The Cold Chain in the Hot Summer Months
Keeping foods at proper cold holding temperatures (between 28°F and 41°F maximum or 0°F for frozen food) from the food manufacturers to your customers has to be one of our strongest links to safe food. Sometimes that is referred to in the food industry as “maintaining the COLD CHAIN”. Any slip ups in the cold chain, and we have a weak link. If you accept the food, you have greatly increased your foodborne illness risk and compromised your food quality.
The Cold Chain vs. Hot Summer —One of our problems in the hot summer months is receiving our cold foods cold at the 41°F maximum or below or frozen foods solidly frozen at preferably 0°F (maximum of 10°F). We experience delivery and transportation delays, truck delivery doors open in 80°F + weather conditions, and last delivery when the refrigeration on the truck cannot recover from the open doors. Perishable foods (refrigerated or frozen) are easily affected by high temperature fluctuation.
The Worst Potential Nightmare—Receiving Hot-shot Deliveries —Sometimes we experience of what is called “hot shot” perishable deliveries when you are short of product. Either you pick up at the will-call distributor doors without a cooler unit in your vehicle or the distributor delivers your perishable food in un-refrigerated trucks just to get it to you faster. There has been suspect foodborne illness cases related just to that type of scenario, where a manager made a choice to accept 60°F+ perishable foods that they were short (a hot shot delivery) prior to a big event.
Our best advice here is to use a stem thermometer, take the temperature upon receiving the perishable products, and reject it if there’s any question. If you pick the food up, take a thermometer with you and make certain you have adequate coolers with ice packs. Remember the food safety words to live by – when in doubt, throw it out.
The Flow of the Food—In restaurants we refer to the stages that food travels through on its precarious route to our customers, as the flow of the food. Those cold stages requiring refrigeration or control of the cold food temperature typically are:
1. Receiving cold or frozen
2. Cold storage and thawing of potentially hazardous and perishable food
3. Maintaining the cold temperature during preparation
4. Cold holding after prep
5. Rapid cooling if a leftover cooked food or pre-cooked ingredient (within 4-6 hours maximum)
6. Cold service to the customer
The Stem Thermometer or Thermocouple is the critical tool for checking our food temperatures, particularly upon receiving foods from our suppliers. The thermometer must be used throughout the workday and as for your temperature readings, the colder, the better! The colder your refrigeration equipment can keep chilled foods without freezing them, the longer the shelf life of the food. Storing cold food at an internal temperature of 35°F instead of 41°F might double the shelf life of some foods.
Cold Capacity–Refrigerators, refrigerated prep cases, deli cases, and walkin coolers all differ in their capacity to keep foods cool and recover after being open. In all instances, the air inside the refrigerated compartment must be a few degrees colder than 41°F to assure that cold food internal temperatures are held at 41°F or below. For example, if you want your food to cold hold at 35°F, you refrigeration unit has to run an air temperature of 31°F to 32 °F. Older refrigeration equipment may not be designed to hold at that low of a temperature. Areas near the door are always warmer than anywhere else in the cooler.
Take Cold Storage Temperatures & Save $ — Dairy, fresh seafood, poultry, meat and deli type meat suppliers recommend 28-35°F internal temperature for optimum freshness and shelf life. The Produce Marketing Association recommends 32-36°F for most vegetables (other than whole tomatoes that are ripening). Use that thermometer several times a day and record temperatures. Teach your crew what it really means keep the strength in the “COLD CHAIN”.
***
About the Author: Lacie Thrall
Lacie Thrall passed away in early 2017 after a long illness. She dedicated her 35-year career to improving the health and well-being of others by promoting food safety best practices. Lacie worked in environmental health for 17 years before joining FoodHandler in 1997 as the Director of Safety Management. While at FoodHandler, she trained employees and customers on safe food handling practices, including proper hand hygiene and glove use. Later as a FoodHandler consultant, Lacie provided the foodservice industry with food safety information and advice through her blog on FoodHandler.com.
This information is provided as a general guideline and is not intended to be, nor does it, constitute legal or regulatory advice. Additional Federal regulations may apply to your particular circumstances. State, regional and local laws, ordinances and regulations may also apply.
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
