Module 5: Food delivery, storage and display

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NSW Food Authority | Food Handler Basics

When you work in the food industry, apart from cooking and serving food, you may also be responsible for the delivery, storage and display of the food.

Food can easily get contaminated when doing these things.

When you complete this topic you will be ale to explain:

• Safe transport of  hot and cold foods
• The rules for self-service of food
• Safe handling of ready-to-eat foods
• What to check for when receiving food
• The different types of storage options
• How to store food safely

Food Transport

• Use refrigerated transport to ensure that cold food is transported below 5 °C or colder and that frozen food is transported frozen solid.

• Use insulated boxes with cooler bricks or sheets to maintain food at safe temperatures if the food transport vehicle does not have a cooling system, but only where food is transported short distances.

• Use insulated boxes to maintain food at safe temperatures if the food transport vehicle does not have a heating system, but only food if the food is transported short distances.
• Ensure that hot food is transported at 60 °C or hotter.

Transport vehicles

To ensure safe transport and delivery of food you should make sure:

• That the food is transported separate from any chemicals, animals or other objects that might contaminate the food
• The delivery vehicle and transport boxes are cleaned thoroughly prior to each delivery
• Food is packed into the transport vehicle only when it is ready for delivery
• Once the food has been loaded into the transport vehicle, deliver it as soon as possible
• Keep ready-to-eat food items that are being transported separate from raw food that also needs to be transported
• Ensure that all food items are properly covered before being transported.

Receiving food deliveries

You need to be confident about the safety of food from the moment of delivery.

The standard of food being received must be checked before being accepted.

You have the right to reject the delivery if you find the food unsafe.

Check that:

• Refrigerated food is received below 5 °C
• Frozen foods are frozen hard
• The hot food delivered has been kept above 60 °C
• Eggs are not cracked or dirty
• The food packaging isn’t damaged
• The food is within its ‘best-before’ or ’use-by’ date
• The foods are properly labelled
• The food storage area of the transport vehicle is clean
• There are no chemicals or anything other than food in the truck.

Do not accept the delivery if the food is not safe and suitable.

Food Storage

When you receive a delivery of food you need to store it in the appropriate storage area to help prevent contamination.

You should always follow the food storage instructions on the labels.

You Should:

• Store cooked food above raw food
• Clean and defrost the refrigerator and freezer on a regular basis
• Check the refrigerator, freezer and cool room temperatures regularly
• Keep the opening and closing of the fridge or freezer to a minimum
• Regularly check food, in particular packaged food items, for signs of dampness, expired use-by dates, dented or rusty cans, holes in packaging or signs of pest infestation
• Cover, label and date the food on delivery
• Rotate the food stock by using the first in-first out rule
• Tell your supervisor or manager if you notice a pest problem in the storage area.

You should not:

• Overload or over-stock the refrigerator, as the cold air won’t be able to circulate properly
• Store food on the floor
• Store food with items like chemicals, cleaning equipment, clothing and personal belongings
• Store food in toilets or airlocks.

Self service

A selection of foods that are displayed for a customer to serve themselves is an efficient way of serving many people at once, but has the potential to increase the risk of food contamination.

The risks are often associated with customers hygiene. For example, touching, coughing or sneezing on the food, mixing of one type of food with another, foods being out of temperature control, foreign objects falling into the food, and unclean serving utensils and equipment. 

As a food handler it is important to ensure that the displayed food is not being contaminated by customers or staff.

Rules for self-service foods

• Supervise the display when customers are accessing food from the display.
• Quickly remove the food if someone has contaminated the food.
• Food must be kept under 5 °C or above 60 °C to avoid the temperature danger zone.
• Always use a clean and sanitised thermometer to check the temperature at the centre of the food.
• Never use a pie warmer or bain-marie to heat up cold food. They are only designed to keep hot food hot.
• Throw away ’single-use’ items after using them once, including gloves, straws, paper towels, cups and plates.
• Refresh food displays with completely fresh batches of food. Food poisoning bacteria can be transferred from an old batch of food to a new batch if the container has not been cleaned properly first.
• Never re-use any self-service food.
• Make sure that each food item or dish has its own serving utensil.
• Ensure that the handles of the serving utensils do not touch the food as bacteria can be transferred from the customers hand to the utensil to the food.
• Always remove utensils that have become contaminated from service and replace with a clean and sanitised utensil. This is especially important to prevent the transfer of allergens from one food to another.

Ready to eat foods

Ready-to-eat foods are foods that do not require any further preparation and are eaten in the same state that they are sold in.

For example, hot pies, sandwiches, pastries and noodle dishes.

As a general rule, the total time a ready-to-eat and potentially hazardous food can be kept in the temperature danger zone is four hours. 

© State of New South Wales through the NSW Food Authority www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au

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