2.4 Receiving, storing and rotating food

Receiving a delivery

Receiving is the first step in the path food takes through a kitchen, and a HACCP plan treats it as one of its control points. Never assume a delivery is fit to use. The key to receiving is accuracy; a rushed or careless check is worth nothing.

• Keep the receiving area bright, tidy and on the daily cleaning list.
• Book deliveries for times when there is room to inspect them properly.
• Keep scales, thermometers, gloves and containers close at hand.
• Record the temperature of the truck's fridge and freezer. If it is out of range, refuse the delivery, since there is no way to know how long the food has been too warm.

Each type of food is checked in its own way.

• Dry goods: count the pieces against the invoice. Look closely inside damaged cartons, especially for leaks from jars and bottles, since credit for broken glass is hard to get later. Check any carton that looks opened or repacked. If you have doubts about quantity, quality or damage, do not sign until you or a supervisor has settled it with the shipper.
• Cans: count them and look for the two common faults. A swollen or bulging can means the food has spoiled. A deep dent may have split a seam and let germs in. Send both back. If a whole case is bad, tell the local health authority.
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• Dairy: check the best-before date on every container; the date should fall a week or more past the day of delivery. Count the items and check for leaks.
• Produce: count, weigh and open closed boxes to judge ripeness and freshness. If the order is wrong or poor, the supplier should collect it and give a credit.
• Meat, poultry and seafood: count and weigh. Look for leaking vacuum packs, and match the grade and cut to the invoice and order. Open cases of frozen goods to look for freezer burn, torn wrapping or signs of thawing.

In short, the amount received should agree with both the invoice and the purchase order, the quality should meet the agreed specification (including the brand, when one was asked for), and the invoice prices should match the order.

Why storage matters

Good storage lets a business buy in bulk at better prices, cuts the time and cost of ordering, and makes menu planning easier because the cooks know what is on hand. Storage also costs money for space and security, so many kitchens now keep smaller stocks and pay suppliers a little more to deliver often.

Dry storage

• Keep it cool and dry, ideally 10–15°C (50–59°F), so food does not spoil and cans do not swell.
• Seal openings in walls, floor and ceiling so rodents and other pests cannot get in, and make the room easy to clean.
• Light it well, and leave aisles wide enough for carts so staff do not hurt themselves lifting.
• Keep shelves at least 15 cm (6 in.) off the floor, and never store food on the floor.
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• Lock the storeroom. Stock is money, and costly items such as wine and liquor may need a locked area inside it.

The room is best placed near the receiving door and the kitchen.

Refrigerated storage

• Read every fridge's thermometer daily.
• Have a repair company service the fridges regularly. If one stops, first check that it is still plugged in and the breaker has not tripped.
• Clean fridges on a set schedule; shallow, well-vented shelves make this quick.
• Give each item a set place, use first-in, first-out, and keep doors open no longer than needed.
• Avoid putting hot food in the fridge unless you must. Because people judge "must" differently, a kitchen may need written guidelines.

Dairy keeps at 2–4°C (36–39°F). Its fat picks up strong smells, so cover it and keep it in its own area, ideally its own fridge rather than the vegetable cooler. Order it close to when it will be used, daily if possible, and rotate it when new stock arrives.

Produce mostly keeps at 2–4°C (36–39°F), with exceptions such as potatoes and bananas that need warmer storage.

• Bananas go black in the fridge and keep best at 10–15°C (50–59°F), which is also where unripe fruit will ripen.
• Buy soft fruit as needed.
• Take out rotting pieces, because one can spoil a whole case.
• Hardy vegetables such as cabbage and carrots last weeks; lettuce does not.
• Moisture softens vegetables and starts rot.

Meat, poultry and seafood are the hardest and most costly items to store.

• Hang whole carcasses unwrapped at 1–3°C in a walk-in, with absorbent paper below for drips.
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• Keep cut meats covered on plastic or stainless trays at 2–4°C (36–39°F).
• Use boned meat within three days and individual cuts within two, best on the day they are cut.
• Pack fresh poultry in ice in the fridge.
• Pack fresh seafood in ice between −1°C and 2°C and use it quickly.
• Keep all raw items on the lowest shelves.
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Frozen storage

Store frozen food at −18°C (0°F) or colder. If the freezer warms above that, food can lose color and vitamins, and chilling it again does not undo the damage.

• Well-wrapped frozen fruit, vegetables, fish and meat keep a long time.
• Poorly wrapped food gets freezer burn: it dries out, loses texture and flavor, and shows white or gray dry patches. Meat is especially prone.
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• Freezing fresh produce in-house takes time, may cost too much, and the fruit must be prepared correctly first.

Rotation: first in, first out

FIFO, short for first in, first out, means the oldest stock is used before the newest. In a dry store, shelves set in the middle of the room and loaded from both sides make this easy: new stock slides in from the back and pushes old stock forward. Rotation matters greatly with frozen food, but chest freezers make it hard, and cooks are tempted to grab the newest item from the top.

Storage is meant above all to stop food spoiling. Three agents spoil food: molds, yeasts and bacteria.

• Molds show as blue-green, hair-like growth, often on bread, fruit and cheese kept warm, dark and slightly damp.
• Yeasts are always in the air. Given food, air and warmth, they turn the sugar in fruit into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which makes fruit and vegetables ferment and rot. The same process makes wine and beer and makes bread rise. Yeast shows itself as slime.
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• Bacteria usually start the decay first but are the hardest to spot; often you notice them only when the food smells bad.
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Watch for changes in color, smell and taste:

• Fruit softens, darkens and rots.
• Vegetables wilt and then turn slimy.
• Butter, cheese and other dairy darken and smell sour.
• Eggs darken and smell foul.
• Meat changes slowly, then darkens and smells off.
• Slime and mold appear.