Food Safety: Use Reputable Suppliers

Nothing will improve the quality or the safety of the food as it enters your department. If you accept unsafe food, you cannot make it safe later.

There are some things that can be done during receiving to help ensure safe food is accepted into the facility. These include rejecting the following: food at unsafe temperatures, frozen foods that show signs of thawing and refreezing, foods with compromised packaging, or foods past their use-by or expiration dates.

In addition, it is necessary that the supplier can be trusted to first buy safe food from the farmer, manufacturer, or processor and ensure that the food is transported safely to the supplier. The supplier must then store the food safely and deliver it safely.