Tips To Keep Your Cold Storage Organised, Efficient, And Safe

Many Singaporeans have a hard time keeping their home refrigerators organised despite knowing the benefits of such practice. In a commercial setting, it is even more critical to ensure that your cold storage is organised.

Disorganised cold storage could result in exerting more energy to cool its contents, which can inflate utility bills and wear out the compressor sooner than its anticipated life cycle.

Worse still, a disorganised refrigerator can cause premature expiration and cross-contamination of foods which could lead to health issues and drive your reputation and business down.

Here are tips that will help you achieve an organised cold storage unit:

Keep the meats on the bottom-most shelves

Meats contain juices and marinade which drips. If you store meats on higher shelves, two things are likely to occur.

First, there is a risk that the meat juices or marinade will drip on other foods below, thus spreading harmful bacteria and rendering them waste. Second, as the meat juices and marinades drip, they will come into contact with more surfaces on the fridge and make cleaning a tougher job.

Either way, both situations are undesirable so remember to store your meats on the bottom-most shelves.

Leave ample space between items

Cold storage equipment is most efficient when there's active air circulation between the compartments. However, if there is no room for air to circulate, you may find parts of the refrigerator not as cold as other parts which may lead to premature perishing.

Although there may be the urge to closely pack items in the refrigerator, perhaps to maximize usage of the space, this may end up being the primary reason for the inefficiency of your refrigerator.

Food needs to be placed about three to six inches away from the walls of the fridge and at least one inch apart from other food.

Keep delicate produce far from fans

Commercial cold storage units are not like domestic units and the fans can be very powerful. Kitchen equipment suppliers in Singapore often advise that you store delicate hotel supplies such as vegetables and fruits away from these fans so as to avoid damage.

Watch out for the fan labels and keep foods a safe distance away.

Make and observe the FIFO rule

FIFO stands for first-in, first-out and it is an especially basic and important rule in keeping your refrigerator organised. Excellent inventory management does not just apply at warehouses. Commercial cold storage is also a place to practice inventory management rules.

Ensure that newer items are pushed to the back as the older items move forward. In order to make sure everyone in the restaurant kitchen is aware, place clear date codes to identify which items are currently in use.

Label everything

In addition to the date codes, ensure that you label everything in the fridge. Some kitchen equipment suppliers in Singapore will even help you with the installation of cold storage units and along with that, place label slots on the shelves.

This is especially helpful to new staff or trainees who are unfamiliar with your restaurant’s kitchen.

There are plenty of good reasons to keep your commercial cold storage organised at all times. From having reduced contamination risk, better management of utility bills, to higher efficiency, these tips will surely help your commercial kitchen in the long run.