This statement sets out plainly where responsibility for the cold chain sits at each stage. It is included as a separate page because temperature is the cause of most disputes in frozen food trade, and because clarity here prevents argument later.

10.1 The temperature requirement

All products supplied are frozen goods requiring continuous storage and transport at minus eighteen degrees Celsius or colder, unless a different temperature is specified for a particular product. This applies without interruption from production through storage, transport, discharge, onward distribution and final storage at the point of use.

10.2 Where responsibility sits

Our responsibility runs to the point at which risk passes under the Incoterm agreed for the transaction. Up to that point we are responsible for ensuring goods are held and handed over at the specified temperature, that reefer equipment is set correctly, and that the set point and any pre-cooling are documented.

From the moment risk passes, responsibility rests entirely with the buyer. This includes the sea or road leg where the buyer contracts the carriage, discharge and any period on the quay, customs inspection and holding, transport to the buyer's facility, storage at the buyer's facility, and all onward distribution.

10.3 What the buyer must do

•  Ensure that receiving facilities can accept and immediately store frozen goods at the specified temperature, without a gap between discharge and freezer.

•  Verify container or vehicle temperature and the data logger reading at the point of receipt, before signing a clean receipt.

•  Record any temperature deviation on the discharge document at the time of receipt, not afterwards.

•  Minimise the time goods spend outside a temperature-controlled environment during handling and cross-docking.

•  Ensure the cold chain is maintained by every onward distributor and customer, and pass these requirements down the chain contractually.

•  Retain temperature records for the full period the goods are in the buyer's possession, and produce them on request.

10.4 The effect of a break

Where product is found to have been exposed above the specified temperature, or to have been thawed and refrozen, at any point after risk passed to the buyer, all warranties are void, no claim will be entertained, and the goods must not be resold or supplied for human consumption. We will support the buyer in assessing the position, but we will not authorise the sale of product whose temperature history is compromised, and we will not indemnify a buyer who does so.