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Tips for Keeping Food in the Unit
•
Cooked meats/fishes should always be stored on a shelf above raw meats/fishes to avoid bacterial transfer.
Keep raw meats/fishes in a container which is large enough to collect juices and cover it properly. Place the
container on the lowest shelf.
•
Leave space around your food, to allow air to circulate inside the unit. Ensure all parts of the unit are kept
cool.
•
To prevent transfer of flavours and drying out, pack or cover the food separately. Fruit and vegetables do not
need to be wrapped.
•
Always let pre-cooked food cool down before you put in the unit. This will help to maintain the internal
temperature of the unit.
•
To prevent cold air escaping from the unit, try to limit the number of times you open the door. We
recommend that you only open the door when you need to put food in or take food out.
Preparations for Freezing
•
Use quality food and handle it as little as possible. Freeze food in small quantities as it freezes faster, takes less
time to defrost and enables you to control the quantity you need better.
•
Leave cooked food to cool completely. Chill food before freezing if possible.
•
Consider how you will want to cook the food before freezing it.
•
Don’t freeze food in metal containers if you may want to microwave it straight from the freezer.
•
Use special freezer bags, freezer film, polythene bags, plastic containers, and aluminium foil (heavy duty
grade only). If in doubt, double wrap your food. Don’t use aluminium foil for acidic foods, e.g. citrus fruits.
Don’t use thin cling film, glass, or used food containers without cleaning.
•
Exclude as much air from the container as possible. You could buy a special
vacuum pump which sucks excessive air out of the packaging.
•
Leave a small amount of air space when freezing liquids to allow expansion.
•
You can use the space in the freezer most efficiently if you freeze liquids (or solids
with liquids, e.g. stew) in square blocks. This is known as “Preforming”. Pour the
liquid into a polythene bag which is inside a square sided container. Freeze it, and
then remove it from the container and seal the bag.
•
Label your frozen foods as they will look the same when in frozen state. Use
special freezer tapes, labels and pens with different colours. This allows you to
easily organise and to effectively use the freezer. Write the contents and date;
otherwise the frozen food might exceed the storage time and this could cause
food poisoning. Please refer to your food packaging for the recommended
storage time.
You may also add the weight and cooking notes, e.g. “defrost first”, “cook from frozen” and keep a separate log of
what is in each drawer. This will save opening the door and searching around unnecessarily.
Defrosting Frozen Food
1. Take the frozen food out from the unit and uncover the frozen food. Let it defrost at room temperature. Don’t
forget that defrosting in a warm area encourages the growth of bacteria and low temperature cooking may
not destroy dangerous bacteria.
2. Drain off and throw away any liquid lost during defrosting.
3. Always make sure there are no ice-crystals in the food before cooking, particularly with meat.These crystals
indicate that the food has not fully defrosted.
4. Cook food as soon as possible after defrosting.
5. Many microwaves and ovens have a defrost setting. To avoid bacterial build up, only use these if you intend
to cook the food immediately afterwards.
Never re-freeze anything that has been defrosted unless you cook it again, to kill
off harmful bacteria. Never re-freeze defrosted shellfish. Re-seal packs properly after
removing items. This prevents drying or freezer-burn and a build up of frost on any
remaining food.
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