Food Storage
Senior 3 · Home Science
Food Storage
Lesson 1 of 4
22 min
Let's begin
At 7 a.m. a supplier's pick-up truck stops outside a school kitchen with sacks of maize flour and beans, crates of eggs, a box of frozen fish and cans of milk. The cook in charge has about ten minutes before the driver leaves. If she signs for everything without looking, a split sack of flour full of weevils, a box of fish that thawed on the road and a swollen can become the school's problem, and perhaps its pupils' illness. If she checks against clear criteria, she returns the bad items at once, at the supplier's cost. Safe storage starts at the door, with receiving.
Definition
Receiving: checking food when it is delivered, then accepting or rejecting each item and recording it, before it is stored.
Use-by date: a safety date on foods that spoil quickly, such as fresh milk, yoghurt and raw meat. After it, the food must not be eaten, even if it looks and smells fine.
Best-before date: a quality date on longer-lasting foods such as flour, rice and canned food. After it the food may be stale or lose flavour, but it is not necessarily unsafe.
Delivery note: the supplier's list of what was delivered, which the receiver checks against the order before signing.
Check deliveries when there is time and space, never in the middle of serving a meal, and finish before the driver leaves. Use a clean, working probe thermometer: feeling the food is not a measurement.
| Food | Accept | Reject |
|---|---|---|
| Raw meat and poultry | 5 °C or colder; normal colour (red beef, pink poultry); firm; fresh smell | slimy surface; grey or green patches; sour or bad smell; warm |
| Fresh fish (e.g. tilapia, sambaza) | clear, bulging eyes; bright red gills; firm flesh that springs back; packed in ice | cloudy, sunken eyes; brown or grey gills; soft flesh; strong smell |
| Frozen food | hard-frozen at −18 °C or colder | soft; large ice crystals or a frozen block of liquid in the box (thawed and refrozen) |
| Milk and milk products | 5 °C or colder; within the use-by date; sealed | sour smell; lumps; swollen packets; past the date |
| Eggs | clean, uncracked shells; cool | cracked, dirty or leaking eggs |
| Fruit and vegetables | firm, the right colour, clean | mould, rot, deep bruises, wilting, insects |
| Dry goods (flour, rice, beans, sugar) | dry, sealed bags; within the best-before date | damp or torn bags; weevils, droppings or webbing; mould; lumps |
| Canned food | clean, undamaged, labelled cans | swollen (bulging) ends; leaks; rust; deep dents, especially on the seam |
On packaged food also read the label: the name of the product and its maker, the batch number, the dates and the storage instructions. Many processed foods in Rwanda also carry the S-Mark of the Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), which shows the product has been certified against a Rwandan standard.
StateFoodSafety: a short training film on receiving a food delivery. Watch for the checks the receiver makes before the driver leaves. The film gives American temperatures in °F: 41 °F is 5 °C.
Worked example
Worked example 1: reading the thermometer. A new thermometer from abroad shows degrees Fahrenheit. A chilled delivery of chicken reads 39 °F and a box of yoghurt reads 50 °F. Accept or reject each?
Worked example
Worked example 2: dates and damage. On 6 October a kitchen receives: (a) yoghurt marked "use by 5 October"; (b) a sack of rice "best before" next June, with a small tear and dry rice; (c) cans of tomatoes, one with a bulging lid; (d) maize flour with tiny moving insects. Decide for each item.
Warning
Common mistake. Leaving deliveries standing in the sun or on the floor while you finish other work. Chilled and frozen foods warm up within minutes, and sacks on the floor take up damp and attract rodents. Check, then store frozen food first, chilled food next and dry goods last. Lift heavy sacks with a straight back and bent knees, or with a helper.
Tip
Memory hook: "Clean, Cold, Closed, Current, Correct." A clean vehicle; cold enough; packaging closed and whole; dates current; the correct items and quantity.
Practice
Sources and credits
