How often should I measure the fridge temperature?

In daily practice a check at opening, one at midday on the display case and one at closing cover the hours when the shop is staffed well. The gap remains the night, when nobody checks and a fault can last hours unnoticed. That is why, if you handle products at critical temperatures, a temperature logger with an alarm that warns you outside hours is the investment that pays back soonest. The minimum frequency and any mandatory records must still be checked against the applicable rules and with your adviser.

If the power fails overnight, is the stock automatically for the bin?

Not automatically, but it has to be assessed methodically rather than by eye. Two things matter: by how much the temperature rose and for how long it stayed outside the manufacturer's limits. A full, closed fridge holds the cold far longer than a half empty one, and some products tolerate short excursions. Without a logger documenting what happened overnight, though, you often have no way of knowing how long the break lasted, and when in doubt the prudent choice is not to put it back on sale. Always document the event and check with the supplier.

Can I sell a refrigerated product if it still looks perfect after a swing?

Appearance is not a reliable criterion. Temperature damage, both for food and for many medicines and supplements, often leaves no visible sign: the product looks identical but may have lost safety or efficacy. The decision to put it back on sale must rest on comparing the recorded excursion, that is temperature and duration, with the tolerance stated by the manufacturer, not on observing the product. If you have no reliable data on the excursion, the prudent choice is to withdraw it.

Do I need a separate fridge for over the counter medicines and food?

It depends on the products and their storage requirements, but keeping food and medicines apart is generally good practice, both for hygiene and because temperature windows can differ. A medicine needing a tight range does not sit well in a fridge opened constantly for food. Check the temperatures each product requires and, if they differ or if hygiene demands it, provide separate compartments or units. The specific rules on selling and storing veterinary medicines must be checked with the competent authority.

Running a pet shop35 minLevel: IntermediateUpdated on August 20, 2026

Managing the cold chain for products in a pet shop

How to keep fresh food and sensitive products at temperature in a shop: from goods receiving to daily checks and handling a temperature excursion.

Audience: Pet shops
Species: All species
Scope: Valid everywhere, Italy, European Union

What you need before you start

Un frigorifero o vetrina refrigerata dedicati ai prodotti, con un termometro affidabile e leggibile
L'elenco dei prodotti a temperatura controllata che tratti, con la temperatura di conservazione indicata dal produttore
Un registro, cartaceo o digitale, su cui annotare le temperature e gli eventuali scostamenti

A pet shop selling fresh refrigerated food, certain over the counter products or heat sensitive supplements takes on a responsibility many underestimate: keeping those products within a precise temperature window, from the moment they arrive until they leave with the customer. The cold chain is not the fridge, it is everything around it: how goods are received, how long they sit on the counter during unloading, what happens when the power fails at night, how anyone notices the display has stopped cooling. A single weak link undoes all the others, and a product can become ineffective or unsafe with no visible sign at all. This guide explains how to build a practical temperature watch in a shop, with checks that are sustainable over time and a clear procedure for when something goes wrong. It does not replace the applicable food safety obligations, which must be checked with the competent authority and an adviser.

What the cold chain actually demands

The first step is to grasp that the cold chain is a continuity, not a place. A product stored correctly in the fridge but left half an hour in the sun on the counter during receiving has already suffered a break, even if it goes back to cold afterwards. Temperature damage often does not show: food looks the same, the medicine does not change colour, but safety or efficacy may be compromised. That is why the watch relies on measurements and logs, not on the eye.

The second idea is time out of range. A brief temperature excursion does not carry the same weight as a prolonged break, but without a log you know neither how long it lasted nor how wide it was. Measuring and recording is exactly what distinguishes a small acceptable deviation from an event that requires pulling the product.

The stages where the chain breaks

Breaks do not happen at random: they cluster in a few predictable moments. Knowing them lets you put a check where it is needed rather than watching everything the same way. The table sums up the points where, in practice, temperature is most often lost.

Stages where the cold chain is most at risk and how to watch them. The temperatures shown are examples, the reference remains the manufacturer.
Stage	Typical risk	Watch
Goods receiving	Products sitting on the counter during unloading	Measure temperature on receipt and store at once
Storage	Fridge too full or door left open too long	Do not exceed capacity, check twice a day
Display case	Display colder set less than the storage fridge	A dedicated thermometer in the display, not just the cell
Power failure	A night fault nobody sees until morning	An alarm or logger that flags the excursion
Handover to customer	A long trip home with no cool bag	Inform the customer and offer an insulated bag

The most insidious point is a night power failure, because it happens when nobody is watching and can last hours. It is also the one case where investing in technology, for example a temperature logger with an alarm, pays off quickly: without it, in the morning you find warm stock with no idea how long it has been that way.

