Six Ten at the Back Door

Reject:

• Raw chicken at 45°F - TCS food must be received at 41°F (5°C) or lower. Two degrees over is still over; there is no rounding.
• Shell eggs at 48°F - shell eggs must be received at an ambient temperature of 45°F (7°C) or lower.
• Milk at 44°F - TCS, and the standard is 41°F or lower.
• Frozen shrimp with soft flesh, water stains, large ice crystals - this is the signature of thawed and refrozen product. Reject; the freeze-thaw cycle has already degraded it and you cannot know how long it was above freezing.
• Cans dented on the side seam - a seam dent can compromise the hermetic seal and is a reject regardless of appearance. (A minor dent away from any seam that is not sharp, leaking, or swollen is a different call; a seam dent is not.)
• Basil, brown and wilted - spoiled, and quality rejection protects the menu.

Accept: the salmon at 38°F - well within the 41°F standard.

Why you do not sign and sort later: once you sign, title transfers. The temperature evidence, the driver, and the truck are gone, and any rejection becomes your word against the invoice - most suppliers will not credit product that has already been put away. Rejection is only available at the moment of receipt. Check everything at the back door, mark the invoice, get a credit memo, and photograph the rejected items.

Two separate violations are present.

1. Raw ground beef on the top shelf - raw animal foods must never be stored above ready-to-eat food, because drip follows gravity. Ground beef is also a high-risk item caught in the worst possible position.
2. Cut melon sitting below raw ground beef - cut melon is a TCS food and a ready-to-eat food, so it must be above all raw product, not beneath it.

Correct order, top to bottom, by minimum internal cooking temperature:

• Ready-to-eat food and cut produce (cut melon, salads, deli items) - top.
• Whole fish and seafood, then whole cuts of beef and pork (145°F).
• Ground meat, including ground beef (155°F).
• Whole and ground poultry (165°F) - bottom.

All raw items are stored in leakproof containers on the lowest shelves, never on the floor, and nothing is stored in front of the evaporator. Cut melon also needs date marking - 7 days at 41°F or below, counting the day it was cut as day one.

One extra receiving point: the salmon should have gone into cold storage within minutes of acceptance, not after the rest of the load was worked. Product sitting on a 75°F dock during a rush is how a 38°F fillet becomes a rejected fillet.

Receiving is a designed process, not a reaction to a driver's schedule.

Before the truck:

• Schedule deliveries during slow service periods so a trained person is actually free.
• Train and formally authorize at least two people to accept and reject; a receiver who cannot say no is not a receiver.
• Calibrate the receiving thermometer (ice-point method) and keep it at the door.
• Post the receiving standards at the dock: 41°F for TCS, 45°F for shell eggs, 0°F and solid for frozen, plus the rejection list for cans, packaging, and pests.
• Clear cooler and freezer space first, and have a cart and a staging area ready.

At the door:

• Inspect the truck for pests, odors, and cleanliness, and check the box temperature.
• Check every item - temperature, packaging integrity, dates, and quality - before signing.
• Reject on the spot, note it on the invoice, keep the credit memo.
• Move accepted product into storage immediately; never let it sit on the dock.
• Record receiving temperatures and supplier, and check shell stock tags if shellfish is involved (keep 90 days).

The two structural problems in this scenario were no clear space and no protected time. Both are scheduling failures that management controls, not bad luck.