Receiving Mortadella: Acceptance Check and a Sample Cold-Chain Log

The door of the refrigerated van opens, the driver hands over the case, a kitchen worker signs the delivery note and the case goes into the fridge. If nothing was measured in those three minutes, nobody can say a week later whose fault the weeping mortadella slice in the fridge is: transport, storeroom or fridge? A mortadella cold chain log exists to close exactly that gap, and the receiving form is its first page.

Mortadella is a good example for this record because its label is clear: between 0 °C and +4 °C, with the cold chain maintained. The Mortella Chicken Mortadella with Vegetables 1350 g log and the Mortella Sliced Chicken Mortadella with Dried Tomatoes 200 g and 450 g tray packs call for the same range. A temperature measured outside that range at the moment of receipt is a delivery that should not be accepted.

The form below is a suggestion; each operation adds or removes columns according to its own food safety plan. What does not change is that the form is filled in and signed on the spot by the person who meets the delivery.

Why is the acceptance check at a mortadella delivery recorded?

Because responsibility passes to the operation the moment the case crosses the threshold, and the record is the only document showing the condition under which it passed. A spoken "it was cold" carries no weight at an inspection or in a dispute with the supplier; a date, a time, a measured temperature and a signature do.

The second function of the record is internal. When the temperature readings from three months of deliveries from one supplier are set side by side, a pattern appears: which day, which hour, which vehicle arrives warmer. That pattern drives the decision to change the order time or delivery day, on data rather than on guesswork.

What the cold chain is and what happens when it breaks is the subject of a separate article; the receiving form puts the link where that chain is handed over to the operation into writing.

What does the Turkish food hygiene regulation expect from a cold chain record?

It places the maintenance of the cold chain and its recording on the operation. The Turkish food hygiene regulation (yeni sekmede açılır) counts the unbroken continuation of the cold chain, the monitoring of temperature and the documentation of that monitoring among the operator's duties; the receiving form is the starting point of that documentation.

The regulation does not prescribe the shape of the form; which columns it carries, how many months the record is kept and who signs it are set by the operation's own food safety plan. The practical rule is to keep the record long enough to outlast the use-by date of the batch concerned, so that the condition of that delivery can be shown retrospectively in a complaint.

The WHO food safety fact sheet (yeni sekmede açılır) describes safe food as a responsibility shared along the whole chain from producer to consumer; the receiving form is the point where a kitchen takes up its share of that chain in writing.

Three things measured at the van door: vehicle temperature, product temperature, packaging

The vehicle temperature shows the condition of transport; it is read from the vehicle gauge and written on the form, asking the driver and looking at the gauge. The product temperature is the measurement that decides: a probe thermometer is placed between two logs or in the middle of a stack of sliced tray packs, without piercing the packaging. A reading between 0 °C and +4 °C means acceptance; outside it means rejection or conditional acceptance.

Packaging is checked by eye. Look for tears in the casing of a log, lid separation on a sliced tray pack, swelling or liquid pooling inside the pack. If the outside of the case is wet or crushed, the packs inside are checked one by one.

The order of measurement matters: the vehicle gauge first, then the product temperature the moment the case is opened, the packaging last. A temperature taken after the case has waited five minutes on the bench is the temperature of the bench, not of the transport.

Mortadella receiving form: a sample table

The table is printed on one page as a block of rows per delivery; if sliced and log products arrive in the same delivery, two separate rows are opened, because product temperature is measured separately for each.

Label check: what information is looked for on a mortadella pack?

Product name, ingredients and allergen declaration, net quantity, use-by date, storage condition, business registration number and lot number; these are the mandatory label items under the Turkish food labelling regulation (yeni sekmede açılır), and at receipt the first three are always read while the rest are read on a sample.

Two things are compared from the label at receipt. The lot number must match the lot on the delivery note; a mismatched lot breaks traceability. The use-by date must cover the operation's consumption plan; the sliced pack arrives with a 90-day shelf life, but the remaining life of the delivered batch is shorter, and that remaining period is written on the form.

The storage condition line is read as well; the mortadella label says 0 °C to +4 °C, and the acceptance reading is judged against that line. A pack whose label is unreadable, erased or stickered over goes into conditional acceptance and the supplier is asked.

Rejection: at which reading is a mortadella delivery turned away?

In four cases: product temperature outside the range on the label, packaging torn or swollen, use-by date not covering the consumption plan, lot not matching the delivery note. All four are written on the form with their reason, signed by the driver and reported to the supplier the same day. Rejected product does not enter the fridge; it goes back onto the vehicle or waits, marked, in a separate area.

Conditional acceptance is an intermediate decision: product temperature at the boundary, a small dent in the packaging, a label that is hard to read. Under conditional acceptance the product goes into the fridge but is not used, the supplier's answer is awaited and that answer is attached to the form. The category must not be abused; an out-of-range temperature is a rejection, not a conditional acceptance.

In an ongoing account relationship the number of rejections and conditional acceptances is shared with the supplier monthly; a good supplier asks for that figure to correct its own vehicle and route planning.

After acceptance: into the store and keeping the record

An accepted case goes into the fridge without waiting on the bench; while the form is being completed the case sits in the fridge, not on the counter. In the fridge, sealed packs are arranged with the use-by date facing forward, beside the previous delivery; the new arrival is not placed in front of the old.

The receiving form, the fridge temperature log and the opened-product label together form a single chain: the temperature measured at delivery, the daily reading in the store and the opening record. All three live in the same folder or the same digital record. Storing opened mortadella by the rules for cut face, container and labelling describes the third link of that chain.

If the record is kept on paper, a monthly folder is enough; if digital, one row per delivery. Whichever is chosen, the rule is the same: nothing is deleted until the use-by date of the batch concerned has passed, and when a complaint or an inspection arrives the record is found within minutes.

Copy the first version of the form from this table and use it for a month; add the column that turned out to be missing at the end of the month, and remove the one that stayed empty.