Section 11.12 Dairy/Freezer Department: Perishable/Frozen Products Handling and Display

The purpose of this section is to ensure packaged perishable and frozen products are stored and handled in a handled in a manner that does not compromise their food safety or quality.

Detailed Instruction

Ordering

Most dry grocery items are delivered from Metcash Distribution bulk warehouse through regular orders prepared by allocated staff. Some freezer / dairy goods may be received direct from other suppliers.

Storage & Handling

All frozen and perishable stock is transferred directly to its respective coolroom once received & checked. Generally, this should take less than 20 minutes to prevent unnecessary thawing of products.
The stock is de-palletised in the coolroom / freezers into respective categories as required. All stock in cool storage is kept on pallets off the floor and removed on a first in – first out basis.

Once required, the respective stock is placed on a trolley or removed by hand from storage, placed next to its respective display position & promptly unpacked to fill the display.

NOTE: Ice creams, or any other frozen foods, packed in stretch-wrap only, must be put into their respective displays first as they are more sensitive to thawing.

Each person filling must fill the fridges keeping an eye on rotating products with older date codes on top of or in front of same products with newer codes.

NOTE: The respective manager is to ensure that staff only remove stock from storage that will be placed into a display within 20 minutes as excessive thawing will occur.

No product is to be left unsupervised at any time in ambient conditions.

• When loading display fridges and freezers, it is critical that the load line of each unit is not exceeded as the unit is only designed to adequately cool up to that point. Exceeding this limit places the customer’s health at risk.
• All store staff are responsible for returning perishables to their respective positions if a customer has not done so as this product may become a health risk.
• Any refrigerated stock found abandoned, showing any evidence of thawing or warming is recorded, & dumped, and the relevant Manager informed immediately.

Daily Refrigerated Display Audits

All refrigerated packaged fresh foods displays must be audited at least each morning prior to the commencement of trading. Each product must be checked for:

• Shelf Life – to prevent out of date stock becoming available to customers & to ensure products are marked down to be sold before the end of their shelf life.
• Product Integrity – to ensure that displayed product is visually fresh & appealing, in their correct position and have not been tampered with.
• Storage Condition To ensure the product is not placed above the load limit of the display fridge, ensuring its correct storage. All open case refrigeration air vents should not be blocked or covered by any food packages, price tags or any other obstruction to air flow of the unit.
• Product Temperature – All freezer, coolroom & refrigerated display temperatures are recorded twice daily on the relevant check sheet.