Food processing and cold storage cooling

Being clear about refrigeration

Food sites use two very different kinds of cooling. One is refrigeration: cold rooms, walk-in chillers and frozen stores, blast chillers, process cooling and chilled production rooms where the temperature is part of food safety. That is specialist commercial refrigeration work, designed and maintained by refrigeration contractors, and it is not what we do. We would rather say that plainly than take on work that is not ours.

The other is comfort cooling and heating for the people and spaces around production. That is our work, and on a food site there is plenty of it.

What we do on food sites

• Offices, QA rooms and meeting rooms: often hot, cramped and next to warm production areas.
• Canteens and staff rooms: where staff from cold or hot areas take their breaks.
• Packing, dispatch and ambient areas where comfort cooling is appropriate and the product does not depend on it, agreed with your technical team.
• IT, comms and control rooms: cooling that runs all year. See server room cooling.
• Bakeries and hot production areas: spot cooling for staff where the process allows it.
• Ventilation for welfare areas, changing rooms and offices. See ventilation.

Where comfort cooling and food safety meet

If a room’s temperature is a critical control point in your food safety plan, the cooling in that room is part of your food safety system, not a comfort feature. That room should be designed by a refrigeration specialist and monitored as your plan requires. Comfort air conditioning is not designed or controlled to that standard. Where you want cooling in an ambient area that handles food, we agree with your technical or quality team what the unit is for, where it goes, and how it will be cleaned, so it does not become a hygiene risk.

Equipment in food areas

In and near food areas, indoor units need to be easy to clean, sited away from open product and lines, with condensate drained so it can never drip onto food or work surfaces. We avoid ledges that collect dust and agree positions and cleaning access with your hygiene team. Pipework and trunking are kept tidy and sealed where they pass through walls.

Installing around production

We plan work around your shifts, using planned shutdowns, weekends or gaps between production runs. We follow your site rules for contractors, including protective clothing, hand washing, glass and brittle plastics policies and tool control, and keep dust and debris away from production areas. Each area is left clean and ready for your own hygiene sign-off before production restarts.

Heat from refrigeration plant

Refrigeration plant gives off a lot of heat, and plant rooms or nearby offices can get very hot. Air conditioning can make a nearby office comfortable, but the plant room itself is part of the refrigeration system and its ventilation should be agreed with your refrigeration contractor. We are happy to work alongside them.

Canteens and welfare

Staff who work in chilled rooms or hot production areas need somewhere comfortable to take their breaks. Canteens, rest rooms and changing areas on food sites are often windowless or in old offices, and get very warm in summer. Comfort cooling and heating in these rooms is simple to provide, and it helps with the welfare duties the HSE describes: there is no legal maximum temperature, but employers must keep the workplace at a comfortable level.

Bakeries, kitchens and hot rooms

Some food production is hot rather than cold. Bakeries, kitchens and cooking lines produce a lot of heat, and staff working there can struggle in summer. Spot cooling for workstations can help where the process and the hygiene team allow it, but the main answer to heat from ovens and fryers is usually ventilation designed for the process. We will look at what is practical and say so plainly.

Working with your refrigeration contractor

On most food sites, a refrigeration contractor already looks after the cold chain. We are happy to work alongside them, share plant positions and electrical loads, and avoid placing our outdoor units where they would affect the refrigeration condensers, for example by blowing warm air onto them.

Warehouses and distribution

Ambient warehouses and distribution centres have their own challenges: high roofs, big doors and lots of air movement. Cooling a whole warehouse with air conditioning is rarely practical, but offices, picking areas and welfare rooms can be cooled well. Our warehouse cooling guide explains the options.

F-Gas, TM44 and maintenance

As the operator, your business is responsible for F-Gas leak checks on each system at the interval set by its charge. The air conditioning and the refrigeration plant each have their own records. If the air conditioning on site totals more than 12 kW, it needs a TM44 inspection every five years. A maintenance contract covers the systems we install and look after. Work is priced after survey.