How to assemble your commercial fridges during Covid-19 to maximise shelf life?

The uncertain times of the coronavirus pandemic have forced multiple establishments in the industry to shut down their food joints, restaurants, cafes and pubs. The various restrictions have resulted in fewer trips to the market to buy the ingredients and spend more time in the kitchen. The enhanced volume of cooking has taken its toll on commercial refrigerators, which are feeling the burden to keep the food fresh and hygienic all the time. Therefore, it is time to take proper care of the appliance and give it all the attention and maintenance it deserves. Regularly monitoring your fridge would help extend your food items' usage period and save you time & money. Proper maintenance and assembly of things also mean less wastage of food, fewer items emitting foul odours, and less time spent finding an item you put inside. This blog will help you with several tips to assemble and organise your cooling equipment during the pandemic so that you can use it for a longer duration.

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Do Thorough Cleaning to Enhance Shelf Life & Food Taste

The first tip you need to follow before starting to assemble your device is to clean it thoroughly from deep inside to leave no residues. Suppose your machine is placed in a location easily spotted by people. In that case, it is also crucial to do so as a clean & sparkling fridge is aesthetically pleasing. In addition, it is beneficial for the ingredients to be stored inside.

According to many researchers, the commercial freezer can take the shape of a microbial profile. If there are many things in the fridge that are going rotten, such products can result in an airborne mould that could damage other items and often cause other food products to emit a foul odour. Therefore, it is vital to clean the fridge by using soap and water. Additionally, you should also ensure that any perishable item shouldn't be kept from the machine for longer. It would help if you also waited to do a deep clean until you're low on food items. You should commence the cleaning by focusing on one shelf at a time. If you have highly perishable foods, like meats or fish, put them in a cooler with ice packs while you clean.

Keep the Meat Products on the Bottom Shelf

One of the most crucial factors to keep your fridge organised is keeping the meat products like chicken, salmon and steak at the bottom level. As the lower rack is the coolest part of the device, therefore this decision makes sense. In addition, keeping things in the lower rack also provides less chance for cross-contamination between products. If the raw meat packaging starts leaking, it could be potentially unhygienic as there is a chance of spreading pathogens. Such leakage could spell trouble for items that are eaten after being cooked, such as lettuce. If the refrigerator space is tight and you can't isolate meat and seafood, double wrap it in the same plastic grocery bag you took home.

Don't Keep perishable Items in the Fridge Door

Not putting the items vulnerable to perishing in the door is another tip you could follow. In other words, the door is not the place to store milk, eggs and other vegetables. However, you can put butter in the door storage to save it from contamination. The better option would be to stash spices and condiments in that place since these usually have significantly high salt content and lower pH value, making them more shelf-stable. You can check out the fridge recommendations at Simco, the leading commercial refrigerator supplier in Sydney & Perth.

Avoid Overstuffing your Commercial Refrigerator

It is not advisable to over-pack your fridge. Doing so would make the air inside tough to circulate, which helps maintain the machine's precise temperature, resulting in reduced energy efficiency. Such an issue could also negatively impact your device's longevity and durability. Another drawback of an over-packed fridge is that you take significantly longer to find something you are searching for inside. The more time the fridge door is kept open, the harder it has to work to bring the temperature back down. The real problem, according to many researchers, is not the overcrowding of the freezer. The excess stuffing of the fridge will be a lesser issue if you arrange the refrigerator to allow you to open the gates for a minimum time. If you are not sure where to start, try preparing a category inside the device. Put the vegetables & fruit on the left, frozen meat & chicken on the right and the cooked foods in the middle portion.

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Store the New Item Behind its Older Counterpart

One of the policies you should preach while arranging the commercial refrigerators is 'first in, first out. As a kitchen owner, you would wish to cut down on waste by utilising the oldest food first by creating a system. The efficient method to do this is to keep following the rule of saving like for like — the new container of half-and-half goes right behind the older container, and this way, you would not reach in the fridge and mistakenly open the new one. You can apply the same in your kitchen as well. For example, you can put the latest boxes of pasta in the back of the cupboard and rotate them forward each time you load up on more.

Set Precise Temperatures for Longer shelf life

Another tip is to keep the temperature precise. It is recommended to keep the temperature at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If your refrigerator doesn't have a built-in thermometer, you could try to go towards the colder settings available to you. A colder fridge will give you a long-lasting life, but occasionally that'll mean freezing some items. The solution isn't always to raise the temperature — first, try a new spot for the lettuce. Every refrigerator is different, so you'll have to learn where your extra-cold marks are. In addition, it is also advised to keep the freezer at zero degrees Fahrenheit or below.

Save the Items from Perishing by Using Drawers

Most refrigerator drawers have adjustable moisture ducts, which allow you to close the airflow, thus creating additional humidity or reducing the moisture by opening the flow. If you don't view a humidity slide on your crisper drawer, it's probably built for high humidity. Humidity helps prevent vegetables that wilt from shrivelling up, like lettuce, kale, and asparagus. Drawers are also suitable for produce that releases ethylene, a gas that's released as certain fruits ripen, like apples, kiwis, peaches, and pears. Ethylene can cause other food to perish or spoil more quickly. Close off the air supply of your drawer, and you'll drive the ethylene to stop flowing to other parts of the fridge. If you wish to check out the multiple varieties in the machine, visit Simco, the top commercial refrigerator supplier in Melbourne & Brisbane.

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