Good Warehouse Practices

Good Warehouse Practices govern how a food and beverage facility stores, holds and dispatches product without compromising safety or quality. They cover six areas: premises, chillers and freezers, storage condition, transport, personnel hygiene and pest control. Each one is a place where a warehouse can quietly undo the controls built into the production hall upstream.

The premises themselves set the baseline. Food storage facilities should be located away from objectionable odours, smoke, dust and other contaminants, and the warehouse should be of sufficient size to allow handling and storage of food products in a manner that does not result in product contamination. It should be properly ventilated to prevent condensation. Openings leading to the exterior should be meshed to prevent the entry of pests, and windows kept closed or fitted with insect-mesh screens. Floors should be non-slip, evenly graded to prevent water stagnation and drained off to trapped outlets protected by a grille. Walls should be made of smooth, durable, impervious, crack-resistant materials that can be cleaned easily, and lighting should be enclosed with shatterproof covers so that food or food package surfaces are not contaminated by breakages.

For temperature-controlled storage, the recommended temperature of chillers is 4°C and below, and that of freezers is -18°C or below. Chillers and freezers must not be overloaded beyond their designated capacity, and adequate racks should be erected inside them to allow proper storage of food products. Food products are stored separately from non-food products, stocks are rotated according to the First In First Out (FIFO) system or First Expire First Out (FEFO) system with adequate records kept, and stacked product should be at a reasonable height for ease of handling and to prevent falling.

The cold chain of a chilled or frozen food should not be interrupted during storage. For chilled food products, the temperature is maintained at 4°C or below with a core temperature not exceeding 7°C during transportation, while non-refrigerated food products are to be delivered in covered vehicles. Eating, drinking, smoking, chewing of gum or tobacco, littering and other undesirable behaviour is prohibited at designated areas in the premises, and any person who has or appears to have an infectious disease, infected wounds or any other abnormal source of microbial contamination must be excluded from operations. Pest management practices should be in place to prevent the harborage and breeding of pests on the grounds and within the facility, and no pets, including birds and animals, are to be kept within or around the warehouse premises.