Temperature excursions can affect the viability of vaccines, so choosing the right refrigerators and freezers that have been designed and purpose built for the application is extremely important. They must also be tested and approved for vaccine storage to help ensure vaccine viability and provide a high level of safety.
A new standard was developed by the NSF Joint Committee (comprised of CDC Members and manufacturing/pharmaceutical experts) on Vaccine Storage. This new NSF/ANSI 456 Vaccine Storage Standard was created to help define temperature performance attributes for vaccine storage units and to challenge refrigerators and freezers manufacturers with testing and performance protocols designed around real-world use applications common in demanding healthcare environments.
Testing includes confirming temperature performance during a series of short, frequent door openings to simulate regular use, as well as long, extended door openings to simulate events such as inventory counts or cleaning that may require the door to remain open for up to several minutes.
The standard acknowledges that how vaccines are loaded into refrigerators and freezers may affect performance, so units must pass performance criteria loaded and unloaded. In addition, all potential storage locations are considered to ensure there are no hot or cold spots that may allow vaccines to go out of CDC recommended temperature ranges. Temperature measurements are taken in 15 locations during the testing to confirm consistent performance.
With the new standard published, vaccine refrigerator and freezer manufacturers may now submit their equipment to third-party ANSI-accredited labs that can test and certify equipment to the NSF/ANSI 456 Vaccine Storage Standard. Accucold is proud to lead the industry with the largest line of cold storage product sizes certified to NSF/ANSI 456 Vaccine Storage* standard. The Performance-456 Series supports meeting regulations and guidelines from the CDC, State Agencies, World Health Organization, and other health ministries on vaccine storage and handling.
The Purpose-Built Performance Series delivers the performance and quality you need, in addition to the tight temperature control, low sound and exceptional features to meet the most demanding cold storage applications.
We carry an extensive selection of refrigeration products aimed at the pharmaceutical, laboratory, medical, and scientific industries. This includes everything from a basic locking compact refrigerator to a laboratory chest freezer designed to store sensitive frozen materials at temperatures as low as -85ºC.
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Pharmacy Refrigeration & Cold Storage
