How to Organise Commercial Fridges?
These useful tips for organising your commercial fridges can help you to make sure your restaurant and kitchen are well organized, safe and easy to use. Health and safety regulations, as well as your usage of specific items, will help to determine how you organize your fridge, although these tips can help to maintain efficiency too.
Store Meats on the Lower Shelves
Potentially hazardous cross-contamination can be avoided by adopting this practice, as it prevents the meats from dripping down from the top shelves onto items stored on lower shelves. And it can also make any spills a lot easier and faster to clean up.
Leave Some Space Between items
Leave a few inches of space between your food items and the walls of the fridge, which allows the cold air to circulate, preventing uneven cooling and refreezing and unwanted hot spots.
Don’t Place Food on the Fridge Floor
In a busy restaurant kitchen, it’s easy to forget that you shouldn’t store any food on the floor of your fridge, or on the kitchen floor, and it is a health code regulation. Keeping food off the floor will prevent a possible pest infestation and your food won’t become contaminated. It’s important that all employees working in the kitchen know this policy.
Don’t Store Delicate Products Near the Fans
Air flow from the powerful fans in a commercial fridge can actually damage food such as fresh green vegetables and berries, or cause freezer burn. Use food stored close to the fans sooner than items stored further away, for these reasons.
First In, First out Rule (FIFO)
Just as you would do at home, you should use the oldest products first, based on their sell by or use by date, and always use up items that are already open before opening a new container or box. Make sure the dates on food products are clearly visible; if not, use a marker to write the information on there in bigger letters.
Label Everything
Newer employees who may not be quite as familiar with the fridge and its contents can easily find what they need to if items are labeled clearly. And it isn’t just the items – labels on the fridge shelves instantly tell you if an item is out of stock and needs to be re-ordered. Proper food labeling is important to make sure food isn’t used past it’s safe to use date, and should always include the use by date, and the date the food was prepared or received.
Why Is Organising Your Commercial Fridge Important?
A good organization not only saves money by making sure that food is prepared and used before its due by date, it also helps to prevent violating health and safety regulations, which can close a restaurant.
And good fridge organization means that the kitchen environment is less stressful, things flow more smoothly and time isn’t wasted trying to find a specific item. A disorganized fridge is more likely to break down, meaning unwanted repair costs, and it’s a lot easier to reorder and restock items when everything is labeled and in its correct place.
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