Hindsight won’t help South Australian Restaurants

The storm may be over, but the effects of yesterday’s storms will be impacting South Australian restaurants.

Assuming the restaurant managed to avoid any damage, the owners are now walking into a facility that has been without power for many hours. That means that they have a fundamental question to answer –

Do you keep the food or throw it out?

Keeping it means that you have a potential food safety risk.

Throwing it out is a loss of income. There is also the issue of restocking, and with the entire supply chain compromised, it may be difficult to buy items.

The cost of the unknown

The majority of restaurant and cafe owners won’t have any option – they know there was an extended power failure and that their fridges and freezers were off. They know their fridges would have been over 5°C.

What they don’t know are:

  • When it started to go over 5°C
  • When it returned back under 5°C (or how long it was above 5°C)
  • How warm it actually became

And that information is critical. It isn’t essential to throw food out that has been over 5°C but it is essential to throw it out if it has been over 5°C for too long.

The only problem is that they don’t know how long it was over 5°. Because of this, they have no option but to dispose of the food.

The solution

The solution is quite simple – temperature loggers.

Temperature loggers record the date, time and temperature every couple of minutes. This would have meant that the restaurant owner or manager could have identified when the fridge started to get too warm, when it cooled down again, and if it was a significant problem.

They aren’t even that expensive. A restaurant would spend more on toner cartridges each year.

Forget about hindsight, what about tomorrow?

It is just a matter of time before there is another incident. It could be a big storm, a lazy cleaner who unplugs a fridge, a broken fridge, or just a disgruntled customer. Now is the time to add that extra bit of protection for your product and your reputation.

Contact us on 1300 30 33 34 to work out if temperature loggers are right for you, and what the best type is.