9.2 Receiving Criteria and Rejection

Receiving is the last moment the operation can refuse someone else's failure. FDA Food Code 3-202.11 and every CFPM receiving chapter use the same operational sequence: schedule the delivery when trained staff can inspect, inspect immediately, take temperatures, look at packaging and dates, and reject what fails. Product that sits on a loading dock while the crew finishes brunch is already becoming the operation's problem.

Schedule and Inspect Immediately

Do not accept a drop when nobody can look. Ask suppliers to deliver during receiving windows, not during the Saturday rush or after the closer has gone home. The receiving employee needs a calibrated thermometer, a place to set cases off the floor, a way to probe product without contaminating it, and the authority to reject. "Just sign and put it away" is not a receiving program.

Inspect immediately. Walk the truck first: refrigeration running, no pest evidence, no chemical spill onto food, raw animal foods not dripping onto RTE product. Then open a representative sample of cases. A clean invoice does not override a warm cooler or a chewed box. If the driver is in a hurry, that is the driver's problem. Once you sign, the temperature abuse and the pest evidence are yours.

What Gets Rejected

Reject food that is damaged, spoiled, thawed and then refrozen, pest-infested, expired, or temperature-abused. Teach the crew the visible signs, not a vague "if it looks bad":

• Off odor, slime, unusual color, or mold
• Packages that leak, are filthy, or are torn open
• Pest evidence: droppings, gnawed cases, live insects, egg cases
• Cans that are swollen, rusty through, leaking, or dented on the seam
• Frozen food with large ice crystals, water-stained cases, or frozen liquid in the bottom of the case — signs of thaw and refreeze
• Past the use-by date on RTE product the supplier already date-marked
• Any TCS food that arrives in the temperature danger zone without a legal receiving exception

Document the rejection: product, quantity, reason, temperature if that was the reason, date, supplier, and what happened to the product. Returned on the same truck is the cleanest outcome. Do not set a questionable case "aside to see if the manager wants it tomorrow." That case will migrate into the cooler.

Receiving Temperatures

Cold TCS food is generally received at 41°F (5°C) or below. That is the default Food Code receiving temperature in 3-202.11(A). Several products have the well-taught exceptions:

• Milk may be received at 45°F (7°C) or below, then cooled to 41°F or below for storage.
• Shell eggs are received at an air temperature of 45°F or below.
• Live molluscan shellfish are taught in CFPM texts at about 45°F ambient and 50°F internal.
• Shucked shellfish are commonly received at 45°F or below.
• Hot TCS food must arrive at 135°F (57°C) or above.
• Frozen food must arrive frozen solid, with no evidence of thaw and refreeze.

Take the temperature of a representative unit, not only the air of the truck and not only the surface of a sealed case you never opened. For packaged cold food, fold the package around the probe or use an infrared reading only as a screen and confirm with a probe when the number is close. For live shellfish, use the air/internal teaching pair above. For hot food, probe the thickest part.

A product that arrives too warm is already temperature-abused. Cooling it after you signed for it is not a receiving control. The exam answer is reject.

Packaging, Cans, and Date Marks

Packaging must be intact, clean, and free of leaks and pests. Food Code 3-202.15 requires package integrity. Reject swollen cans, leaking cans, and cans with sharp dents on the seam. Those failures can allow Clostridium botulinum to grow in a low-acid canned food. A small dent on the body that does not touch a seam is a quality call. A dent on the seam is a safety reject. Do not puncture a swollen can to let the gas out.

RTE TCS foods that the supplier has already prepared or opened should arrive with date marks or a use-by date you can use. Do not accept an unlabeled hotel pan of cooked chicken from a commissary that cannot tell you when it was made. Date marking after you accept an undated RTE TCS product does not invent a safe remaining life.

Product, Receive Temperature, Reject If

Scenario: The Unattended Dock

A produce truck arrives at 11:40 a.m. while the line is in the brunch rush. Cases sit on the dock until 1:15 p.m. Cut leafy greens then read 52°F. The invoice is complete and the boxes were clean at 11:40. Reject the TCS produce. The failure started when nobody was scheduled to receive. Scheduling the delivery for a window when a trained clerk can inspect is the control, not a later cool-down.

Scenario: Ice Crystals in the Frozen Shrimp

A case of frozen shrimp is slushy at the edges and full of large ice crystals. The driver says it sat on the liftgate for only a minute. Large crystals, partial thaw, and a water-stained case are evidence of previous temperature abuse — thaw and refreeze. Reject. Cooking later does not make that an acceptable receiving condition.

Scenario: The Warm Catering Pan

A commissary delivers hot pulled pork for a banquet at 122°F. The driver offers to plug the Cambro in "for a few minutes." Hot TCS food is received at 135°F or above. 122°F is already in the temperature danger zone. Reject. Reheating after a warm delivery is not the receiving standard.

Receiving temperatures and packaging checks are the general rules. The next section applies them to meat, fish, shellstock, eggs, dairy, produce, ROP, and dry goods — including oysters without tags and a can dented on the seam.