The food stock management is an essential part of any business working with perishable products. Good management maintains the quality of the foods, avoids waste, among many other benefits.
But to attain excellence, knowledge is necessary and putting into practice extremely careful actions.
In this article, we will explain how maintenance of stock should be carried out and how our solutions can benefit your business. Good reading!
What is the importance of food stock management?
The stock management of perishable foods goes beyond just counting items. It is fundamental to guarantee that your operation functions properly.
It is worth highlighting that when you monitor your stock constantly, this avoids loss by expiry, improves the turnover of products and enables serving your client more efficiently.
Besides this, the correct stock management is also a way of guaranteeing food safety, offering fresh and high quality perishable products (vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy).
What are the types of logistics storage?
Before talking about stock control of foods, it is important to understand the storage options you can use. The choice depends on the type of perishable product you are managing.
- refrigerated storage: used for products that need to be kept at low temperatures, such as meat, dairy and fresh fruits.
- frozen storage: essential for foods such as fish, ice creams and other items that need to be kept at low negative temperatures to ensure their quality.
How to do food stock management? Six fundamental steps
Here are six practical actions that can transform your control of products:
1. Monitoring stock
The key to good stock control of foods is continuous monitoring. This allows you to always have a precise view of stock levels and avoids both excesses and shortages.
Using a management system (software) can greatly facilitate this control, especially in larger businesses.
2. Keeping areas clean and organized
Regular cleaning of storage areas such as refrigerated stores and shelves is essential to preserving the integrity of the foods, to avoiding loss of quality and contamination of products.
Always bear in mind that hygiene is an aspect that makes all the difference to the health and satisfaction of the consumer and consequently to the reputation of your brand.
3. Proper storage
Correct storage is also essential to preserving the quality of the foods and optimizing stock control.
Perishables need to be stored at the proper temperatures in refrigerated storage (normally between 0 °C and 5 °C) or freezers (at -18 °C or less) — and those for freezing are to freeze the food, after which they are transferred to the frozen rooms.
Besides this, it is fundamental to control the humidity and to avoid cross-contamination. Some products also need their atmospheres to be controlled or modified, such as environments with low levels of oxygen, to retard their ripening.
4. Recording all the items
Recording each item in stock maintains the exact control of the products. From the records, it is possible to accompany the entry and exit of foods, to identify quickly when an item needs to be resupplied and to monitor the validity of each perishable item.
To do this, record information such as the date of validity, the quantity available and the supplier, to avoid errors which can impact the operation.
The constant updating of the records guarantees that you always have a clear vision of what is available in stock.
5. Using the “First In, First Out” model (FIFO)
One of the most common practices in stock control of foods is to follow the “first in, first out” model (FIFO).
This means that the products which first arrive in stock should be used or sold first. This process helps to avoid foods with a close validity date being discarded as expired.
Thus, when implementing FIFO, organize the items in stock so that the oldest products are always in front, facilitating their use first.
6. Separation of foods by categories
Organizing the foods by category facilitates the stock control and guarantees that each type of product is in the ideal storage conditions.
Separating the perishables between refrigerated and frozen helps to optimize the storage space and facilitates the identification of products that need to be resupplied or consumed soon.
As well as improving the organization, separation by categories also facilitates the maintenance of efficient stock management.
Discover our temperature controlled storage solutions
As you can see, stock control of perishables is an extremely delicate requirement.
For companies facing challenges in this kind of activity, we offer controlled temperature storage solutions. We are specialists in cold chain foods logistics.
Our facilities are designed to guarantee that your perishable products are stored safely, preserving their quality and increasing the efficiency of your operation.
With our flexible storage solutions, you have the guarantee that your foods will always be in the ideal conditions, avoiding losses and guaranteeing a more efficient stock control. Find out more about our services!
