The Walk-In Fridge at 9°C
You are the closing supervisor in a hotel kitchen. At 10:30 pm you check the walk-in fridge and the thermometer reads 9°C; it should be 5°C or below. Inside are 12 kg of raw chicken portions, 6 L of house-made stock, 4 kg of sliced cooked ham, two trays of portioned raw fish, and several tubs of dairy. The fridge's compressor is making an unusual noise. The overnight maintenance contractor is not answering. Breakfast service starts at 6:30 am and needs the ham and dairy. The chicken is for tomorrow's lunch. You have a probe thermometer, clean insulated boxes, ice, and a second small fridge at 4°C with limited space.
1. Decide what to keep, move, or discard, and explain your reasoning for each category of food.
Read the worked answer
The controlling principle is time-temperature exposure and the food's risk profile.
- Raw chicken (12 kg): High-risk raw poultry. It has been above 5°C for an unknown period - potentially hours. You cannot verify how long, so treat it as unsafe and discard it. Do not 'rescue' it by moving it; you cannot prove it stayed safe.
- House-made stock (6 L): Also high-risk and, being liquid, warms and cools slowly, so it spent longer in the danger zone. Discard unless you can prove it was below 5°C recently - you cannot, so discard.
- Sliced cooked ham (4 kg): Ready-to-eat, high-risk, and needed for breakfast. It is the best candidate to move to the 4°C fridge if there is space and it has been out of range for a short, documented time. If space is limited, prioritise it over the dairy because it is a ready-to-eat meat served without a further kill step.
- Raw fish: High-risk; if it can be moved to the 4°C fridge and used or frozen promptly, do so; otherwise discard.
- Dairy: Lower risk than meat but still perishable; move what fits after the ham, discard the rest.
Reasoning: You cannot prove safe holding time, so the default for high-risk items with unknown exposure is discard. The one exception is where a short, documented window and available cold space allow a defensible transfer. Record everything: temperatures, times, items discarded, and the fault report.
2. Write the record you would leave and the actions you would take before breakfast service, including how you would handle the broken fridge and the missing contractor.
Read the worked answer
Records to leave:
- Temperature log entry: 9°C at 10:30 pm, fridge ID, your name.
- A discard log listing each item, quantity, reason ('held above 5°C, exposure time unknown') and witness signature.
- A fault report noting the compressor noise and the failed contractor call.
Actions before breakfast:
- Move the ham and as much dairy as fit into the 4°C fridge; label with the move time.
- Discard the chicken, stock and any fish or dairy that cannot be kept cold; bag and separate from usable stock.
- Do not use the walk-in for any food until it is repaired and verified at 5°C or below.
- Escalate the contractor failure to the duty manager and, if needed, call an alternative refrigeration service; a broken walk-in is a food-safety incident, not a routine repair.
- Plan breakfast around what is safely available: if the ham is lost, adjust the menu or substitute a safe alternative rather than serving questionable product.
- Brief the morning team at handover so no one restocks the walk-in.
Reasoning: Documented records are the evidence that you acted responsibly; escalation reflects that the fridge failure threatens service and safety, and menu adjustment protects guests when stock is lost.