It is a must that you maintain proper temperature levels in health facilities and the food industry. The temperature log sheet saves your entire property and also helps you to avoid legal issues. You must know that you are likely to face serious conditions if you administer an expired vaccine because of inappropriate storage conditions.
Similarly, the refrigerator temperature logs are responsible for multiple situations, such as sharing charts, especially for inspections with your auditors and supervisors. It also determines if your current temperature is beyond the ideal. Besides, it gathers older readings of temperature for comparison purposes. The refrigerator temperature recorded times and dates when you collected the data of your temperature.
What Is a Temperature Log Sheet?
This is temperature documentation for locations and temperature-sensitive items, like equipment, food, the medical storage areas, and the data center. It ensures that all the mentioned items and locations are kept under safe temperature ranges. It also helps you to avoid legal disputes, steep losses, penalties as well as fines.
Why Are Temperature Log Sheets Important?
The temperature log sheets are essential because they help companies to exhibit a maximum level of control. This applies in disputes since they act as discoverable legal evidence when everything proceeds to the court of law. Bear in mind that the corrective actions, the exact recording time, and the recorded temperature readings prove that they took reasonable measures to prevent the issue and the offense.
On the other hand, the temperature log sheets are vital quality assurance tools, which assist managers in generating cold clear temperature-controlled facilities and the historical data required to understand how you can enhance the temperature management procedure. Additionally, it also protects the quality of your assets.
Temperature Log Sheet Templates
How are the temperature logs measured?
There are two ways of measuring temperature logging, primarily:
- Automated method
- Manual method
Automated temperature logs
It involves using devices and a digital checklist, which generates real-time temperature readings from multiple remote locations. This method enables you to visualize the setting of trigger alarms, reports automatic generation, and the entire documentation based on the set temperature parameters. Furthermore, the auto-generated reports and data are usually stored under a centralized cloud-based monitoring system.
Manual temperature logs
This method utilizes printed temperature log sheets, which are usually used to gather and note readings from a specific area at an inspection time as scheduled. Remember, an assigned individual must stop what he does to ensure accuracy in the monitoring of temperature. After that, these temperature record sheets are consolidated. Then, the data is manually indicated to the central system.
How are temperature logs used in different industries?
Multiple industries depend on continuous temperature monitoring to maintain the product’s integrity or optimal facilities and equipment. This applies to IT, medical, or food processing. Furthermore, temperature logs usually generate clear temperature evidence as well as time. Bear in mind that inadequate monitoring of temperature can cause numerous consequences for the industries below:
Employee temperature log sheet
Temperature log sheets usually help employees to maintain track of their body temperature. Moreover, it assists in keeping a conducive work environment, especially when it comes to evolving safety and health risks. This log sheet is almost everywhere because of evolving and new health risks in many workplaces. It guarantees the safety of your employees.
Information technology
Server rooms that feature unmaintained room temperature can cause halting business operations, and it can also cause your server to crash. The automated room temperature logs prevent the IT facility managers and receive automatic alerts. However, this happens when the threshold undergoes breaching in the server room and the data center.
Logistic and transport
Perishable goods that are unsold are likely to be disposed of if you do not store them under a perfect storage temperature, especially during transits. There, pharmaceutical and food industries depend on temperature-controlled logistics. They can also opt for a cold chain to maintain the integrity of the entire product.
Infection control and prevention
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recording the staff or visitor temperature log has become the norm of the day. This is crucial in workplaces and commercial establishments. Besides, it is the only key that can assist you in initiating a stronger foundation, excellent for contact tracing.
Healthcare
Nothing is interesting in healthcare like maintaining the correct temperature level. Similarly, it is also vital to demonstrate compliance to those standards set by the HACCP, FDA, CDC, and the Pharmacy State boards. When medical storage areas incorporating vaccines or medications with incorrect temperatures can lead to drug degradation, and when this happens, it can cause drug effects to you as the user. You must know that pharmaceutical products that are not under a safe temperature range, more so during shipment, are usually life-threatening.
Food
The food that has been prepared beyond the thresholds temperature and is improperly stored is usually a food safety risk. In addition, such conditions can enhance pathogen growth hence maximizing the spoilage risk. Thus the availability of the temperature logs assists in preventing recalls or rejections. This helps the company from incurring potential business closure as well as steep losses.
Temperature logs models
If you set an acceptable temperature, you will be able to monitor the temperature of your items confidently and indicate the date on your chart. Below are types of temperature logs:
Freezer and refrigerator log
Ensure that you maintain this log for the entire freezers and refrigerator at your facility. Besides, it would help if you took corrective actions for repair or additional maintenance.
Food temperature log
Food workers and restaurant managers can utilize this specific chart to record and control the temperature of many food items at their events and establishment.
Vaccine temperature log
It would be best if you drafted this log to make sure that you record the temperature in the freezer and refrigerator compartments of your vaccine storage unit each day. Moreover, you can document improper events, like exposure to the temperature, outside the room temperature, and recommended ranges when you discover a problem.
Employee temperature log- COVID template
This is for the employees to keep their temperature records; this is part of the CDC- recommended guidelines for public establishment amid COVID-19 and reopening of workstations. This can help you to detect whether someone in the office is COVID-19 positive.
FAQs
What is a temperature logbook?
It is the temperature documentation for sensitive temperature items and locations, like the medical storage, data center, equipment, and food. It ensures that all these are maintained under a safe temperature range. When you fail to maintain the correct temperature levels, you can result in legal issues.
How do you maintain temperature logs?
To maintain temperature logs, you need to be at work and not in your comfort zone. Ensure that the cooling process commences at 135 degrees, and at the second hour, it should be at 70 degrees or even below. If that is not the case, you must record a corrective action of weighing whether the product was adequately discarded or even reheated.
Ensure that the cooling method is recorded on your log, especially accelerated like a blast chiller or ice bath. Suppose the number is continuous all the time. There is a possibility that the dries dry-docked. You also need to ensure that you train your employees on the temperature log documentation because everyone needs to be responsible for the temperature.
The management should also be trained appropriately on the temperature log documentation. However, if they fail to train, then they would have set an inappropriate example. On the other hand, refrigeration logs reveal the potential thermal abuse and make you aware of an issue with an extended defrost cycle, which might require immediate attention.
Suppose you experience a hot holding temperature problem; examine settings on your unit. And if you do not have a refrigerator log that records your items’ temperature during an emergency, like power outages, you are rolling the dice. Ask food handlers basic queries, like what temperature hits the danger zone.
How long should you keep temperature logs?
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) stipulates that all records should be on-premises for approximately six months. When it comes to maintenance, they can be maintained as hard copies. Furthermore, even after the sixth month, these records need to be accessible 24 hours until two years. Likewise, the ability to maintain records digitally opens up the storage word possibilities
What is the danger zone of food temperature?
The danger zone of food temperature ranges from 40 to 140 degrees. The number can even double within 20 minutes. This temperature range is termed the danger zone. Therefore, never keep your food out of the refrigerator for over two hours.
Conclusion
With the post above making you more knowledgeable about the temperature log sheet, you are now familiar with how it works. Thus, ensure that you follow the above guideline whenever you will be using the temperature log sheet. If you fail to maintain correct temperature levels, you must understand that you will likely cause steep losses, penalties, fines, and legal disputes.
