The Coolroom Failure

Assessment rule: high-risk food held between 5°C and 60°C for more than four hours must be discarded unless you can verify it stayed within safe limits. Here the coolroom has been above 5°C for at least four hours, so every high-risk item is in the discard zone unless evidence says otherwise.

Item	Decision	Reasoning
Raw chicken thigh (18 kg)	Discard	Raw poultry is a high-risk food and has been above 5°C for four hours. Do not refreeze.
Cooked prawns (6 kg)	Discard	Cooked shellfish is high-risk; no way to verify time-temperature.
House-made stock (20 L)	Discard	High-risk, high-water-activity liquid; cannot be verified.
Vacuum-sealed beef striploin (8 kg)	Assess	Whole muscle, intact, vacuum-sealed. If the seal is intact and the surface temperature is verified, it may be salvageable - but only with a documented assessment. If in doubt, discard.
Cut fruit (4 kg)	Discard	Cut fruit is high-risk once the skin is broken.
Cream (10 L)	Discard	High-risk dairy.

Documentation: record the time, temperature, items, weights, and decisions on the food safety log. Photograph the thermometer reading. This protects you and the business.

Immediate actions (before midnight)

1. Document the failure and the discard list with weights and times.
2. Move salvageable items to the walk-in freezer only if they pass assessment; otherwise discard.
3. Call the supplier - many have 24-hour emergency lines. Order replacement chicken, prawns, cream, and fruit for a 6:00 am delivery.
4. Call the owner or head chef and inform them of the loss and the replacement order.

Menu adjustment

• Identify dishes that rely on discarded items and either substitute or remove them from Saturday's menu.
• Use the striploin (if salvaged) and any freezer stock to build specials.
• Brief front-of-house before service so they can explain substitutions honestly.

Saturday morning

• Receive and check the replacement delivery against the order; record temperatures.
• Confirm the technician's arrival and the coolroom repair.
• Re-check all stock before prep begins.

Reasoning: the priority order is food safety, then customer promise, then cost. Discarding 60+ kg of stock is expensive, but serving it is unacceptable. The replacement order and menu adjustment are what protect the 140 covers.

Gaps exposed

1. No temperature alarm. A four-hour rise from 3°C to 9°C went unnoticed overnight. Install a data logger with an audible or SMS alarm at 5°C.
2. No after-hours monitoring. Assign a closing check and a documented overnight reading, or use a remote monitoring service.
3. No emergency supplier list. Build a contact list of 24-hour suppliers for each high-risk category.
4. No salvage protocol. The plan says 'assess and document' but does not define who assesses, how, or what evidence is required. Write a decision tree.
5. No contingency menu. Keep a freezer-based fallback menu that can run without the coolroom.

Reasoning: a food safety plan is only as good as its weakest monitoring point. The failure here was not the compressor - equipment fails - it was the absence of a timely alert and a pre-agreed response. Fix the monitoring and the response, and the next failure becomes a manageable event rather than a crisis.