Context: My partner and I are starting up a social club that serves food as part of it's services. We only operate 1 day per week at smaller volumes, so we may be getting groceries from a store, rather than delivery. This brings up issues about temperature control for cold TCS foods. (Also, we're all vegetarian, in case that helps)
Problem: If we buy say yogurt, cheese or tofu, it would need to be transported cold. But if we buy it at a grocery store, it would inevitably warm up during shopping and transport. How do caterers or restaurants that need to shop at grocery stores (for odds and ends) typically address this? Do you put coolers in the car to transport stuff? But what about warming up during shopping?
I want to be safe, but it's unrealistic to think the food would never get warm during that process. My understanding from the food safety certification is that food cannot go above 41F at all. I'm having a very hard time finding resources that describe answers.
A related problem: it may be that I misunderstand health guidelines. I can't find good gov resources that explain what happens if food goes into the danger zone. Clearly, if it's below 4 hours you can cool it back down...but how many times can you do that before it becomes dangerous? We serve a buffet so I wouldn't want to have it in the danger zone 3 hours, then cool it back down, then serve it for 4 hours. But that seems to be what most of the guidance online suggests for me.
Any advice you can provide on food safety guidelines for cold food, and practically how to enact it would be greatly appreciated. Or even numbers I can call to get information. I feel really on my own here, but desperately want to make sure I'm doing the safest thing. for my business and my customers.
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