Posted on 8th September 2017
As anyone who has worked in food storage can tell you, the safe storage of food in warehouses can be a?difficult business.
There?s good reason for this, as any improperly stored food can pose a massive health and safety hazard to both customers and workers, to say nothing of the massive loss in revenue it can bring when you have to throw out all that spoiled food.
While every warehouse is different, there?s still some commonly-seen issues that can arise in the world of food storage that every warehouse can work to avoid. If you?re in food storage and you need some help preventing at least the more easy issues, here?s some tips to keep in mind:
The first, biggest, and yet most easily missed step in food storage is ensuring everything is set to the correct temperature. This can be caused by a few things ? freezers not working properly, improperly sealed doors letting too much warm/cold air into a temperature controlled area, or vents being blocked from distributing air properly. Make sure to do a check of all seals and vents in a given area, take some time to make sure your industrial storage isn?t hampering air circulation, and remember to check what temperature each product needs to be stored at to keep everything safe and correctly maintained.
Much like in a kitchen, there?s certain food products that need to be kept far away from others to prevent health and contamination issues. Check the guidelines provided with every item you store to make sure you know how and where it can be stored, what foods it can be kept next to and what foods it cannot to avoid germs or oudors spreading around, and try to keep everything on NSF shelving to ensure possible contaminants are kept in their place and all products are as fresh as possible.
First-in-first-out (or FIFO) is a commonly-employed tactic in many warehouses to ensure proper product rotation, but in food storage and/or service it?s practically a necessity. Keep a careful eye on expiration dates, ship dates, and sell-by dates to make sure the food that needs to be on shelves is ready to go and avoiding spoilage by lingering in the warehouse too long.
Particularly in locations with a frequently high temperature or humidity, water build-up is a common sight in air-conditioned facilities and can easily contribute to product spoilage and issues. Check for leaks and cracks in the walls to prevent water coming in from the outside, and make sure all temperature controls are set properly to avoid humidity or dew building up in your storage areas.
Food storage requires the highest standards of sanitation procedure to prevent spoilage and avoid product waste, but we get it ? things happen. Schedules get overloaded, employees get overtaxed and have to cut corners to meet deadlines, and these things can start to impact the sanitation of your products. Make sure your schedules are kept to and that every possible step is being taken to clean your storage facilities and prevent external contamination of food products. It would be a shame to see your products get spoiled due to inconsistent sanitation just due to accidents even after taking the rest of these steps, right?
We have recently done a job for a food wholesalers making sure we adhered to the proper guidelines.
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To organise your food storage make sure you contact the experts! Call us on 0800 345 7088 or alternatively you can send an email to?sales@advanced-handling.co.uk
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