SOP for Preparing Cold Foods in Hotel Kitchen

SOP Number: Kitchen / F&B Production SOP – 11

Department: Kitchen / Food Production - Cold Food Preparation

Date Issued: 30-Sep-2018

Time to Train: 30 Minutes

Purpose of this SOP:

The temperatures of all potentially hazardous cold food should be taken during preparation to ensure the safety of all food served to the customer are safe and as per the standard practice.

The Executive Chef and Garde Manger chef or Cold Kitchen Chef should be responsible to ensure that the cold foods are prepared using appropriate practices and procedures to ensure safety and sanitation. The hotel management should develop and implement proper written Kitchen SOP's to ensure the same is implemented correctly throughout all the food preparation outlets.

Cold Food Preparation Standard Procedures:

• Always wash your hands before preparing or getting in contact with the food.

• Use a clean, sanitized and calibrated thermometer to take the temperatures of potentially hazardous food products.

• Wipe the clean and sanitize thermometer stem with alcohol wipes prior to taking the temperatures of each food.

• Open the sanitizer package with clean hands.

• Record temperatures in the service Temperature Record log book.

• The temperature of the walk in and deep freezer should be maintained at 0° to - 10°F.

• All items in the freezer must stay sealed or the product will become freezer burned.

• Once any food item has been thawed, even partially, it should not be re-frozen again.

• Only remove products from the freezer that will be used promptly.

• Do not pack boxes and container in the freezer too tightly together.

• Leave enough space so that cold air can circulate freely.

• Packages packed too tightly in the freezer can cause the contents to defrost.

Points to note while preparing cold foods?

• Always pre-chill ingredients for foods which need to be served cold like sandwiches and salads to below 5°C before combining.

• Make sure to discard thawed potentially hazardous foods that have been above 5°C for more than four hours.

• Make sure to discard cold potentially hazardous food after four hours if they have not been properly held below 5° Celsius.

How to maintain food contact surfaces?

• Always use colour coded cutting boards for all products.

• Use cutting boards according to their colour code; Green Cutting Board = Vegetables Only, Red Cutting Board = Meat Only, Yellow Cutting Board = Chicken Only, White Cutting Board = Fish Only.

• All food contact surfaces like table etc. should be smooth, able to easily cleane and sanitize and made with the appropriate material.

• Clean and sanitize all food contact surfaces prior to and after use.

• Cleaning and sanitizing steps need to be done separately in order to be effective.

How to hold Cold Foods?

• On Regular interval, the Garde Manger chef or Cold Kitchen Chef should check the internal temperature of food using a thermometer.

• Cold food must be held at an internal temperature of 40°F (5°C) or colder.

• Only use cold-holding equipment that can keep food at proper temperatures.

• Do not store food directly on the ice except for whole fruit and raw cut vegetables are the only exceptions.

• Place the food in pans or on the plates first before placing them on ice.

Training Summary questions:

Q1. What is the purpose of this SOP?

Q2. Who is responsible to check and monitor the cold kitchen?

Q3. Points to note while preparing cold foods?

Q4. How to maintain cold food contact surface?

Q5. How to properly hold prepared cold foods in Garde Manger?