Lesson guide
5.1 Receiving deliveries safely
Food safety starts before food enters the kitchen. Check that a delivery is suitable and from an approved supplier as soon as possible, especially when food needs chilling or freezing. Do not leave it at a door or in a corridor while other work takes priority. Once accepted under the procedure, move it quickly to the appropriate storage.
Check the supplier name and delivery note, relevant vehicle condition and the food and packaging. Packaging should be clean, sealed and undamaged. Dirty, leaking, badly dented, damaged or pest-affected goods raise concerns that need reporting and an acceptance decision under the business's procedure.
Chilled food should arrive cold and frozen food frozen. Warm, soft or partly defrosted goods and signs suggesting poor frozen storage need attention. The module's chicken example combines warm boxes with leaking packaging: do not accept them merely because the driver is hurried. Report to the supervisor so the business can decide whether to reject the delivery. Observations are warnings, not a validated temperature check by touch.
5.2 Checking packaging, dates and temperatures
Packaging protects food, so examine torn, leaking, badly dented, swollen, mouldy, dirty or pest-damaged packs. Damage can allow microbiological, chemical, allergen or physical contamination. Do not sign first and assume the check can be dealt with later.
Check dates and usable shelf life. Food must have enough remaining life for the business to use it safely. The recording stresses that use-by dates relate to safety and that food must not be served or supplied after its current use-by date. Do not treat an appealing appearance as permission to ignore it or change a label yourself.
Temperature is the third check. Foods requiring refrigeration, including many use-by products, cooked dishes, prepared salads and desserts, must remain cold. Frozen food should arrive frozen solid. Softness, wetness, damage or large ice crystals may indicate unsuitable handling; report the concern rather than declaring a precise thaw history from appearance.
The cooked-meat example combines damaged packaging, short dates and warm product. Such a delivery is not acceptable without attention: report it and follow the acceptance or rejection procedure. The module provides no numeric delivery limit here. Use the actual business's instructed measurement method and criteria; delivery checks are controls, not decorative paperwork.
5.3 Chilled, frozen and dry storage
Choose storage appropriate to the product. Chilling slows bacterial growth in foods such as cooked meat, dairy products, salads, desserts, sandwiches and many use-by products. Put chilled food into refrigeration promptly, minimise time out during preparation and follow the storage instructions. This module does not establish a new chilled-temperature limit.
Frozen storage keeps food frozen until use. Use appropriate freezers and suitable wrapping or covers to protect food from contamination and freezer damage. Defrosted food still needs safe handling. The source qualifies refreezing with the business procedure and continued safety; this is not a blanket instruction to refreeze any thawed food. Do not improvise: refer uncertainty to the responsible person and the validated procedure.
Dry stores hold products such as flour, rice, pasta, tins, spices and unopened dry goods. Keep the area clean, dry, ventilated and protected from pests. Store food off the floor, away from chemicals and in sealed containers where needed.
Across storage areas, cover and label food as required and keep contamination routes apart. Raw food must not be above ready-to-eat food. In the fridge example, raw chicken above cooked meat could drip onto food that will not be cooked again, even when the fridge appears tidy. Safe storage combines the right place, temperature, container and separation.
5.4 Use-by, best-before and FIFO
Use-by dates concern food safety. The recording warns against serving, selling or supplying food after its use-by date even if it appears or smells normal: harmful bacteria need not change those qualities. Check the current label and approved procedure, rather than inventing a new shelf life.
Best-before dates concern quality. Passing that date does not automatically make a food unsafe, but it must still be properly stored, checked and suitable for use. The distinction is not permission to treat damaged, contaminated or incorrectly stored food as acceptable.
FIFO means first in, first out: use older stock before newer stock while it remains safe and in date. Arrange storage so earlier usable stock is not forgotten behind a new delivery. The milk example places older milk at the front, provided it is still within date and safe.
Read dates during deliveries, storage, preparation and service, not just when the product first arrives. Open foods may need additional date labelling according to the business's procedure. Do not rely on memory: follow labels and storage instructions, rotate stock and report food that is out of date, unclear or unsafe. Date control both protects customers and reduces avoidable waste.
5.5 Labelling, traceability and safe storage
Labels and records help the business identify food, know when it should be used, establish where it came from and respond to a problem. Opened or prepared food may need its name, opening or preparation date, use-by information, allergen details or preparer's identification according to the procedure. The source does not prescribe one universal label or shelf-life duration.
Similar-looking sauces can have different ingredients: one may contain milk, mustard or gluten. A missing or unclear label can cause the wrong sauce to be selected for a customer with an allergy. Clear identification is therefore a safety control, not just a tidiness measure.
Traceability follows food through the supply chain. The recording describes identifying the immediate supplier and, where relevant, the recipient business: one step back and one step forward. Good records can help determine whether a recalled batch was received, where it is held, whether it was used and what onward supply occurred. The cooked-chicken recall example shows why batch information must be accessible rather than guessed.
Traceability does not itself make unsafe food safe; it helps contain a problem. Keep food covered, off the floor, away from chemicals, protected from pests, separated from raw-food routes and at the right temperature. If identification, traceability or storage is uncertain, report it and follow the procedure before use.