Food Storage Checklist

Freezers should hold 0°F or below. Anything climbing toward 10°F is a refrigeration call, not a wait-and-see. Note any frost build-up on coils or door gaskets in the variance field.

Hit every reach-in, low-boy, prep-table rail, and bar cooler. Cold-holding stations on the line drift fastest because doors open every ticket — they fail first when a compressor is weak.

Ice-bath calibration: thermometer reads 32°F (±2°F) in a slurry of crushed ice and water. If it's drifted, adjust the calibration nut or replace the probe before you trust any cooling-log readings today.

Triggered when any unit reads out of range. Call the service vendor on the kitchen contact list, move TCS product to a working unit, and start a time-and-temperature log on the moved product per the 4-hour rule.

Probe TCS items as the case comes off the truck — refrigerated at 41°F or below, frozen solid, hot-held at 135°F+. Reject the load if it's out of range; signing for it transfers the food-safety risk to your kitchen.

Photograph the rejected cases on the truck, note the case count and reason on the invoice, and have the driver sign it. Email the rep before end of day so the credit hits this week's invoice, not next month's reconciliation.

FDA Food Code: cooked TCS food cools from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then to 41°F within an additional 4 hours. Log start temp, 2-hour temp, and final temp on the cooling sheet. Shallow pans and ice baths are the only way to hit it on stocks and braises.

Top shelf down: ready-to-eat, whole produce, seafood, whole cuts of beef/pork, ground meats, poultry on the bottom. The order is by minimum cook temperature — anything that drips lands on something that gets cooked hotter.

Gluten-free, nut-free, and dairy-free product gets its own labeled shelf or bin — never stacked under bulk flour or open dairy. Color-coded purple containers are standard. A dropped scoop or a leaky bag is how cross-contact happens.

Health-code minimum is 6 inches of clearance from the floor for all stored food, including dry goods and bulk bags. Pallets and dunnage racks count; cardboard cases sitting directly on tile do not.

Day-dot every house-prepped item with prep date and use-by date. FDA Food Code caps ready-to-eat TCS at 7 days from prep when held at 41°F. No dot, no service — pull and toss any unlabeled container found in the walk-in.

Older product moves forward, new product loads to the back. Walk every shelf — produce lowboy, dairy reach-in, dry storage. The most common rotation failure is fresh deliveries shoved on top of last week's inventory.

Anything past use-by goes in the waste log before it hits the dumpster. Track the dollar value — chronic expiration is a par-level problem you fix at the order sheet, not the trash can.

Target 50–70°F and below 60% relative humidity. Hot, damp dry storage breeds weevils in flour and clumps in sugar and salt. Run the exhaust fan if the room sits adjacent to the dish pit.

Flour, sugar, rice, pasta, and dry beans live in sealed Cambros or Rubbermaid bins with the original label and use-by date taped to the lid. Original paper bags are pest entry points — never store opened bags on the shelf.

Sanitizer, degreaser, and dish detergent never share a shelf with food, packaging, or single-use items. Health inspectors cite this on nearly every visit. Chemicals belong in a separate, labeled cabinet with original SDS-matched labels.

Quat-ammonia: 200–400 ppm. Chlorine bleach: 50–100 ppm. Use a fresh test strip — strips degrade once the bottle is open more than 90 days. Log the reading; this is the single most-checked item on a health inspection.

Pull product to a speed rack, wipe shelves with sanitizer at correct ppm, mop the walk-in floor — corners and door track included. Spilled marinade and produce trim under the bottom shelf is the typical fruit-fly origin point.

Look for droppings along walls, gnaw marks on bulk bags, fruit flies near the bar drains, and roach harborage behind the dish machine. The pest-control vendor (Ecolab, Orkin, Steritech) logs go in the binder; you log what you see between visits.

Call the IPM vendor for an interim visit, document the location and type of activity in the pest log, and pull any product showing contact damage. A health inspector seeing live activity without a vendor response on file is a critical violation.

Manager on duty reviews temp log, cooling log, sanitizer log, and waste log before close. Initials on paper or e-sign in Manifestly — same effect: this is the audit trail when a health inspector walks in next Tuesday morning.