Receiving and Storage

Background: Receiving Practices in your Food Handler Certificate course covers the theory. This lesson shows you how to apply it to your own Food Safety Plan.

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write the receiving and storage part of your Food Safety Plan. You will be able to:

• Approve suppliers and set receiving standards.
• Check and record deliveries.
• Store food safely and rotate stock.

Receiving

• Buy only from approved, licensed suppliers and keep a list of them.
• Schedule deliveries outside of service so someone trained can check them.
• Check temperatures on arrival: refrigerated food 4 °C (40 °F) or colder, frozen food frozen solid with no signs of thawing.
• Check packaging, dates, labels and shellfish tags (keep shellfish tags for 90 days).
• Reject anything that fails, and record it on the receiving log.
• Put refrigerated and frozen food away first, within minutes.

Storage

• Fridge order, top to bottom: ready-to-eat food, then whole fish, whole cuts of meat, ground meat, and poultry on the bottom shelf.
• Cover, label and date everything you open or prepare.
• FIFO (first in, first out): new stock goes behind old stock.
• Keep dry goods 15 cm (6 in) off the floor, in sealed containers, away from chemicals.
• Record fridge and freezer temperatures at least twice a day.

Keep cold food at 4 °C (40 °F) or colder and hot food at 60 °C (140 °F) or hotter. Always check the exact limits your local health authority uses.