Receiving Chilled Dairy and Eggs Safely

When chilled dairy and eggs arrive, check the delivery before you sign for it. Milk, cheese and cream should be at 5°C or below, cartons and packaging intact, and every item clearly within its use-by or best-before date. Reject loads that are warm, leaking, dirty or damaged, and set aside cracked or soiled eggs. Recording each delivery temperature protects your cold chain and proves your receiving controls are working. Key takeaways: Chilled dairy and eggs should arrive at 5°C or below; reject warm loads rather than risk a broken cold chain.. Check packaging integrity, date marking and egg condition at receipt, not after you have signed for the delivery.. Reject cracked, leaking or soiled eggs, and any dairy at or past its use-by date on arrival.. Move accepted stock into cold storage immediately and rotate first-in, first-out.. Record every delivery's temperature, date and supplier as evidence your receiving controls work.. Why dairy and egg receiving is a critical control point Milk, cream, soft and fresh cheeses and eggs are potentially hazardous foods that support the growth of bacteria when they warm up. The bacterial danger zone runs from 5°C to 60°C, and every minute a pallet of dairy sits on a warm loading dock adds to the time your stock spends inside it. Receiving is the point where you can catch a broken cold chain before it becomes your problem. Standard 3.2.2 of the Food Standards Code requires food businesses to take all practicable measures to receive potentially hazardous food only under temperature control. In practice that means checking, recording and, when something is wrong, refusing the delivery. A supplier's cold chain becomes your responsibility the moment you sign for the load. Building a consistent receiving routine also gives you records. If a product is later recalled or a customer complains, dated delivery logs show you handled the stock correctly and help you trace exactly which batch is affected. Check the temperature first Chilled dairy should arrive at 5°C or colder. Use a clean, sanitised probe thermometer and measure between packs, or against a carton surface, rather than piercing sealed retail packaging, which can introduce contamination and shorten shelf life. For an accurate picture, probe several items across the load, not just the one on top. The 2-hour/4-hour rule is a useful reference for judging borderline loads: food held between 5°C and 60°C for under two hours can be refrigerated and used, between two and four hours should be used immediately, and beyond four hours must be discarded. Because you rarely know how long a supplier's product has been warm, the safest response to an over-temperature dairy delivery is to reject it. Record the temperature of each delivery on a receiving log, along with the date, supplier and any action taken. Calibrate your thermometer regularly so your readings stand up to scrutiny during an audit. Inspect packaging and integrity Temperature is only part of the picture. Check that cartons, bottles and cheese wrapping are intact, clean and dry. Leaking milk, swollen or bulging packaging, rust on cans of long-life product, or crushed cartons are all reasons to question or reject an item. Look at the delivery vehicle and pallets too. Dairy and eggs should travel in a dedicated refrigerated compartment, not stacked next to raw meat or chemicals where cross-contamination or taint could occur. Dirty crates, strong odours or pooled water on the truck floor are warning signs worth acting on. Leaking, torn or water-damaged packaging. Swollen, bulging or gassy containers. Product carried alongside raw meat, seafood or cleaning chemicals. Visible mould on cheese not intended to carry it. Cartons that are warm to the touch or sweating. Read the date marking Dairy and eggs carry date marks that tell you how long they are safe or at best quality. A use-by date is a safety limit: food must not be sold or used after it, so reject any dairy that is at or past its use-by date on arrival. A best-before date relates to quality; the food may still be safe afterwards, but the supplier no longer guarantees its condition. Check that you have enough shelf life left to actually sell or use the stock. Short-dated milk or cream that expires in a day or two may not suit your turnover, and you can decline it or negotiate with the supplier. Practise stock rotation, first-in first-out, so older stock is used before newer deliveries. Milk and egg are both declared allergens under the Plain English Allergen Labelling requirements in Standard 1.2.3. When receiving pre-packaged dairy and egg products, confirm labels are legible and allergen information is present, especially for items you will on-sell in their original packaging. Extra checks for eggs Eggs deserve particular attention because a cracked or dirty shell is a direct route for bacteria such as Salmonella into the egg. Inspect cartons and reject eggs that are cracked, leaking, or visibly soiled with faeces, dirt or feathers. Do not accept eggs whose natural protective coating has been compromised by improper washing unless they are commercially supplied that way. Eggs should be received cold and kept under temperature control, ideally at 5°C or below, and stored away from strong-smelling foods because shells are porous. Confirm the eggs come from a supplier who can be identified and traced; carton stamping and supplier paperwork support traceability if a problem arises. Check the date mark and the supplier's identification details on the pack. Keep eggs refrigerated from receipt through storage to service so the cold chain stays unbroken. Move stock into storage quickly and keep records Once a delivery passes your checks, get it into the coldroom or fridge straight away. The longer chilled dairy and eggs sit at ambient temperature during put-away, the more of their safe life you lose. Aim to keep the cold chain unbroken from truck to storage. Store dairy and eggs below or away from raw foods to prevent drips and cross-contamination, and rotate stock so the oldest usable product is at the front. Keep your coldroom running at 5°C or colder and monitor it routinely. Finally, complete your receiving record. Note the date, supplier, product, delivery temperature, condition and whether anything was rejected. These records are the evidence that your receiving controls work, and they are exactly what an auditor or council environmental health officer will want to see. Checklist: Coldroom space and a calibrated, sanitised thermometer ready before delivery. Dairy and eggs delivered at 5°C or below in a refrigerated compartment. Packaging intact, clean, dry and not swollen or leaking. No cracked, leaking or soiled eggs in the cartons. Every item within date with adequate shelf life remaining. Allergen labelling legible on pre-packaged dairy and egg products. Accepted stock moved into cold storage immediately and rotated FIFO. Delivery temperature, date, supplier and any rejection recorded. Common mistakes: Signing for a delivery before checking temperature and condition. Piercing sealed retail packs with a probe, contaminating the product. Leaving accepted stock on the dock while paperwork is completed. Accepting short-dated milk or cream that will expire before you can use it. Ignoring cracked or dirty eggs because the rest of the carton looks fine. Storing dairy above raw meat where drips can contaminate it. Not recording delivery temperatures, leaving no evidence for audits.