Consumer handling 253 Most participants in the survey carried out their main shopping between 1 and 5 miles from their homes and few householders travelled more than 5 miles to shop. Most people(85.3%)used a car to transport their main hopping home. Small quantities of food were generally bought close to the home, reflecting the availability of shops in the towns surveyed. Most house holders(87.6%)who bought small quantities of food transported it home either on foot or by car. Unprotected chilled food will warm up during transportation. Survey results showed that consumers took on average 43 min to bring meat, fish or dairy items home from the shops and place them in a refrigerator. The greatest number of items were transported home and placed in a refriger ator within 13 min. Although most people bought food home well within 60min there were a number of items which took far longer to be bought home(up to 2 days )and placed in a refrigerator. Although insulated bags and boxes are widely sold, only a small per centage of consumers(12.7%)used them to transport some of their food home. The vast majority(87.3%)of people did not use any means of pro- tecting food from temperature gain during transportation Increases in product temperatures during transportation can be consid erable. In investigations, the temperatures of 19 different types of chilled product (including a variety of meat products) were monitored during a simulated journey from the supermarket to home (James and Evans, 1992a). One sample of each product was placed in a precooled insulated box containing eutectic ice packs and the second left loose in the boot of he car. The car was then driven home and the product removed and placed a domestic refrigerator after a total journey time of 1h. Additional investigations looked at 9 types of frozen product, including frozen chicken, meat pie, lasagne and pizza(Evans, 1994). Products were purchased and transported to the research Centre where the products were tempered and temperature sensors inserted into the geometric centre of each food and where possible a second sensor inserted just below the surface of the sample. The products were then refrozen to a temperature of ca.-25C and then transferred to a car where the above procedure was repeated. After a journey time of l h the products were placed in the freezer ection of a domestic refrigerator. The ambient temperature during both urneys ranged from 23 to 270 Initial product temperatures of the chilled meats measured when the food reached the car ranged from 4C to over 20'C(Table 12.1). Some of the meat product temperatures in samples placed in the boot rose to around 30C during the 1 h car journey whilst most of the samples placed in the insulated box cooled during the car journey except for a few at the top of the box which remained at their initial temperature. Product temperatures in the frozen foods were close to -25C when placed in the car. Temperatures of products placed in both the cold box and at ambient temperature rose during the l h journey. Temperatures ofMost participants in the survey carried out their main shopping between 1 and 5 miles from their homes and few householders travelled more than 5 miles to shop. Most people (85.3%) used a car to transport their main shopping home. Small quantities of food were generally bought close to the home, reflecting the availability of shops in the towns surveyed. Most house￾holders (87.6%) who bought small quantities of food transported it home either on foot or by car. Unprotected chilled food will warm up during transportation. Survey results showed that consumers took on average 43 min to bring meat, fish or dairy items home from the shops and place them in a refrigerator. The greatest number of items were transported home and placed in a refriger￾ator within 13 min. Although most people bought food home well within 60 min there were a number of items which took far longer to be bought home (up to 2 days) and placed in a refrigerator. Although insulated bags and boxes are widely sold, only a small per￾centage of consumers (12.7%) used them to transport some of their food home. The vast majority (87.3%) of people did not use any means of pro￾tecting food from temperature gain during transportation. Increases in product temperatures during transportation can be consid￾erable. In investigations, the temperatures of 19 different types of chilled product (including a variety of meat products) were monitored during a simulated journey from the supermarket to home (James and Evans, 1992a). One sample of each product was placed in a precooled insulated box containing eutectic ice packs and the second left loose in the boot of the car. The car was then driven home and the product removed and placed in a domestic refrigerator after a total journey time of 1 h. Additional investigations looked at 9 types of frozen product, including frozen chicken, meat pie, lasagne and pizza (Evans, 1994). Products were purchased and transported to the Research Centre where the products were tempered and temperature sensors inserted into the geometric centre of each food and where possible a second sensor inserted just below the surface of the sample. The products were then refrozen to a temperature of ca. -25 °C and then transferred to a car where the above procedure was repeated.After a journey time of 1 h the products were placed in the freezer section of a domestic refrigerator. The ambient temperature during both journeys ranged from 23 to 27 °C. Initial product temperatures of the chilled meats measured when the food reached the car ranged from 4 °C to over 20 °C (Table 12.1). Some of the meat product temperatures in samples placed in the boot rose to around 30 °C during the 1 h car journey whilst most of the samples placed in the insulated box cooled during the car journey except for a few at the top of the box which remained at their initial temperature. Product temperatures in the frozen foods were close to -25 °C when placed in the car. Temperatures of products placed in both the cold box and at ambient temperature rose during the 1 h journey. Temperatures of Consumer handling 253