Is it ok to store finished product in the new freezer whilst the new building is being completed?

Hi all!

We are supposed to be moving to our new facility at the beginning of next month. There is still a bunch of construction going on, mostly offices and installing equipment and that sort of thing. What are the requirements for storing finished product in the new freezer? We would like to do that sooner rather than later, as in, my boss was asking me yesterday when we can do it. We are bursting at the seems in our current facility and moving anything at all over would really help us. We already use Frozen storage facilities but sometimes we need to store our product onsite. Should we have our pest control set up first? The freezer is already built and operational and far away in the warehouse from the rest of the construction. The freezer is clean and with the door shut should be free from any construction dust. Am I missing any key things? 

Any suggestions? This new building thing is new to all of us and we don't want to do it wrong. 

If it helps, we are SQF and will continue to operate under the code while we move and work towards certifying the new facility.

Any pointers and tips on on how to make this move work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

~Polly 

I know when we were moving into our new building, we had to contact our local department of agriculture to have an inspection prior to us moving ANY food into the building. Doesn't matter if it was finished goods or raw materials or packaging. So I would suggest to start there. It would also be recommended to set up your pest control, we had some mice and other animals that got in our building during construction so it's good to have that established before bringing in any food. 

Set up pest control

Check to see if you must have an inspection made by town or county in order to use the freezer.

Ensure the pathway from delivery to freezer is compliant to your food safety requirements

Monitoring of temperature - assumption made that you have some system set up to alert you in the event of a temperature issue.

Security -- how are you preventing workers, etc from getting into the freezer

Product ?

I assume "freezer"  = Cold Store, temp. <= (-)18 degC ? (ie not an actual freezing unit)

Must be pretty tough pests in yr neighbourhood  !

Offhand, if the hygiene/temperature is satisfactorily controlled prior to loading frozen goods, I cannot see where any possible objection is coming from ? Puzzled.