Safe storage keeps food out of the danger zone, prevents contamination, and reduces waste.

In this module, you will learn how to choose suppliers and check deliveries, keep the cold chain unbroken, read labels and date marks, rotate stock, and store dry, chilled and frozen food correctly.

Safe food starts with safe suppliers. Your employer should only buy from reputable suppliers who can show that they follow high food safety standards. Good suppliers:

• Provide clear specifications for their products.
• Deliver chilled and frozen food at the correct temperatures.
• Use clean, well-maintained delivery vehicles.
• Can trace their products, and tell you quickly about any recall.

Selecting a food supplier is often the very first step in the food chain, and it is important for your employer or manager to choose carefully. A supplier must be reputable and able to show that it keeps to high food safety standards. In practice, good suppliers build controls into their own processes. They may reduce hazards before the food ever reaches you, for example by using less hazardous ingredients such as pasteurised eggs or pre-washed vegetables.

They provide detailed specifications describing the quality of their ingredients, so you know exactly what you are buying. They make sure food is delivered at the proper temperature, and they keep their delivery vehicles clean and in good condition. Refrigerated vehicles should carry only chilled or frozen goods, never warm food, and should be cooled before loading. If a supplier cannot meet these standards, the risks they bring into your shop become your responsibility.

Food must be transported safely, in line with food hygiene law. This means:

• High-risk food is delivered in refrigerated or insulated vehicles, even on short trips.
• Refrigerated vehicles are cooled before loading, and fitted with thermometers.
• Doors are kept open for as short a time as possible.
• Different types of food, such as raw and ready-to-eat, are kept apart.
• Vehicles are cleaned regularly, and not used to carry chemicals with food.

When a delivery arrives, check it before you accept it:

• Chilled food should be at 5 °C or below, and frozen food at -18 °C or below.
• Packaging must be clean and undamaged, with no signs of pests.
• Food must look and smell right, and be correctly labelled and within date.

Reject anything that is unfit, tell your supervisor, and record it. Keep records of every delivery, as they help with traceability if there is a complaint.

A delivery check follows a simple order. Start with temperature: verify the temperature of all chilled and frozen items before you accept them. Then look at each product's freshness and appearance, notice any unusual smell, and examine the labels and packaging for damage or signs of pests, such as gnaw marks or droppings. Check the use by and best before dates on every item, so that nothing arrives already out of date or too close to it.

If everything meets the criteria and the temperatures are within acceptable limits, move the goods to the correct storage place as quickly as possible, and within twenty minutes of delivery. Wherever you can, remove and discard outer packaging before taking goods into food areas, because boxes can carry dirt and pests. Finally, always keep a record of each delivery. These logs are essential for tracing products if there is a complaint or a food safety problem later.

The cold chain means keeping chilled and frozen food at the right temperature at every stage: from the supplier, through delivery and storage, to display and sale.

Once a delivery is accepted, move chilled and frozen items into storage or display quickly, ideally within 20 minutes. Remove outer packaging before taking goods into food areas where possible. Any break in the cold chain lets bacteria multiply.

Under Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, prepacked food must show certain information, including:

• The name of the food, and its net quantity.
• A list of ingredients, in descending order of weight.
• Allergen information, with any of the 14 allergens emphasised.
• A use by or best before date, and any storage or cooking instructions.
• The name and address of the business responsible.
• Nutrition information, and the place of origin where required.

Traceability means being able to follow food and its ingredients through every stage of production, distribution and sale.

Under General Food Law, Regulation (EC) 178/2002, food businesses must know where their food came from and who they supplied it to. If a product is found to be unsafe, it must be withdrawn from sale, or recalled from customers. Batch or lot numbers help trace prepacked food. For food packed on site, keep your own records and codes.

Use by dates are about safety. They are found on perishable, high-risk foods that need refrigeration, and show the last day the food is safe to eat.

• After the use by date, food must not be sold, served or displayed, even if it looks and smells fine. Doing so is illegal.
• Check use by dates every day, and remove out-of-date food.
• Never change or remove a use by date. This is an offence.

Best before dates are about quality, not safety. They are found on lower-risk foods, and show how long the food will stay at its best for flavour and texture.

Food can be sold after its best before date, as long as it is still safe and fit to eat, and customers know it is past its best. Eggs, however, should not be sold after their best before date.

Display until and sell by dates are for staff stock control only. They are not about food safety.

Stock rotation means using or selling older stock before newer stock. This is called First In, First Out, or FIFO.

• Place new deliveries behind, or below, existing stock.
• Check use by dates daily, and best before dates at least weekly.
• Label opened ingredients with the date, for example with day dots.

Poor stock rotation leads to spoilage, bacterial growth, waste, and pests.

Customers sometimes leave chilled or frozen food in the wrong place. For example, a customer might pick up a pack of frozen fish, change their mind, and leave it on a warm shelf, where it starts to thaw.

