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INITIATIVE 3: Take Your Food's Temperature

Supermarket News, December 15, 2008: Page 40, by Michael Garry

With the growing national concern over food safety and the prevention of foodborne illnesses, retailers have been taking a closer look at the temperature of their refrigerated perishables.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires retailers to keep the internal temperature of these products at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or less. But the thermometers used in stores typically take the temperature of the ambient air inside the cases, not of the food itself.

Associated Food Stores, Salt Lake City, recently ran a test of a special thermometer — the EndoTherm Thermometer, from RefrigeratorSaver, Draper, Utah — that purports to be the only device that takes the internal temperature of perishable food in a case without touching the food. The thermometer, which contains silicone gel, sits in a refrigerated case and "mimics" the internal temperature of the products in the case.

Testing the thermometer in a variety of refrigerated cases, including produce, dairy, bakery and meat, at one of the independent retailers supported by Associated, Travis Waller, Associated's food safety manager, found that it "gives a better indication of food temperature than ambient air temperature does." Ordinarily, when store employees find that the ambient temperature in a case is even moderately high, they remove the packaging from a product to take its internal temperature. The EndoTherm device, by contrast, obviates the need to handle the product, preventing shrink and saving time, Waller noted. Making it easier for employees to read internal food temperature is also likely to increase compliance with the FDA food code, he added.

By tracking internal food temperature, the thermometer could allow a store to raise case temperatures, thereby cutting energy costs, according to Spencer Freedman, managing partner, RefrigeratorSaver.

Associated plans to continue testing the thermometer in other stores, but Waller said he would recommend the thermometer to Associated's independent retailers, who would be responsible for purchasing it.

Freedman said the device, which was brought to the U.S. in July, is used by retailers in the United Kingdom. The average store uses 100 to 200 of the thermometers, spending a total of about $1,500, he said.