Food and beverage
Frozen food: the date nobody records
The freezer preserves the product, not its history. What was not recorded on the way in is not in there.
A well-run freezer has one deceptive virtue: **the product looks exactly the same six months later**. That makes the chamber the place where undecided things end up, and means the question «when is this from?» has no answer by the time somebody finally asks it.
The three details you must be able to give
| Detail | When it is recorded |
|---|---|
| What it is and which delivery it came from | On the way in, never later |
| **When it was frozen** | **On the way in. The one always missing** |
| Until when it can be used | On the way in, derived from the above |
Important
**With no freezing date nothing can be calculated, and that detail cannot be reconstructed afterwards.** Not by looking at the product, not from its appearance, not by asking: either it was recorded that day or it is gone. A hand-written label on the way in solves in full a problem that otherwise forces a choice between throwing away good product or using product you know nothing about.
What is worth having in place
- 1
A label on everything that goes in, without exception
What it is, which delivery, which day. Thirty seconds a tray.
- 2
A temperature record for the chamber
And keep it: it earns its place the day someone asks about a specific period.
- 3
A periodic review of what is inside
Freezers accumulate, and what accumulates unwatched expires in there.
- 4
And what happens to defrosted product
Written beforehand, not decided with the door open.
Watch out
The two delicate moments are not storage, which is the easy part: **they are the way in and the way out**. On the way in, product arriving at a doubtful temperature and put in «to save it» — that saves nothing, it freezes the problem. On the way out, defrosted product refrozen because it ended up unused: the decision most often taken in a hurry and least defensible afterwards. Both are solved by deciding beforehand, not in the moment.
Worth knowing
Which temperatures and records each type of frozen product requires, what must be indicated to the consumer, and what may or may not be refrozen is set by food rules. **Your quality manager or adviser settles that**; here we cover the organisational failure no regulation fixes: not writing down the date.
›Is the freezing date mandatory?
It depends on the product and destination. Even where it is not, without it you can calculate nothing.
›Can I refreeze something defrosted?
It is the least defensible decision afterwards. Have it written down in advance.
›How long do I keep temperature records?
Long enough to cover the life of the product despatched in that period.
A real case
The situation
An unlabelled tray turns up at the back of the chamber and nobody knows when it is from.
What you do
- Labels everything going in with what, which delivery and which day
What you get
The choice between binning good product and using unknown product disappears.
The situation
Goods arrive at a doubtful temperature and go into the freezer «to save them».
What you do
- Decides beforehand what happens in that case and writes it down
What you get
The problem does not get frozen along with the product to reappear months later.
The situation
You are asked about temperatures for a specific period and the records were not kept.
What you do
- Keeps the chamber's record for as long as the product despatched then lasts
What you get
The question is answered with data instead of recollections.
The situation
Something is frozen and the intake date is not recorded.
What you do
- Records the date when it goes in
What you get
Time inside is a fact rather than an impression.
The situation
There are old pallets and nobody knows their date.
What you do
- Shows what has been stored longest
What you get
Rotation is decided on data.
The situation
A client asks about the freezing date.
What you do
- Checks what was recorded at intake
What you get
You answer with a date.
This article answers
- date of freezing requirement
- how long can i keep a product frozen
- freezer temperature records
- defrosted product what do i do