Fresh Produce in Retail
When receiving a fresh produce delivery, it is vital that all personnel involved are prepped and ready for receiving, inspecting and storing the goods delivered. Otherwise, you can expect to encounter food loss during the delivery off-load, as a lot of fresh produce items are capable of losing days of shelf-life due to mistreatment.
Follow this general, nine-step process to properly prepare for, receive, and handle an incoming produce delivery.
Prepare the backroom. Get rid of trash, stack empty boxes, and condense merchandise to make room for the load.
A place for everything, and everything in its place. You can create maps of your refrigerator space to find out where the coldest (usually near the fan) and warmest (usually near the door) spots are located to help you store your produce at the right temperature for the best flavour and the least spoilage. Keep items in the same place each day so you can quickly find and access needed food products. When unloading the truck, try to park items in set areas to minimise over-handling of fresh produce items.
Know your temperature zones. When picking up or receiving a produce delivery, accept only produce items that are within their recommended temperature ranges. Otherwise, they may not last as long in storage or on display. Maintain the “cold chain.” Cold stuff stays cold. Warm items, such as bananas, get stacked outside of the cooler. Packaged salads lose a day’s shelf life for every hour kept out of refrigeration. Bananas and pineapples sustain chill damage easily, and stone fruit (peaches, plums, and nectarines) has “kill zones” if kept too cold or too warm. Basic knowledge about storage will help minimise waste and maximise profits.
Handle with care! Never throw or drop produce. This can cause damage and shrink (i.e., loss of inventory). Be careful not to subject fragile items, such as berries or mushrooms, to crushing. Dropping a box of apples as little as three inches can drastically decrease their shelf life and increase waste. Inspect items as you put them away for signs of damage. If you see a produce item that you would not buy, neither will your customers!
Rotate items using the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) method. Place newer items below or behind older items so that you can be sure to rotate all of your produce inventory out onto the sales floor before it goes bad. When stacking cases, make sure the printing on the outside of boxes is visible so you know what is being stacked where. This will make selection a breeze and save valuable time.
Dating keeps track of aged inventory. Cartons have a way of overstaying their welcome, so by marking cases with a received-on date (either with a marking pen or price gun) you can see at a glance which items must be moved first.
A clean ship is a happy (and safe) ship. Stack away empty pallets, dump the trash, sweep, and mop the floor.
Check the load you just put away. Did everything arrive as ordered, compared to your invoice? This is the time to note outages or shorts and make adjustments with your supplier or warehouse.
Ask yourself checklist questions. When a load is put away, step into the cooler and dry storage area and ask these questions:
Is everything accessible? Can I quickly tell which apple varieties are which? Which shelf holds chillies? Which shelf has cabbage?
Are the items in the cooler rotated and dated?
Are sensitive items protected (i.e. nothing heavy crushing boxes of grapes, mushrooms aren’t being dried out by the fan, are the banana lids off to slow ripening)?
Finally, is the storage area safe? Free from excess water or debris, and well lit?
