Food Ordering and Receiving Checklist

Pull the next 7 days from Resy or OpenTable. Flag covers above the rolling average, large parties (8+), and any pre-fixe or buyout that requires special purchasing. Adjust pars upward for protein, produce, and dairy on event days.

If the chef is rotating a special, dropping a section of the menu, or adding a feature, the order needs to reflect it. A 5-day-out menu change announced after the order is placed is a common cause of waste and stockouts.

Sysco, US Foods, PFG, and Restaurant Depot all support web ordering against your account's price file. Build the order from the count sheet rather than memory — typing direct from inventory is the single highest-leverage habit for keeping food cost in line.

Distributor pricing drifts week-to-week, especially on proteins and produce. Flag any line item up more than 10% versus last week and substitute or call your rep before submitting. MarginEdge or R365 will catch this after the fact, but catching it pre-submit avoids the variance entirely.

Most distributors give a 4-hour window. Confirm the window does not collide with a lunch service or a small kitchen's prep crunch — receiving during service guarantees a missed count or a temp-abused protein sitting on the dock.

Wipe the dock table and floor with quat sanitizer at correct ppm. Stage a clean speed rack and an empty trash can for damaged packaging. A cluttered receiving area is how cross-contamination starts on day one.

Ice-water slurry should read 32°F (±2°F). A thermometer that drifts means every cold-chain reading on today's invoice is suspect, and a health inspector who finds an uncalibrated probe will write you up regardless of the actual food temps.

Do not sign the manifest until every case is on the floor and counted. "Sysco said 24, signed for 24, case had 22" is the canonical receiving loss; the only defense is opening the truck count before the driver leaves.

Reject anything off-spec: bruised produce, off-color or off-smell protein, dented cans, torn vacuum seals, dairy past or near use-by. Note rejections on the manifest and have the driver sign before they pull off the dock.

Refrigerated TCS items must arrive at 41°F or below; frozen items must be solid with no signs of thaw or refreeze (no ice crystals on the surface, no blood pooling at the bottom of the case). FDA Food Code violation if either fails — and a defensible cold-chain log is your only audit trail.

Note item, case count, temp reading, and reason on the manifest. Photograph the rejection. Call the distributor rep before the driver leaves the lot — same-day credit is much easier to secure than next-week.

Cold proteins and dairy out on the dock past 15 minutes start moving toward the 41-140°F danger zone. Prioritize fish, ground meat, and dairy first; shelf-stable goes last.

Use a sharpie or date gun on every case: receive date and use-by. Place new stock behind existing stock so older inventory rotates forward. Health inspectors check date labels — unlabeled product is an automatic citation.

Photograph or scan the signed invoice and upload it the same day. Delays here are how variance reports show phantom costs at month-end and how theoretical-vs-actual food cost drifts unrecoverably.

Email the rep with the rejected line items, photos, and the manifest copy. Confirm the credit shows on next week's statement. Credits not chased within 7 days routinely get lost.