Cyberattacks on connected cooling equipment: Food law and cybersecurity implications for the EU food industry

Where temperatures in cooling equipment for food at food business operators significantly exceed the temperatures legally required for storing food products, each food business operator along the food supply chain will regularly have to discard affected food products.

For this purpose, all food business operators along food supply chains have a joint responsibility for ensuring food safety at their stage of the supply chain.

Therefore, under European Food Hygiene provisions, one of the key obligations for food business operators handling or storing such food products is to maintain the cold chain.

Operators of connected cooling equipment must protect the systems they use and prepare for disruptions affecting cooling operations.

A supermarket or wholesaler does not assume CRA manufacturer obligations merely by operating connected cooling equipment.