On 1 march 2026, the gb/t 28009-2025 refrigeration safety protocol was fully implemented, replacing the old 2011 standard, which had been in place for more than 10 years. This is not a simple fine-tuning exercise, but rather a subversive reshuffle of cold-storage industry safety rules — from building, running, upgrading to design, construction, transportation, decommissioning, dismantling and clearing of the entire life cycle of closed-ring controls — that is, the strictest and most comprehensive cold-storey security policy in recent years, with all cold-storey operators requiring high-security and overhauling。
In the past, many small and medium-sized cold storage and assembly condensed cold storage have long been in a state of “irregular, unregulated and unregulated” grey, with widespread disruptions such as random build-up, mixing of materials, electrical privacy, widespread use of chillers, and unmanned operation. When the new version of the national logo landed, all types of freezers, whether large or small, commercial or home-grown, were included in uniform mandatory norms, and the brutal age of industrial growth was completely over。
I. Extension of application: small freezers, assembly freezers are no longer “no more”
The most visible change in the new version of the protocol was to break the limitations of the old version of the freezer, which was designed only for large-scale indigenous storage, and to achieve “full coverage”。
(a) on the one hand, all small freezers in the form of assembly that are visible in supermarkets, restaurants, pharmacies and community doors are brought under supervision, and the “small freezers are left unattended”
On the other hand, the rigid red line is clearly defined: it is strictly forbidden to build private freezers in densely populated areas such as homes, businesses, schools and office buildings, and strictly regulates safety spacing, fire-protection levels, independent evacuation routes and avoids the risk of mass casualties from the source。
Ii. Double-up refrigerant safety: enhanced ammonia systems and filling in co2 systems white
Refrigerant leakage is one of the most deadly safety hazards in cold storage, and the new version of the national flag directly strikes this painful point, and the traditional ammonia refrigeration and the new co2 refrigeration system, respectively, have targeted control requirements that “regulate the old problem and the new problem is marked”。
Amino-related cold storage: from “passive protection” to “reasonable control”
In the case of traditional amino-related cold storage, the new regulations provide for a “life-saving clause” that: the ammonia circuit must be equipped with an emergency cut-off valve to achieve dual local and long-range control and to rapidly isolate the risk in case of leakage; the ammonia vents must be strictly closed to the area of human activity, and must be directed to a safe high altitude to prevent direct contact with the ammonia gas; and the rigidity requires that the ammonia-related cold bank be manned on 24-hour duty duty stations and completely eliminate the unmanned long-range mode of fate。
2. Co2 refrigeration: filling gaps and regulating environmentally friendly refrigerant use
As the concept of environmental protection spreads, the application of the co2 cross-critical refrigeration system is becoming more widespread, but the old version of the standards is completely silent. For the first time, the new national logo filled this gap by identifying the full set of rigid requirements for co2 route resistance, safe depressure configuration, concentration leakage detection, compulsory ventilation in the air room, acoustic alerting, etc., so that the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants can be regulated and followed in a manner that avoids the risks of over-pressure and leak suffocation caused by irregular operations。
Electronic safety strengthening: dimension protection, elimination of “invisible fires”
Electrical safety has become the top priority of this revision in the low-temperature, high-humid environment of cold storage, which is highly prone to electrical short circuits and fires, and each requirement refers directly to a common industry hazard。
The new regulations explicitly require that: the lighting in the freezer should be unified in the form of a flood-proof and blast-proof device, with a level of protection not less than ip54, and that ordinary improvised lamps should be completely eliminated; that all electrical lines must be sealed by a metal tube when crossing the temperature-preserving wall, so as to prevent short-circuit fires from being caused by the infiltration of condensed water into the circuit; and that electric heating and frost installations must be equipped with triple protections for overloading, leaking power, ultra-temperature, and strictly prohibiting private extraction, the ageing of the circuits and the maintenance of electrical safety lines in detail。
Iv. New chapters: decommissioning, scrapping, dismantling, full compliance
This is a completely non-existent part of the old version of the standards and a central expression of the new version of the national logo “current-life management” — the security of the freezer — and it is not only during the course of operations that clear norms exist at every point of decommissioning, obsolescence and demolition。
The new regulations require that the freezer is idle, that the end-of-life power is not cut off, that the entire refrigerant must be recovered by professionals, that the cooling tablets and used equipment are disposed of according to environmental requirements, and that the cold-resilient direct discharge of the environment is eliminated; and that the removal of the freezer is strictly prohibited from searching for ordinary construction teams for brutal construction, that specialized programmes must be developed by specialized units with specialized qualifications, and that the process of “reception first, before dismantling equipment, after decomposition” must be strictly followed, and that safety incidents, such as cooler leaks, structural collapses, etc., should be protected。
V. Operational safety refinement: securing physical integrity line
The new version of the national logo focuses not only on the security of equipment and facilities, but also on the physical safety of personnel working in the freezer, and sets out a series of precise control requirements to prevent safety incidents caused by “fault operations”。
It specifies that: the duration of a single person's continuous operation in the freezer must be strictly limited to one hour and must be equipped with an internal emergency escape and voice-action alert device to prevent persons from being trapped; the ammonia, co2-type cold storage requires a quarterly comprehensive leak, asphyxiation, fire response exercise, and the retention of desk accounts and video recording, ensuring that every staff member is skilled in the emergency disposal process and that safety responsibilities are met。
The implementation of the gb/t 28009-2025 refrigeration safety protocol marked a new era of standardization, compliance and fine-tuning of security management in the cold storage industry. Whether it be the retrofitting of old cold storage stocks, the design construction of new cold storage units, or day-to-day operations management, and the dismantling of late-end waste, it is essential that the new regulations be strictly self-corrected。
