Transporting frozen food is crucial for food logistics, as it enables high quality and safety standards to be maintained from departure to final delivery. Whether transport is national or international, correctly handling frozen products means ensuring the cold chain is maintained, strictly complying with regulations, and offering customers perfectly preserved products. In this article, we take a closer look at the specifics of transporting frozen food, the applicable regulations, and the advantages of choosing a specialised partner like Mesaroli.
According to Art. 2 of Legislative Decree 110/92, frozen food is defined as a food product that has been subjected to deep freezing, maintaining a temperature at or below -18°C throughout. This process preserves the food in its entirety, maintaining its nutritional properties and taste thanks to the formation of small ice crystals that do not damage the cell structure.
Compared to fresh produce, which must be delivered quickly and is prone to spoilage, frozen produce offers significant strategic advantages to the trucking industry, including greater stability, the ability to plan longer routes and reduced risk of delays or adverse weather conditions. However, these benefits only apply if the cold chain is strictly adhered to throughout the entire journey, from loading to delivery.
In order to comply with the highlighted quality requirements, the transport of frozen food must follow well-defined rules, starting with the Italian regulations.
Decree No. 493/95 establishes the characteristics that transport vehicles must have in order to guarantee that the temperature of frozen foodstuffs is maintained during transport. All vehicles must have an insulating protection, i.e. a covering of materials suitable for thermally insulating the frozen products from the outside. For local transport with vehicles with a load capacity of less than 7 tonnes, the vehicle must be equipped with equipment to equalise and maintain the prescribed temperatures and an easily visible thermometer to measure the temperature. For supra-local transport, cold generators, automatic temperature measurement equipment at regular intervals and air circulation devices to equalise the internal temperature are required.
Beyond national regulations, international transport requires compliance with additional standards, as set out by the ATP agreement, which is a benchmark across Europe and beyond.
National regulations are inspired by the international ATP standard (Accord Transport Perissable), an international agreement on the transport of perishable goods signed by around 50 countries, including Italy. This agreement classifies transport vehicles according to their thermal insulation and refrigeration capabilities.
For the international transport of frozen goods, vehicles must be approved according to the following classes:
The ATP class is indicated on the certificate of conformity and on external plates on the vehicle. The certification is valid for six years and can be renewed every three years following a technical inspection.
The technical compliance of vehicles is only part of the guarantee: truly safe transport also requires rigorous and systematic operational management, as prescribed by the HACCP system.
To ensure the integrity and quality of frozen products, advanced vehicles and equipment are not enough: it is equally important to follow precise operational procedures to effectively preserve the cold chain.
Across the European Union, the HACCP system is enforced under Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004, which strictly defines food hygiene and safety practices, requiring food business operators to identify and constantly control critical points throughout the supply chain.
Operators in the sector must adopt specific, detailed hygiene and safety measures at every stage—from production and processing through to transport and final delivery. Specifically for frozen products, HACCP provisions require:
These measures ensure rigorous cold chain management, preventing interruptions that could compromise the preservation and safety of frozen foods.
The regulations and best practices described above require technical expertise, investment and precise organisation. At Mesaroli, we represent a reliable point of reference in the European controlled-temperature transport sector.
Mesaroli’s controlled-temperature transport service is specifically designed to ensure that frozen food products reach their destination in perfect condition, fully preserving the integrity of the cold chain.
To maintain this high quality standard, the company uses state-of-the-art refrigerated lorries equipped with technology that maintains a constant and rigorously controlled temperature throughout the journey. This ensures that the quality of frozen products remains unaltered, avoiding any risk of spoilage.
Thanks to a customised logistics model based on Full Truck Load (FTL) transport, the company guarantees fast, efficient, and punctual deliveries, flexibly adapting to each customer’s specific requirements.
Would you like more details about frozen food transport or need a personalised quote? Get in touch with us today. The Mesaroli team is always available to respond to your needs.