When and How to Reject a Food Delivery

Reject a food delivery whenever it fails your acceptance criteria: cold food above 5°C, hot food below 60°C, damaged or dirty packaging, signs of pests, thawed frozen stock, or missing use-by and allergen labelling. Refuse the affected items at the door, record what and why, and notify your supplier. Receiving is a food-safety control point under the Food Standards Code, so a documented rejection protects your customers and your compliance record. Key takeaways: Check every delivery for temperature, packaging integrity, pests, and labelling before you sign or unpack it.. Reject potentially hazardous cold food received above 5°C and hot food below 60°C unless the supplier can show a documented safe alternative.. Refuse damaged, dirty, or pest-affected stock and any product with missing, unreadable, or expired use-by or allergen labels.. Record every rejection: date, product, supplier, quantity, temperature, reason, and action taken.. Receiving is a control point, so train all staff who accept deliveries and keep your records for auditors and your local council.. Accept or reject quick guide: Item, Accept when, Reject when. Cold potentially hazardous food — At or below 5°C — Above 5°C with no documented safe alternative. Hot potentially hazardous food — At or above 60°C — Below 60°C. Frozen food — Hard-frozen, no thawing — Soft, ice crystals inside packs, or pooled water. Packaging — Intact, clean, dry — Torn, crushed, wet, swollen, dented, or leaking. Pests — No signs present — Any live or dead pests, droppings, or gnaw marks. Labelling — Legible dates and allergens — Missing, unreadable, or expired use-by or allergen info. Why receiving is a food-safety control point The moment stock crosses your door it becomes your responsibility. Under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, food businesses must take all practicable measures to ensure food is safe and suitable, and that includes checking incoming deliveries. A supplier can break the cold chain in transit, and once contaminated or temperature-abused food is in your fridge, you have lost the chance to stop the hazard at its cheapest and safest point. Treat receiving as an active inspection, not a signature. The person accepting the delivery should have a calibrated probe thermometer, a clean receiving area, and clear authority to say no. Acceptance is a decision, and the default position for anything that fails your criteria is rejection. Your acceptance criteria at a glance Before a delivery arrives, everyone who might receive it should know exactly what a good delivery looks like. Set written acceptance criteria so decisions do not depend on who is on shift. The core checks apply to every delivery of potentially hazardous food. Temperature: cold potentially hazardous food at or below 5°C; frozen food hard-frozen with no signs of thawing; hot food at or above 60°C.. Packaging: intact, clean, and dry, with no rips, crushing, swelling, leaks, rust, or dented cans.. Pests: no live or dead insects, rodent droppings, gnaw marks, webbing, or egg cases in or on packaging.. Labelling: legible use-by or best-before dates, product name, supplier details, and clear allergen declarations.. Condition: correct colour, texture, and smell; no off odours; no evidence of previous thawing and refreezing.. Vehicle and delivery driver: clean transport, refrigerated where required, and hygienic handling.. Temperature checks that decide acceptance Temperature is the single most common reason to reject a delivery of potentially hazardous food. Use a clean, sanitised probe thermometer accurate to ±1°C, and measure between packages or, where practical, the core of a product rather than just the surface, which can read cooler or warmer than the food itself. Cold food should be at or below 5°C and hot food at or above 60°C. Frozen food should be frozen solid; soft spots, ice crystals inside the packaging, or pooled water suggest it thawed in transit and should be refused. If a reading is borderline, take a second measurement and consider the food's history. The 2-hour/4-hour rule applies to how long ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food has spent between 5°C and 60°C, so ask the driver how long the load has been out and factor that in. Some suppliers operate validated systems that keep food safe at slightly different temperatures for defined periods; if so, ask for their documented evidence rather than assuming. Packaging, pest and condition checks Not every rejection is about temperature. Damaged packaging can let in contaminants, moisture, and pests, and it may mean the product was mishandled. Inspect the outside of cartons and the individual units. Swollen or leaking vacuum packs, dented or rusted cans, and torn or wet cardboard all warrant a closer look and often a refusal. Pest evidence is a straightforward reject: droppings, gnaw marks, webbing, or live insects mean the whole affected consignment should go back. Use your senses on the product too. Slime on meat, a sour or ammonia smell on seafood, mould, or discolouration are signs the food is no longer suitable, even if the temperature reads correctly. Dented, swollen, rusted, or leaking cans and vacuum packs.. Torn, crushed, wet, or dirty outer packaging.. Any pest activity in or on the delivery or the vehicle.. Off odours, slime, mould, or abnormal colour and texture.. Frozen items showing ice crystals inside packs or refrozen clumps.. Labelling and traceability checks A product can be at the right temperature and still be unacceptable if you cannot verify what it is or when it expires. Check that use-by dates have not passed and that best-before dates leave you enough shelf life to use the stock. Confirm the product name, supplier or manufacturer details, and batch or lot information are present so you can trace the item if there is a recall. Allergen information is critical: if labelling is missing, smudged, or in a language your team cannot read, you cannot manage allergen risk and should refuse the item. For food received without adequate labelling, you also lose the ability to prove provenance to an auditor, which undermines your whole food-safety program. Recording the rejection and closing the loop A rejection only protects you if it is documented. Whether you use a paper receiving log or a digital record, capture enough detail that someone reading it months later understands exactly what happened and why. Record the rejection at the time, not from memory at the end of the day. Then notify your supplier so a credit or replacement can be arranged and so they can investigate their own cold chain. Segregate rejected stock clearly, and never let it enter storage where it could be used by mistake. Keep the record with your other food-safety documentation; auditors and your local council will expect to see that receiving checks are happening and that failures are actioned. Date and time of delivery and of the rejection.. Supplier name and delivery docket or invoice number.. Product, quantity, and batch or lot code.. Measured temperature or the specific defect observed.. Reason for rejection and the corrective action taken.. Name of the staff member who made the decision.. Checklist: Receiving area cleaned and probe thermometer sanitised and calibrated.. Delivery matches the order and paperwork.. Cold food at or below 5°C; hot food at or above 60°C; frozen food solid.. Packaging intact, clean, and free of pests.. Use-by dates valid and allergen labelling clear.. Product appearance and smell normal.. Rejections segregated, recorded, and reported to the supplier.. Accepted stock stored promptly at the correct temperature.. Common mistakes: Signing for a delivery before checking it, then discovering problems later.. Probing only the surface or the delivery vehicle air, not the food.. Accepting borderline-temperature stock to avoid an awkward conversation with the driver.. Letting rejected stock sit with accepted food where it can be used by mistake.. Failing to record the rejection, so there is no evidence for auditors or the supplier.. Ignoring missing or unreadable allergen labels because the product looks fine..