Food Safety Records for Transport & Storage Operators
Move or store food without making it, and you sit at the lightest tier of NZ's food safety rules — National Programme 1. No written Food Control Plan, one scheduled verification — but real duties on the road: temperature control, separation, and records a verifier will ask to see. KitchenSorted keeps them on the phone already in the cab, free.
'Kitchen' is in our name, but you don't need one — trucks, vans and cool stores are exactly the non-kitchen operators KitchenSorted covers.
Is food transport or storage National Programme 1?
Yes — “Store or transport food only” is on the cover list of MPI's National Programme 1 guidance (December 2025, version 2). The word doing the work is only: the moment you also prepare, process or repack food, a different measure may apply. That's not our call to make — confirm your operation with MPI's My Food Rules tool before you register.
On NP1 you register, meet the standards, keep records and have an initial verification — after that a verifier must not carry out further verifications unless something goes wrong and regulation 102 (unscheduled verification) applies (regulations 91–94, Food Regulations 2015).
The temperature rules on the road
MPI's NP1 guidance sets the transport rules plainly on its Transporting food card: keep frozen food frozen, transport chilled food at or below 5°C and monitor this regularly (using a thermometer or equivalent), and transport hot food above 60°C. There's one practical carve-out, in the guidance's own words: “if your food is going to be consumed within 4 hours of loading you do not need to transport under temperature control” (NP1 guidance, December 2025 v2).
At verification, transport and distribution operators get a sector-specific mandatory topic on top of the universal ones: “Check your temperatures”. The guidance also lists what to show your verifier — how you check temperatures and humidity, how you keep foods separate in the load, and the vehicles you use.
What records does a transport or storage business keep?
The NP1 guidance is explicit that transporters must keep records — its required-records list includes transported food temperature checks alongside competency and training, sourcing and tracing, allergens, mock recalls, and water tests if you're on a self-supply. Every record must state when the activity happened, its result and who did it, and be kept for at least 4 years (regulations 81–82, Food Regulations 2015).
Load temperatures
Chilled at or below 5°C, logged in a few taps at loading and along the run — with out-of-range flags and the corrective action attached.
Tracing & mock recalls
What moved, when, for whom — and the yearly simulated recall run recorded as one dated, attributed entry. Free template here.
Training & verification pack
Driver and staff training signed off, and every record assembled into one dated PDF for that single verification visit. How the pack works.
Paper is legal — the friction is a clipboard living in a moving vehicle. Daily records are free, and stay free; 4 years of history, verification packs and reminders live in the paid plan, and your free-plan records are never deleted — they unlock when you upgrade.
Sources & review
- MPI: National Programme 1 guidance, December 2025 v2 (PDF)
- MPI: National Programmes overview
- MPI: My Food Rules
- Food Regulations 2015 (regs 81–82, 91–94, 102)
Reviewed on 4 August 2026 by the KitchenSorted team. Regulatory pages are re-reviewed quarterly, and immediately when MPI announces template or policy changes. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
This page is general information, not legal or food-safety advice. Always confirm requirements with MPI, your registration authority, or your verifier.
Records That Ride in the Cab
Load temperatures, tracing, training and mock recalls in one place — start free.