The 9.8°C Chilled Delivery
At 10:20 on a warm Tuesday, a café receives its chilled delivery: 6 kg raw chicken breast, 2 kg sliced cooked ham, 4 kg coleslaw, and 3 kg bagged mixed salad. The driver unloads in 12 minutes and says the van fridge was 'about 4°C'. The café's walk-in fridge is at 3°C. The manager uses an infrared thermometer on the outside of the ham pack and reads 9.8°C; the delivery note says 'keep refrigerated'. The ham is for sandwiches served cold that afternoon; the chicken will be cooked for the lunch special; the coleslaw and salad are ready-to-eat. The supplier is the café's main supplier and has a good record. The manager has a probe thermometer but it is in the kitchen, and the driver is waiting. A new member of staff asks whether they can just put everything in the fridge quickly and 'let it cool down'.
1. What temperature checks should the manager make before deciding, and why is the infrared reading not enough?
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Check the load, not just the surface. Infrared thermometers measure surface temperature and are affected by packaging, so 9.8°C on the outside of the ham pack does not prove the core is warm. The manager should sanitise a probe thermometer, measure between packs and in the centre of at least two items from each category, and ask for the van's temperature record and delivery time. One warm pack might be surface warming during unloading; several warm packs indicate the load has been above 8°C.
Use the right limit. Chilled high-risk food should be at 8°C or below. The manager should also check packaging integrity, use-by dates and whether raw chicken juices have touched ready-to-eat items. A probe reading should be recorded for each category, not a single reading for the whole delivery.
2. Decide what to accept, reject, or accept conditionally. Justify each choice.
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Reject ready-to-eat items above 8°C. The ham, coleslaw and salad will not be cooked, so any bacteria present could survive to the customer. Putting them in the fridge is not a control: a fridge cools slowly, warm food raises the fridge temperature, and bacteria may already have multiplied. If probe readings are above 8°C, reject these items.
Treat raw chicken cautiously. The chicken will be cooked, but if its core is above 8°C and there is no reliable time/temperature history, reject it too. Cooking may kill vegetative cells but does not undo temperature abuse or the cross-contamination risk from leaking juices. If only one pack is warm and a second probe reads 5°C, accept that item and record both readings. Do not accept the whole load merely because the supplier has a good record.
3. What records and follow-up actions should the manager take?
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Record the decision. Note the date and time, product, batch or use-by date, probe readings, packaging condition, driver, supplier and whether each item was accepted or rejected. Keep the delivery note with the record.
Follow up. Tell the supplier why the load was rejected and ask for corrective action. Check that the café's probe is calibrated and that staff know to probe deliveries before signing. Review delivery times so chilled food is not left waiting on the doorstep. Brief the new member of staff that warm food must not simply be placed in the fridge to cool. If the supplier repeats the problem, review the supplier approval and consider an alternative source.