If you find chilled or frozen food out of refrigeration, remove it from sale, and treat it as unfit. Never put it back on sale unless you know for certain how long it has been out of temperature control.

Dry stores hold low-risk foods kept at room temperature, such as flour, rice, pasta, tins, herbs and spices. A dry store should be:

• Cool, dry, well ventilated and well lit.
• Pest-proofed, with doors and windows sealed, and holes repaired.
• Fitted with suitable shelving, so no food is stored on the floor.

Keep opened food in clean, sealed, labelled containers. Store cleaning materials and non-food goods separately, clean up spills at once, and remove damaged items.

A dry store only stays safe if it is looked after every day. Clean, disinfect and organise it regularly, and check stock often for damaged packets, rusted or dented cans, and food that has gone past its date. Remove anything expired or damaged at once, so that it cannot be used, sold or contaminate other products. If items are waiting to be returned to a supplier or disposed of, keep them in a separate, clearly marked space.

Use stock rotation so older products are used first, and clean up spills and waste as soon as they happen. Store food in suitable racking or pest-proof tubs, never on the floor, and make sure there is good lighting for checking stock and cleaning. Take care when unpacking, so no leftover packaging is left among the food. Do not keep dirty delivery trays in the store, and keep cleaning supplies and non-food goods sold in the shop, such as household goods or flowers, separate from food.

Store fruit and vegetables in a cool, dry, ventilated area, off the floor, and separate from raw meat and ready-to-eat food.

• Store soiled vegetables, such as potatoes, below fruit and washed produce, so soil cannot fall onto them.
• Keep potatoes in the dark, to stop them turning green and producing a natural toxin.
• Check produce regularly, and remove anything mouldy or rotting, as it speeds up the spoilage of nearby produce.

Keep chilled food at 5 °C or below, as the Food Safety Authority of Ireland recommends. Irish law sets no fixed maximum. Fridges are best run between 0 °C and 5 °C.

• Store raw food below ready-to-eat food, so it cannot drip onto it.
• Cover, label and date food. Never put open cans in the fridge.
• Do not overload fridges, or block the cooling unit.
• Never put hot food in the fridge to cool.

Commercial refrigerators are designed differently from household fridges. They have more powerful compressors to cope with doors being opened again and again during trading, and many have digital temperature displays that make monitoring and recording easier. Using them well still depends on good habits. Where possible, use separate refrigeration for raw or high-risk food and for ready-to-eat food, and where they must share a unit, keep ready-to-eat food above raw food.

Follow the manufacturer's storage instructions when they are given. Label, date and cover strong-smelling foods so they do not taint others. Do not place food in front of the cooling unit, and leave enough space between items for cold air to circulate. Store vacuum-packed and canned pasteurised meats in the fridge, and place new stock behind older items. If part of a product is left over, store it in a clean, covered, non-metal container, labelled with a use by date of no more than forty-eight hours.

Check and record fridge and freezer temperatures regularly, at least at the start of each day and at intervals during the day. This shows that no fridge or freezer is running too warm, and gives a record of due care.

If a fridge is too warm, the cause may be overloading, a blocked cooling unit, a door left open, a poor seal, or the wrong thermostat setting. Report it at once, and move the food to a working unit while it is fixed.

Keep frozen food at -18 °C or colder. Freezing stops bacteria growing, but it does not kill them. They start to multiply again once food thaws.

• Never fill freezers above the load line.
• Put new stock behind or below older stock, and follow the dates.
• Keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart.
• Never refreeze food that has thawed, unless it has been cooked first.

Reject frozen deliveries that show signs of thawing.

Freezing is a powerful control, but it is important to understand what it does and does not do. Commercial freezers are best kept between minus eighteen and minus twenty-two degrees, where bacteria cannot grow. Spores and pathogenic bacteria are not destroyed, however. They simply remain dormant, and once food thaws they can begin to multiply again. Moulds and yeasts can survive at temperatures above minus ten degrees, so they may start growing during defrosting.

For this reason, defrosted food should be treated as fresh food and used or cooked promptly. When a frozen delivery arrives, check its temperature and packaging before accepting it. If there is any concern about temperature control, such as food that is soft or partly thawed, reject the items and report the problem to your supervisor. Inside the freezer, food can be packed closely, but keep newer stock behind or below older stock, and keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart, just as in a fridge.

Frozen food stays safe while it is kept at -18 °C or colder, but its quality slowly falls. As a general guide:

• Vegetables: up to 8 to 12 months. Fruit and white fish: up to 6 to 8 months.
• Joints of meat and poultry, bread and cakes: up to 4 to 6 months.
• Ham and bacon joints, oily fish and pastries: up to 3 to 4 months.
• Sliced bacon, cured meats, mince and shellfish: up to 2 to 3 months.

Always follow the manufacturer’s guidance where it is given.