Indonesia Cold Storage: Cold Food Storage – Benefits, Challenges, and Considerations

In any commercial enterprise having an effective cold food storage system can vastly improve food hygiene and give the customer peace of mind. It can make the difference during the peak of the summer season when the temperature leads to food spoiling.

What is cold food storage?

Cold food storage preserves food at higher than freezing temperature with the aim of prolonging the shelf life of food and enhancing food safety. Foods that require cold storage include meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, eggs and other dairy products such as ice cream.

To put it simply, cold storage spaces and technologies are present in the food and the restaurant industry as well. Foods are often transported from the farm, processing plants, and manufacturing plants to the end buyer via refrigeration. Along the route, there are cold storage spaces waiting to be filled.

As per GMI Research, the Indonesia Cold Storage Market is estimated to grow at a promising CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period 2025-2032.

Importance of cold food storage for a restaurant

As an owner of a restaurant, the investment will pay off due to the following potential pointers:

• Saves customers from food poisoning bacteria. A restaurant that has a negative reputation, will ultimately lose its customers, which will hurt its bottom line.

• Demonstrates compliance to policies. The food code governs the storage and the selling of food.

• Limits food that is wasted. No one wants to waste food and cold storage will help in keeping the spoilage of food at a minimum.

• Cost savings. Cold food is one of the food items that is overpriced, thus you will be paying less for the food as you are not losing money on wasted food.

7 Best Practices For Cold Food Storage

A lot of restaurants create their own systems for cold food storage based on their order size, menu, workflow, and the space available. It does not matter if you have large walk-in freezers, or several smaller freezers and refrigerators, following the best practices can enhance food safety.

• Prevent the temperature danger zone.

Refrigerators must always be kept at or below 40ºF. Freezers must be kept at or above 0°F. Also, avoid allowing food to stand outside for too long. For perishable food the general rule of thumb is that they must not stand longer than 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature of the room.

• Ensure that you monitor and maintain the temperature of the storage.

For cold storage systems like freezers and refrigerators, internal thermometers should be installed. Check cold storage systems like freezers and refrigerators regularly for blockages around venting and air circulation systems. Most common blockages include, snow, ice, and dust accumulation. Antarctica folders should be checked and emptied regularly to avoid overfilling and covering the air vent. If the refrigerator system is still not functioning as needed, immediately call a repair person. It is always better to have a maintenance person on standby as they can handle these problems better than staff who have not been trained. If it is a common situation, consider a maintenance or repair person on standby. Avoid expensive system failure, food spoilage, or waste.3. Store in a cooler or chill the perishables within the refridgerator or freezer

Having room for a cold storage while receptioning the shipment helps avoid warming up, slow down the proliferation of bacteria, and spoilage; make food “remain” for a longer duration. With regards to the preparation of food, your kitchen staff should be trained on how to quickly put non used sections in to the fridge or freezer.

• In the case of a blackout, limit the amount of doors you open

Use cold storage strategically to minimize food usability loss. Each time the user has to open the door, they increase the external temperature, thus increasing the heat inside as well. For the appliances within the storage to be fully functional, they need to have a efficient power source. Check the internal thermometer as the very first step.