It all comes down to your ingredients. Top quality food is created from ingredients that have been safely stored with care. From receiving to delivery, proper food storage is imperative to keeping your food safe and fresh. In our Ultimate Food Storage Guide blog series, we’ll explore the different ways Cambro products keep food safe from the Danger Zone, cross-contamination and handling. Next, we examine the best ways to keep food safe and fresh during holding and transport.

1. Use tight-fitting lids on containers

Every container needs to be secured with a lid before it’s transported anywhere. Not only does this prevent cross-contamination, it protects your food from being spilled all over your backseat. Many caterers use disposable food pans to transport their food but end up with half of their meals inside their insulated transport units because the pans are heavy and the lids are difficult to secure. Don’t let that happen to you! Use our Camwear GripLid® and Camwear Food Pan as your most superior form of defense. Designed with a molded-in polyurethane gasket, GripLids literally grip onto your food pan to create a seal that keeps liquids inside.  

2. Maximize temperature retention

Cambro has a large selection of insulated transport units that provide superior insulation and durability to keep food safe and at temperature. Most of our insulated transport units hold safe temperatures for at least four hours, however, there are ways to make them last even longer.

• First, preheat or prechill your insulated transport unit before filling it with food pans or containers.
• Second, choose a size that you can fill completely. The fuller your unit is the more temperature retentive it remains. If the size of your orders vary, we suggest using a ThermoBarrier® to concentrate hot or cold air to your food when you’re not able to completely fill it up.
• Third, add a Camchiller or Camwarmer. If you’re opening and closing your unit frequently, it will naturally lose temperature. Freeze your Camchiller overnight and add to the top of your unit to make cold food stay colder, longer during service. Utilize a Camwarmer similarly. Heat your Camwarmer in a 350°F oven for 45 minutes but add it to the bottom of your unit. Both the Camchiller and Camwarmer can effectively help make up for lost temperatures.

3. Identify contents

The less you open your insulated transport unit before service the better. To prevent unnecessary door opening and closing, label the outside of your insulated transport units. For units like the Pro Cart Ultra® and Ultra Pan Carrier® UPC300, there is a place designated on the front for an identification sticker or note. Additionally, the Ultra Pan Carrier UPCS400 has a clip on the front and Cam GoBox® Front Loaders both have a space for Plastic ID Labels for easy identification.

GoBox Top Loaders are designed with a space for Plastic ID Labels too, or you can go with the fool-proof method of using the option of colored lids. These bright lids allow employees to easily route GoBoxes for different orders or to immediately know which GoBox contains hot and cold.

Many people think of food storage as the literal containers that you put your food inside, but it’s so much more than that. From when you receive your food to when it’s time to transport it, there are so many different and important ways to utilize food storage to keep your food safe, fresh and at the highest quality. If you enjoyed this blog, check out our guides on Receiving, Prep, Cooking and Serving and Containers and Shelving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ADRIANA DESIDERIO IS THE DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER AT CAMBRO.