Food Storage

Gastronorm sizes. Once your containers, inserts, lids and trays share one dimensional family, anything fits any shelf, any bain marie well and any coolroom rack, and you stop losing space to odd shapes.

Pick the family before you buy anything else. The gastronorms and containers range is the reference, and cool room shelving is sized around it.

Square for storage, round for anything poured or stirred. Square containers use shelf space efficiently and stack without gaps; round ones waste the corners but are easier to empty and scrape out completely.

Most kitchens run square in the coolroom and round for stock, sauces and anything decanted. Commercial food containers in both shapes are in the gastronorms and containers range.

Clear, nearly always. Being able to identify contents without lifting a lid saves time and stops the slow accumulation of unidentified tubs at the back of a shelf.

Opaque containers are cheaper and tougher, which suits bulk dry goods where the contents never change. Label both regardless.

With what it is, who made it and the date, every time, with no exceptions for things that are obvious. The tub that gets thrown out is always the one somebody did not label because they were going to use it that afternoon.

Dissolvable or removable labels save scrubbing adhesive off every container. See kitchen food labels.

Separated, with ready-to-eat above raw so nothing can drip down onto it, and in sealed containers rather than covered trays. That one piece of shelf discipline removes most of the cross-contamination risk in a coolroom.

Give raw protein its own shelf or its own unit where volume allows. The commercial fridges and cool rooms ranges cover the cold side.

Stainless or a container specifically rated for hot fill. Pouring hot stock into an unrated plastic container softens the wall and can deform the base, which is how a full container fails on a shelf.

Cool product down properly first, in shallow containers or a blast chiller, then decant. For transporting hot, use a rated insulated food carrier.

Enough commercial kitchen containers to hold a full day's prep with a working spare set in the wash, which is usually more than a first order allows for. A kitchen short on containers starts storing prep in whatever is free, and that is when labelling collapses.

Count your prep list, not your shelf space. Lids are the part that goes missing, so order spare lids separately.

Washed, rinsed and dried fully before being stacked, because water trapped between nested containers is where smells come from. Retire anything cracked, deeply scored or with unreadable markings.

Cracks and knife scores hold soil and cannot be cleaned properly. Most go through a commercial dishwasher; check the temperature rating for plastics.

Airtight seals and pest resistance more than temperature control. Flour, sugar and grains need to be off the floor, sealed and rotated, and a bin on castors is far easier to pull out and clean behind.

Scoops should live outside the bin, not buried in the product. See ingredient bins and kitchen scoops.