 The purpose of this film is to show you how to conduct sanitary surveillance and inspection of food storage areas aboard ship. You will learn how to evaluate the condition of food at pier side and in storage and how to evaluate conditions in freezers, refrigerators, chill boxes and dry storage areas. One of your basic concerns is to make certain that no infested or spoiled food is allowed to come on board. Your sanitary surveillance and inspection of food items therefore begins at pier side prior to taking them aboard. You can help prevent infestation by inspecting food shipments for insects, cockroaches and stored product pests that are often transported from point to point while concealed among bulk food items. You can use the outward appearance of the food or food containers to gauge its condition. Look for torn containers that make food vulnerable to infestation by insects. Containers may have been broken and the food contaminated. Observe the date of expiration on the products. By recommending survey of all food items that appear infested or spoiled, you prevent many food related problems at this point. All food intended for your ship needs to be inspected before it comes aboard with careful attention to frozen and refrigerated foods. It is essential to confirm that frozen foods have in actuality remained frozen. They must be moved aboard quickly to ensure they stay in a frozen state. Temperatures of milk and other dairy products also need to be checked upon delivery. Temperature must be 45 degrees Fahrenheit or below. The use of block or crushed ice on top of milk cartons is prohibited. After food is delivered on board, the need for sanitary surveillance and inspection continues both on a formal and informal basis. Monitoring of food storage conditions provides the best assurance that discrepancies and unacceptable storage practices can be detected and corrected before they can lead to health problems. It's a good idea to check gaskets and seals around freezer and refrigerator doors regularly to confirm that they are in good physical condition and will help maintain internal temperatures at required levels. It is also essential to check the operation of safety releases associated with door mechanisms. This provides assurance that personnel inadvertently locked inside such spaces can get out safely. Highly perishable foods require proper storage temperatures, humidity, and air circulation. And so you need to observe that food is off the deck and that food stacks are kept away from bulkheads, both factors enhance air circulation. There must also be adequate clearance between food stacks and chilling coils. And frost accumulation must not exceed three-sixteenths of an inch. For the same reason, two feet of clearance must be maintained between tops of stacks and air duct openings. Generally speaking, if temperature is uniform in all areas, air circulation is adequate. You should also be looking at the condition of frozen foods and their containers. The purpose of sealing frozen foods in moisture and vapor-proof wrappers or containers is to prevent dehydration and freezer burn. Failure to protect partial lots of frozen foods may result in this, the dehydration of surface areas characteristic of freezer burn. Improper air circulation or temperatures may result in defrosting and ultimately spoilage of the food. Part of your concern during sanitary surveillance is to make sure that foods spoiled by inadequate storage and handling are immediately segregated and disposed of to prevent the spoilage of remaining food supplies. The same principles apply generally throughout other refrigerated spaces. You need to check door gaskets and seals. Again, the function of the door safety release must be checked. In the well-maintained chill box, the environment will be cool, dry, well-ventilated, and the area will be free from food spillage and debris. There will be adequate clearance between food supplies and deck, bulkhead, air ducts, and chilling coils. The coils coated by no more than three-sixteenths of an inch of frost. In dairy product boxes, temperatures are required to be between thirty-two and thirty-four degrees Fahrenheit. Food that readily absorb foreign odors, such as eggs and butter, should not be stored with fruits and vegetables. Leftovers or partially prepared foods brought to the refrigerator for rapid chilling must be covered with acceptable materials and properly labeled. Monitor the storage and use of leftovers to ensure that they are used within required time limits or discarded. Inspect lighting units to verify that safety guards are intact. Chill boxes used for holding fruits and vegetables must meet the same requirements for protection, except that the temperature range may extend from thirty-two to thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Special attention needs to be paid to the condition of food items stored in these areas. Decade or otherwise spoiled food items need to be removed from unspoiled food to be sure wholesome foods are not themselves spoiled. There are other requirements in the food storage area which must be checked during the course of your inspection. For example, temperature logs must be maintained for all bulk cold storage