The daily checking routine

An effective watch does not take much time, it takes consistency and a method that is always the same. The routine below takes a few minutes a day and produces the log you need both for safety and to answer an inspection or handle a complaint.

Measure the temperature at opening
Read and record the fridge and display temperature the moment you arrive. This is what catches a fault that happened overnight, before products spend further hours out of range.
Check incoming goods before storing them
At delivery, measure the temperature of the product or the courier's refrigerated compartment and record it. If it arrives already out of limits, document it and sort it out with the supplier before putting it on sale.
Store at once, no counter stops
Refrigerated products should move into the fridge within a few minutes of arrival. Time on the counter during unloading is one of the most common and most avoidable breaks.
Check the display at midday
The display case warms up with openings and footfall. A second check in the afternoon catches the deviation built up during peak hours.
Record at closing
A last reading at the end of the day closes the log and sets the starting point for the night. If the value is already at the limit, that is the moment to act, not the next morning.
Apply expiry rotation
Put the products with the nearest expiry at the front and check dates at every reorder. A perfect cold chain is worthless if you then sell an expired product.

When temperature goes out of range

Sooner or later temperature will go out of range: a fault, a door left open, a blackout. The moment of the anomaly is not the time to improvise. Having a procedure decided in advance avoids both throwing away stock that is still good and, far worse, selling a compromised product.

Isolate the products involved at once and take them off sale, so nobody buys them while you assess.
Estimate how long and by how much the temperature was out of range, using the log and any logger with an alarm.
Compare the deviation with the manufacturer's guidance, which often states the tolerance allowed.
When in doubt, do not put it back on sale: the health of the customer and the animal is worth more than the value of the stock.
Document the event with date, time, duration, products and the decision taken, because it is needed for an inspection or complaint.
Contact the supplier for products that arrived already compromised and check warranty or insurance cover.

Communicating storage to the customer

The cold chain does not end at the till. A product stored perfectly in the shop can spoil on the way home or in the wrong cupboard. Informing the customer is part of the service, and it also projects a competence that builds loyalty.

Offer an insulated bag for refrigerated products, especially in summer and for long trips.
Explain out loud how to store the product at home and how quickly to use it once opened.
Make the storage temperature and expiry date clearly visible on the label or the shelf.
Advise against leaving the product in a car in the sun even for a few minutes in the warm season.
For fresh wet food, clearly indicate portions and timing, so the customer does not keep it longer than they should.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I measure the fridge temperature?: In daily practice a check at opening, one at midday on the display case and one at closing cover the hours when the shop is staffed well. The gap remains the night, when nobody checks and a fault can last hours unnoticed. That is why, if you handle products at critical temperatures, a temperature logger with an alarm that warns you outside hours is the investment that pays back soonest. The minimum frequency and any mandatory records must still be checked against the applicable rules and with your adviser.
If the power fails overnight, is the stock automatically for the bin?: Not automatically, but it has to be assessed methodically rather than by eye. Two things matter: by how much the temperature rose and for how long it stayed outside the manufacturer's limits. A full, closed fridge holds the cold far longer than a half empty one, and some products tolerate short excursions. Without a logger documenting what happened overnight, though, you often have no way of knowing how long the break lasted, and when in doubt the prudent choice is not to put it back on sale. Always document the event and check with the supplier.
Can I sell a refrigerated product if it still looks perfect after a swing?: Appearance is not a reliable criterion. Temperature damage, both for food and for many medicines and supplements, often leaves no visible sign: the product looks identical but may have lost safety or efficacy. The decision to put it back on sale must rest on comparing the recorded excursion, that is temperature and duration, with the tolerance stated by the manufacturer, not on observing the product. If you have no reliable data on the excursion, the prudent choice is to withdraw it.
Do I need a separate fridge for over the counter medicines and food?: It depends on the products and their storage requirements, but keeping food and medicines apart is generally good practice, both for hygiene and because temperature windows can differ. A medicine needing a tight range does not sit well in a fridge opened constantly for food. Check the temperatures each product requires and, if they differ or if hygiene demands it, provide separate compartments or units. The specific rules on selling and storing veterinary medicines must be checked with the competent authority.

What to do next

Treat the cold chain as a continuity, not a fridge: gather the storage temperatures product by product, watch the points where the chain actually breaks, namely receiving, storage, display, night and handover, and keep the same log every day with checks at opening, midday and closing. Prepare a procedure for anomalies in advance, based on the duration and size of the excursion compared with the manufacturer's guidance, and tell the customer how to store the product at home.