How do you inspect food deliveries?

Hi, everyone,

I'm wondering how you guys making an inspection of incoming food deliveries? (fresh produced, frozen meat, seafood's, dry items.)

Fresh Produced: Date of delivery/ Source/ Name of item/ Temperature of the item/ Temperature of vehicle/ Packaging quality/ Quality of vehicle.

I checked first the temperature of the vehicle upon arrival then check the core temperature of each item using a thermometer. (e.g. carrots, tomato, parsley...etc.) Should I checked all items one by one or simply check all items as a whole and rate by excellent/good/poor?

Same as the rest of the items.(frozen, dry foods.) By the way, i'm using a probe thermometer and laser thermometer. Thanks in advance.

Hi, everyone,

 

I'm wondering how you guys making an inspection of incoming food deliveries? (fresh produced, frozen meat, seafood's, dry items.)

 

Fresh Produced: Date of delivery/ Source/ Name of item/ Temperature of the item/ Temperature of vehicle/ Packaging quality/ Quality of vehicle.

 

I checked first the temperature of the vehicle upon arrival then check the core temperature of each item using a thermometer. (e.g. carrots, tomato, parsley...etc.) Should I checked all items one by one or simply check all items as a whole and rate by excellent/good/poor?

 

Same as the rest of the items.(frozen, dry foods.) By the way, i'm using a probe thermometer and laser thermometer. Thanks in advance.

Dear Ralh,

IMEX,  there are at least 4, inter-related,  general requirements –

(1) An agreed product specification (dependent on, for example,  the product / presentation / location)

(2) A Sampling Plan (dependent, for example,  on the supplier / product / presentation / history)

(3) Methods for measuring  some / all of the items specified in (1)

(4) Criteria for Accepting / Rejecting the results of (3)  (assuming this is the purpose of the Evaluation)

Hopefully you have all 4 :smile:

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - Since this is in the HACCP forum, I guess I should have added a "safety-related" note here  and there. In practice the assessment  will probably be a mixture of Safety / non-safety items.

Hi, Charles,

Yes, we do have those 4, but, my question is, are we going to measure the temperature of the vegetables/ fresh fruits one by one? (each kind) Usually, we're receiving 30 kinds of veggies and 20 kinds of fresh fruits. We measure the core temperature of each kind and visually check for quality.(bruises, color, presence of insect...etc.) We do have a separate de-boxing area. Thanks.

Dear Ralh,

I checked first the temperature of the vehicle upon arrival then check the core temperature of each item using a thermometer. (e.g. carrots, tomato, parsley...etc.)

Should I checked all items one by one or simply check all items as a whole and rate by excellent/good/poor?

 

Is yr query only about product temperature ? (although th following text is most generic)

I assume you do not check temperature of every individual carrot, so what is yr sampling procedure ?

I anticipate that the usable evaluation procedure, ie partial sampling of the total lot,  will depend on factors like -

the typical temperature max-min variation within product, between product ? the kind of lot size, packing ? the temperature specification ?

I have seen published sampling plans for quality assessment of vegetables at reception so I imagine yr idea to do a total lot assessment is viable as long as the data permits (plus all products may not necessarily be commercially equal, eg value) . :smile:

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - i presume you are aware that the temperature of frozen goods, eg ca. -18degC in a closed transport can be assessed by external measurement involving sub-units, no need to sample product itself. Don't know if this works for higher temperatures (vegetables not my area).