spaces. Accurate entries must be made at least twice daily. And you are to be notified along with the food service officer if there is any prolonged deviation from recommended storage temperatures. Many perishable foods are usually stored in non-refrigerated spaces, but spoilage can occur if items are mishandled, stored improperly, or if they're stored too long. Cleanliness is essential. The prompt removal of spillage aids in the control of insect infestations. Surveys should be conducted to identify such infestations. Every six months or before major deployments, storerooms should be cleaned and then can be treated with the appropriate insecticide. Storage areas for semi-perishable foods should be dry, cool, and well ventilated. Food must not be stored close to steam pipes or other sources of heat that would reduce shelf life. You need to be alert for piping systems that could cause food contamination if they were to leak, as in this case. So be on the lookout for deteriorated lagging and inviting harborage for insects. The potential for contamination and spoilage with resultant danger to ship's personnel increases if food is not properly protected. As a regular part of your inspection, you need to check the condition of packaged foods. Flour in insect-resistant bags treated within the past year is fairly safe. If integrity is lost by tearing or rupturing, immediate cleanup of spillage is essential. When bags or cartons containing flour, cornmeal, farina, grits, macaroni products, crackers, and cake mixes are torn or broken, they are likely items for infestation, and so the contents should either be surveyed or stored in insect-proof containers. It is sometimes possible to determine if there is an infestation by looking at the package. At the left is the larva of an insect belonging to the genus Trogoderma. The adult insect is at the right. One insect within the product requires its condemnation as being unfit for human consumption. The larva and adult in this case belong to the genus Trebolium. You are justified in condemning the food product if you find three insects per pound. Food items with other species of stored product pests containing seven or more insects per pound must be surveyed. If the product is lightly infested with insects, it should be placed in a freezer or chill box and issued from there. The integrity of metal cans used as food containers is usually sound, but your inspection needs to check the possibility that cans are damaged, perforated, or rusted through, exposing the food to spoilage and contamination. So long as the seal is not broken or rust has not penetrated, the food within the container may be considered safe. But cans with certain other conditions must be surveyed. Acid can cause tiny pinholes like these. Survey the food from such cans. Bacterial action may produce hydrogen sulfide gas that can't escape, causing the can to become a sweller. Survey such cans unless they contain molasses. Swellers in this case are normal, particularly in tropical climates. The sugar content is too high to allow microorganisms to exist and multiply. Another candidate for surveying is the springer. Swelled ends due to gas production, but yielding to pressure. When pressure is released, the can springs out again. Survey food in such cans unless the can contains coffee. Do not reject ground and roasted coffee in cans that have springer characteristics unless there are other good reasons for doing so. Digging in coffee cans is an indication of a properly sealed container in which the gas naturally produced has replaced the vacuum originally created in the can. Somewhat more deceptive and harder to detect is the flipper, a can in which the ends are flat until it is slammed sharply against a flat surface. The opposite end then becomes convex, indicating loss of vacuum in the can due either to gas formation by bacteria or chemical action on the metal. Regardless of the cause, do not allow the contents to be used. In the well-managed storage operation, the principle of first in, first out is used to minimize the amount of outdated food items. Specific standards exist for evaluating overaged foods, that is, foods stored beyond the inspection test date stamped on the case or shelf life specified in the appropriate NAVSUP food storage tables. Your ship may receive food shipments containing overaged items in good condition for which the shelf life has been extended. Such items should be used as soon as possible after receipt. You may be called on to help determine the disposition of overaged food items. The local veterinary support activity for guidance in determining appropriate action. In general, even if overaged food items have not been extended, they may be considered fit for use if the container is in good condition and the food item has no offensive odor and is palatable. The storage area and food items held by the jack of the dust in the breakout area should be checked. Your cleanliness here is as important as it is in every other food storage area aboard ship. From the time you first inspect food at Peerside until it is broken out for preparation, diligent attention to the requirements of sanitary storage can pay off in reduced incidents of food spoilage and infestation.