Receiving, Storing, and Temperature Control of Food
This domain tests the numbers: receiving limits, storage order, cooling and reheating times, and holding temperatures. Grocery operations move product across many departments, so receiving is the critical first checkpoint.
Receiving
Inspect the truck, packaging, and product temperature. Reject TCS food above 41°F, hot food below 135°F, frozen food that is not solid or shows ice crystals or fluid stains, shell eggs above 45°F ambient, milk above 45°F, shucked shellfish above 45°F, damaged or swollen cans, pest evidence, and missing shellstock tags. Keep shellstock tags 90 days.
Storage and dates
FIFO; shelves 6 inches off the floor. Refrigerator order, top to bottom: RTE foods, seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meat, poultry. Date-mark RTE TCS food prepared or opened in-house for 7 days at 41°F or less, counting the day of preparation as Day 1.
Temperature control
- Cold holding 41°F or less; hot holding 135°F or above.
- Cooking: poultry 165°F; ground meat 155°F; whole meat and seafood 145°F for 15 seconds.
- Cooling: 135 to 70°F within 2 hours, then 70 to 41°F within 4 more (6 total).
- Reheating for hot holding: 165°F for 15 seconds within 2 hours.
- Thaw in the refrigerator, under running water at 70°F or less, in a microwave if cooked immediately, or as part of cooking.
- Time as a public health control: 4 hours without temperature; 6 hours only if starting at 41°F and never above 70°F, then discard.
- Calibrate thermometers in an ice-point bath at 32°F.
Worked example
Ground beef arrives at 48°F with no ice. Reject it, note the rejection on the invoice, and call the supplier. The product is TCS, 48°F is inside the danger zone, and no later cooling step erases the time already lost.
Traps
Judging temperature by touch; using 6-hour time control without a 41°F start; miscounting date-mark days; reheating in a slow oven.