Dry Food Storage – How Vital is it to Food Safety?
Common in many food safety training classes is a rich discussion about many topics – produce storage temperatures, the temperature at which eggs should be delivered, how to wash hands, how to properly calibrate a thermometer. One thing we often don’t talk about is the importance of proper dry storage. I remember going through our food safety inspection at the restaurants and the inspector would look at it – but it was really a superficial glance at the area.
If you look at many foodservice businesses, the dry storage area makes up a large portion of their overall inventory. Proper dry food storage is not just about keeping ingredients on the shelves; it’s about keeping them safe and maintaining a proper quality, so we don’t have waste. Here are some tips to help protect those dry goods in your inventory:
…safeguarding dry-stored items may not be as vital as our perishable items in the overall scheme of your food safety plan. But it is still important to a strong and active food safety (and food quality) program.
Keep it Dry
The first, and likely most important, rule of the dry storage area is to keep it dry. Moisture is the nemesis of many dry goods, causing clumping, mold growth, and an overall deterioration in quality. To combat this, having a climate-controlled storage area with proper ventilation is paramount.
Keep out Pests
How many remember the 6” rule? It is the one portion of protecting dry goods that is included in the food code. Pests are unwelcome guests in any kitchen and pose a significant threat to the integrity of dry goods. Being proactive with your pest prevention plan is crucial. Make sure your staff seal all dry goods to create a barrier against insects and rodents. Inspect storage areas regularly and be sure the area is being thoroughly cleaned by your staff. At our business, we ran into issues with no one wanting to “claim” the dry storage area, so we assigned it to our dish room staff. Be sure to inspect it regularly to make sure cleaning is taking place as expected.
Maintain Temperature Consistency
While dry goods are not as temperature sensitive as other raw ingredients we might deal with on a daily basis, maintaining a consistent temperature of the dry storage area will help to preserve the quality. While there is no official temperature, most will indicate that a good goal is to keep your dry storage area between 50ºF and 70ºF.
As always, be sure to label any open food. And never, never, never store chemicals in the same area as your food supplies. Several years ago, before there were any regulations that prohibited this practice, there was an incident at a mental hospital in Oregon where a patient who was helping in the kitchen mistakenly brought back roach poison, instead of the powdered milk he was asked to retrieve. This poison was then accidentally mixed into the scrambled eggs. Within minutes of consuming the tainted eggs, patients started to die. In the end, 47 patients died. While this is an extreme example andm any operators will say this would not happen in their business, we often find chemicals (even single bottles) mistakenly left in or around food supplies.
In the end, safeguarding your dry-stored items may not be as vital as our perishable items in the overall scheme of your food safety plan. But it is still important to a strong and active food safety (and food quality) program.
Don’t forget to check out our most recent SafeBites Webinar, “Cold and Flu: Prepare for the Season…it’s Coming!” If you have any topics you’d like us to address in 2024, please reach out and let me know. In the meantime, all of us here at FoodHandler wish you the very merriest of holiday seasons. Risk Nothing.
Getting Started with Building the Infrastructure
Hopefully in our first January blog, we convinced you of the importance of establishing an infrastructure within your operation to support a safe food culture. So, how does one go about doing this? Well, like any major project, break it into small bites. In our opinion, having a written guide for employees that documents expectations related to food safety basics of employee health and hygiene, temperature controls, and cleaning and sanitizing is the first step. Having this documentation serves as a reference for training and helps fulfill the mission of most foodservice operators which is to serve safe, quality food.
Food Safety Resolutions for the New Year
Finally, 2020 is in our rearview mirror and we can all turn the page to 2021! Resolutions for the new year might be more of the same from prior years (lose weight, exercise more, less screen time, etc.) OR you may have identified new practices to implement in your operation. If the latter, likely goals included some practices related to food safety – especially given the turmoil of 2020 and heightened concern by customers. It is our philosophy that attention to safe food handling practices is a win-win for any operation because of the direct relationship between food safety and food quality, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. This past year has also demonstrated that attention to safety can affect the bottom line. Thus, the topic of our first SafeBites webinar for 2021 is on the topic of the return on investment of food safety, it is scheduled for January 20, so register now and please plan to attend.
To Toss or Not to Toss? That is the question.
Our first blog for the month emphasized the basic safe food practices needed to keep you and your guests healthy (and happy!), especially during these times of COVID. The impact of foodborne illness can range from an uncomfortable few days to hospitalization or death. Foodborne illness IS preventable and the steps taken to keep food safe also maintain quality of food, and ultimately profitability. Think of attention to food safety as part of quality control and a win-win business strategy. Knowledge about food safety can be helpful when controlling costs as making wise decisions when determining the fate of unserved food can affect the bottom line.
Holiday Food Safety Controls
In case you have not noticed - the holidays are here! We have seen store decorations up since mid-September and early bird deals advertised for several weeks, stretching the typical Black Friday deals throughout the month as retailers strive to ensure market share, while following increasingly stringent mandates for physical distancing
