Temperature limits (thermometer)
Keep the box between the two temperatures written by the mark, in storage and in transport.
Who puts it on the box
The sender of goods that freeze, melt or spoil outside a range: food, plants, paints, adhesives, batteries, medicines.
How to read it
Read the two figures: the upper one is the warmest, the lower one the coldest the contents may get.
What it does not promise
It does not promise the parcel travelled in a temperature-controlled vehicle or stayed in range — without a data logger or indicator in the box nobody can tell. It does not promise the contents are safe to use if the range was broken either; ask the sender.
A mark on a parcel is the sender’s statement about what is inside and how it should be handled. It is not a certificate that the parcel is packed safely, that anyone handled it as marked, or that your carrier accepts it: for what you may send, read the carrier’s own terms.
- What it looks like
- A thermometer with a short line near the top and one near the bottom, with the highest and lowest allowed temperatures written beside them, for example +30 °C and −5 °C.
- Standard
- ISO 780:2015, symbol No. 14 — Temperature limits
- Kind of mark
- A handling symbol from ISO 780, the international standard for handling marks on distribution packages. ISO 780 marks are always black; they say how to handle the package, never that its contents are dangerous.
- Also called
- Temperature range; Store between; Thermometer symbol
Related
Other marks with the same shape
Sources
Each document was fetched and read on the date shown. Written in our own words; quotations are the documents’ wording.
- Symbol list — IBJ / bravecroc (graphical-symbol file vendor): ISO 780 EN Symbols (2015-12): the 17 ISO 780:2015 symbols with their numbers and titles — Lists ISO 780 symbol No. 14, “TEMPERATURE LIMITS”, with a reference drawing, in the 2015 numbering. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Standard (preview pages) — ISO (preview pages published by iTeh Standards): ISO 780:2015 Packaging — Distribution packaging — Graphical symbols for handling and storage of packages, 5th edition 2015-12-01 (preview: foreword to Table 1) — Foreword: the 17 symbols of the 2015 edition; clause 3.3: symbols are black, never red, orange or yellow (to avoid confusion with dangerous-goods labels); 3.4: normally 100, 150 or 200 mm tall; 3.5 and 3.6: how many and where are fixed for symbols No. 1, 2, 3, 8 and 13; the introduction: “The use of graphical symbols does not provide any guarantee of satisfactory handling”. Checked 2026-09-27.