acceptable time for complete melting of a 3.5 liter ice briquette - 34 hours.

Playmate Elit, IGLOO, USA

In this case, the volume of melted water after 6 hours was 250 ml, and after 12 - 600 ml at its temperature of +4°C. The streamlined shape and material of the cooler ensure its strength and resistance to impacts. However, the lid is quite inconvenient to clean from the inside. This container is good for a weekend fishing trip with children and is ideal for a picnic, since its belly will include drinks and snacks for a company of 4-5 people.

Isoterm 10X, Campingas, France. Dimensions - 22.5x35.5x31 cm; useful volume - 10 l; weight - 1.3 kg. The sky blue color of this cooler is the company's calling card. This range of containers is made in Italy from PE, which has a textured “granite” surface on the outside and a glossy surface on the inside, which makes it easy to remove dirt and food residues.

We recommend reading: Parchment wrapping apples

Thermal containers

The lid is separate, and in the closed position it is fixed on the box with a handle-lock, which is done simply and quickly, but sometimes creates a slight inconvenience with opening. There is a soft gasket around the perimeter of the top of the box to ensure a tight fit of the lid. The walls are 20 mm thick, which provides very good thermal insulation.

In 6 hours, the melted water turned out to be 200 ml, in 12 hours - 420 ml, and the ice block itself, 1.5 liters x2, completely melted in 56 hours, and the water temperature was +2°C. An accurate measurement revealed that the volume of the box is 9.6 liters, the remaining 400 cm3 is on the inside of the lid. This design allows you to place a standard 0.5 liter bottle and some 1 liter bottles in a vertical position.

A practical container model for a small group of fishermen for a two or three day trip. On the way to fishing, you can place live bait or perishable food and drinks in the cooler, and upon returning home - 5-6 kg of fairly large or 10 kg of small fish.

Rubbermaid, Gutt Corporations, USA. Dimensions - 22x30.5x23 cm; useful volume - 5 l; weight - 1.1 kg. The smallest container tested is made of PE and has a thick wall of 25 mm. This determined its high thermal insulation properties - 1.5 liters of ice melted in 36 hours, although there is no sealing gasket between the lid and the box, and the lid itself is not filled with anything.

After 6 and 12 hours of testing, the volume of melted water was 150 and 350 ml, respectively - a very good indicator! The lid is locked in the closed position by two symmetrical protrusions on the handle, and locking is possible in two positions of the handle, which is very convenient.

Rubbermaid, Gutt Corporations, USA

The container is equipped with an organizing tray with two compartments for plastic bottles or cups; other compartments can accommodate small items, which makes the tray-cooler combination ideal for long car trips.

Thermal containers

This tandem will also come in handy on a boat: everything is at hand and won’t capsize on a wave. The container itself, due to its relatively small volume, is extremely convenient for transporting live bait; it easily fits in a regular backpack, which makes it ideal for float swimmers. The only drawback is that it is difficult to remove water from the hollow lid after washing it.

Isoterm 32X, Campingas, France. Dimensions - 31x47.5x41 cm; useful volume - 32 l. A more voluminous version of the Isoterm model range, having walls 24.5 mm thick, which was reflected in the duration of complete defrosting of an ice block with a volume of 1.5 l x 5, which amounted to 56 hours. In this case, 250 ml melted in the first 6 hours, 500 ml in 12 hours, and only 1 liter in 24 hours, water temperature +2°C.

Isoterm 32X, Campingas, France

There is a drainage hole at the bottom of the cooler with a “non-losing” plug, which is very practical for removing melted water when transporting frozen fish. Since the plug is located on the outside, it is often forgotten about, and can be lost if handled carelessly. This will greatly worsen the safety of frozen products during long-term transportation, for which, in fact, this model is designed.

In practice, it can easily accommodate 14-16 raw pike or pike perch weighing just over 1 kg. This large-volume cooler will be very useful for vacation fishermen traveling to the Volga or Akhtuba in the summer. Food items such as butter and meat, purchased on the road or locally, remain quite fresh for two or even three days.

Colorado 10, i - BEAM, Japan. Dimensions - 23 x 31 x 21.5 cm; useful volume - 7 l; weight - 1 kg. Rational design, scrupulous precision and high quality workmanship distinguish the Japanese containers of this model range. The cooler is made of polypropylene, resistant to temperature changes, and durable plastic, the glossy surface of which, inside and out, allows you to remove dirt simply with a damp sponge.

Colorado 10, i - BEAM, Japan

Driver documents

The responsible person must have:

• license of the category of the car being driven;
• power of attorney to drive transport or car registration certificate;
• maintenance certificate;
• OSAGO;
• car sanitary passport.

If the car is not the property of the driver, he is an employee of a logistics company, you need to have a copy of the concluded employment contract with the employer.

Features of transporting frozen fish

Products must not be transported in refrigerators where the temperature is less than -18 °C. Before the flight, the car is disinfected and cooled. They load goods in small quantities in boxes and pallets quickly to prevent defrosting. Conditions:

• Testing of climate control equipment before departure. If a car breaks down, the batch is immediately reloaded or delivered to a warehouse with freezers.
• Dense placement - in case of force majeure it will melt more slowly.
• Placing on pallets will prevent fish from sticking to the floor of the chamber; air will circulate freely.
• Temperature conditions for different types of products - chilled and frozen units cannot be placed together.
• Machine load level. Depends on the cargo preservation technology: fast, dry ice, natural.

Unloading is carried out at the recipient's warehouse, immediately transferring the fish to chambers with low temperatures. If the shipment is moving across the Russian Federation, a certified logistician is not required to prepare additional documentation; accompanying papers for the cargo will be required. Delivery within the customs union requires veterinary certificates.

Cooler bag

A budget option for keeping things cold for several hours is an insulated bag, or as it is often called in everyday life, a cooler bag. The main difference between an insulated bag and a car refrigerator is that a car refrigerator can create cold when connected to the car's cigarette lighter or to an electrical outlet. An insulated bag only retains the cold previously acquired by the food, so it is advisable to have cold accumulators in the kit. The cost of an insulated bag is low and different types of bags are sold in many stores. On long trips, it is advisable to separate food items for several meals into different bags.

Features of transporting frozen meat

Transportation of frozen products of animal origin in Moscow requires the issuance of a sanitary passport for the vehicle. The document is issued by Rospotrebnadzor. It is valid for 6 months. It is prohibited to move consignments without a veterinary certificate. There are requirements for choosing transport:

• Whole livestock - carcasses with special crossbars deliver carcasses of pigs, cows, lambs, and horses.
• Poultry and rabbit meat are refrigerated.
• Delivery of chilled, steamed, cooled products - isothermal vans.

Transport must be sealed by the sender of the cargo.

Rules:

• loading the batch in stacks, as tightly as possible;
• if there is ice, snow, or frost on the surface, the batch cannot be transported;
• It is unacceptable to move chilled and frozen meat together or store it next to food products of another group;
• reliable fixation of packaging inside the body;
• sufficient ventilation.

Before leaving for the route, the car is disinfected, cooled, and the operation of the climate control equipment is checked. The meat should not have bruises, abrasions, or odors indicating decay.

Car refrigerator: a portable device for long trips

This is the best way to keep food safe while on the go. The car refrigerator is connected to the cigarette lighter; it operates from a 220 V network through its own wire or a special adapter. Drinks, dairy products, perishable food - there's not much space inside, but a small supply of cold food is always with you. Car refrigerators are expensive enough to be used only on rare trips, so many people use them in their dachas, garages and wherever cool drinks may be needed.

Detailed article: about car refrigerators