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.
A Little Poultry Safety Information
Chicken is the number one species of protein consumed by Americans – we eat about 80 pounds of it per year. Outbreaks of foodborne illness have long been associated with poultry and eggs usually by undercooking it or cross-contamination of other foods by raw poultry. Recent concerns about avian or bird flu put the direct focus on our fowl food with concerns about whether this awful disease can transfer from birds to humans.
The Basic Principles of Food Safety
Every food establishment uses, processes, and sells food in different ways. However, the general issues and key principles of food safety remain the same, whatever the style of the operation. All food safety training programs should contain the “big 3” factors that could cause food to become unsafe. Food must be kept out of harms way from human errors, but if you don’t train food workers what they are, they won’t know why these factors are so important to your operation. The basics can make us or break us in one or maybe two food handling mistakes.
Be Aware When You Prepare – Food Prep Tips
The subject of food preparation covers some very broad, basic principles within food safety, with many steps associated with “risk” in some recipes. Certainly, preparation steps are where the most mistakes have occurred if a foodborne illness should occur. Outbreaks usually happen when more than one mistake occurs during prep, but sometimes it only takes one. Cooking is the biggest risk for raw foods, but all foods become ready-to-eat foods at some point in final preparation steps and that’s where the most care is required.
Food Gloves & Latex Allergy Education
Politicians joke about the endless stretch of rubber chicken dinners they may consume in an election year. For people with a latex allergy, such a prospect may be no laughing matter. While latex serves as an effective barrier glove material and has the best fit because of its elasticity, the risks associated should not be ignored. The solution is not simple and many options are available for operators today. It should always be mentioned that handwashing (before putting on gloves) is always the primary barrier to contamination and gloves are considered a good secondary barrier.
