Commercial Food Shelving and Storage Key Terms

Learn about commercial food shelving and storage to make your food last longer

Whether you run a restaurant, a catering business, or are just trying to put food on the table for a small group of people, learning some commercial food shelving and storage key terms can help you extend the freshness of your food purchases. The fresher and more expensive the food, it seems, the shorter the shelf life. Before you go shopping for shelving and storage options, learn some of the basics so you can choose wisely.

 

Food rotation

Whether it's stored properly or not, fresh food doesn't last long. To avoid spoilage, commercial food is always rotated so that food is used before it goes bad in a "first-in, first-out" process. This means that the oldest acceptable food is used first. In the case of grocery stores, new food is placed behind older food so that customers will buy the older food first.
Try: Learn more about food rotation and check out some food rotation systems at Shelf Reliance.

Front-loading

Almost all commercial food shelving and storage shelving and racks are front-loading. That means that new products are loaded from the front. The most common exception to this is with coolers along the walls of stores that are stocked from behind.
Try: Check out the front-loading shelves and racks at Food Storage Shelves.

Modular

Modular food storage, which utilizes standard-sized containers and shelving to maximize storage capacity and efficiency, is widely practiced in the commercial food storage world.
Try: Read about the benefits of modular storage at ELA Enterprises.

Bulk storage containers

Bulk foods are purchased in large quantities and divided into smaller portions for sale or use. Typical bulk food items include rice, flour and beans.
Try: See Zesco.com to see a wide range of bulk storage containers.

Walk-in refrigerator and walk-in freezer

Like the names imply, walk-in refrigerators (or coolers) and freezers are large enough to walk into. These expensive items are designed to keep fresh food at 33-40 degrees and frozen food at 0-degrees or below.
Try: HowDoYouCook.com discusses a wide range of food storage issues. It also has a handy guide for how long different foods will keep when refrigerated or frozen.

Can racks

Can racks are used to hold and display canned goods in grocery stores. Many modern can racks are designed so that they automatically feed cans forward when a can is removed from the front.
Try: CanRacks.com describes the form and function of typical can racks.

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