Storage and the cold chain in the shop: why it is a safety issue

A pet product carries the same kind of microbiological and chemical risks as food for people: bacterial growth in wet or refrigerated products left out of the cold, fat oxidation in dry food exposed to heat and light, mould growth in humid conditions, contamination from insects or rodents in a poorly controlled storeroom. The difference is that the end customer never tastes the product before giving it to their animal, so they have no way of noticing a mild sensory defect the way they would with their own food. This shifts the responsibility for control almost entirely onto the shop.

There is a second, less obvious reason that is just as concrete: an animal that gets sick from a poorly stored product almost always leads the owner to suspect the shop where it was bought, even when the real cause lies elsewhere. Visible, consistent storage management, with shelves ordered by date, clean refrigerators and an up to date temperature log, is one of the few things an attentive customer notices, and it quietly builds trust long before any promotion does.

Not every product category carries the same risk or needs the same attention. The table below summarises where the main danger sits for each product family and which storage practice reduces it, as a starting point for organising the shop's checks.

The rule governing rotation is simple: the product with the nearest expiry date leaves first, regardless of when it arrived in the shop. This is the first expired, first out principle, and it needs the same discipline both in the storeroom and on the customer facing shelf, where the temptation to slide new deliveries in front of older stock is constant because it is the fastest gesture during restocking.

• Every delivery is checked for expiry date and batch number before it goes onto the shelf, not afterwards.
• New stock goes behind what is already on display, never in front, even when the packaging looks identical.
• Products closest to expiry move to a visible position or get an internal marker, so whoever restocks does not have to recalculate every time.
• Batches are logged together with the receiving date, so a recall can be traced quickly to which packs are still in the shop and which have already sold.
• Products approaching expiry without selling get flagged with a discount or pulled from sale ahead of the deadline, not on the day itself.

Rotation only works if the storeroom is organised to make it the natural path: shelving accessible from both sides, enough room to move older stock forward without manually shifting everything each time, and a fixed point for logging deliveries. A packed storeroom, where the only way to add stock is to stack it in front of what is already there, makes rotation nearly impossible even for the most careful staff.

Kibble carries a long shelf life on paper, but that shelf life only holds if storage conditions stay within what the manufacturer intended. Fat in dry food oxidises over time, and the process speeds up with heat, direct light and exposure to air once the bag has been opened. A bag kept near a sunlit window, above a radiator or in a storeroom with no air movement ages far faster than the printed date suggests.

• A dry environment: humidity encourages mould and clumping in kibble, and it also makes conditions easier for storage insects.
• Stable temperature, away from direct heat sources such as sunlit windows, radiators or surfaces exposed to sun all day.
• Direct light kept to a minimum: packaging is not designed to withstand prolonged exposure to sunlight.
• Opened bags resealed tightly after every scoop, ideally moved into dedicated containers if they stay open for a long stretch.
• No bag resting directly on the floor or against a damp wall: pallets, raised bases or shelving that leaves air behind and beneath the product.
• Regular checks of storeroom corners, gaps and the space behind shelving for signs of insects or rodents, which find dry food a favourable environment when cleaning is not regular.

The most reliable sign of compromised dry food is not the date but the smell: rancid fat produces a sour or paint like odour that is clearly different from the natural aroma of fresh kibble. Staff who handle the same product every day learn to recognise it quickly, and it is a check worth doing on a sample basis on the oldest bags even before the printed expiry date arrives.

Open wet food, fresh refrigerated products, frozen raw or BARF diets and refrigerated treats share a single principle: the cold has to stay constant from the moment the product leaves the supplier to the moment the customer carries it away, with no interruption however brief. A break in the cold chain, for example a delivery left outside the refrigerated van during unloading or a display case left open too long during restocking, is not visible to the eye, but it can start microbial growth that does not undo itself once the product is back in the cold.

The most delicate case is frozen raw food: even a partial thaw followed by refreezing is a double risk, because it favours microbial growth during the warmer window and then preserves it inside the refrozen product instead of removing it. A raw product that arrives or is found partially thawed during storage should not go back into the freezer on the assumption the cycle stopped in time. It should be assessed against the supplier's guidance and, if there is any doubt, excluded from sale.

Physically separating raw diets from the rest of the range is not just about a tidy shelf. Thaw fluid from raw products can contaminate other foods if packages touch or if a shelf is not cleaned between products. A dedicated freezer or area for raw food, with trays that catch any leakage and regular cleaning of the surface, reduces this risk in a straightforward way.

The exact temperatures for fridges and freezers are not something a general article can set: they should always follow the manufacturer's instructions on the label and technical sheet, together with the local regulation that applies to the shop. What the shop can control directly is consistency, not chasing a single figure: a fridge that swings up and down constantly is a problem even when its average sits within the correct range, because swings stress the product more than the average value does.

This is why even a simple temperature log is the single most useful tool a shop can adopt: a regular reading noted with date and time makes it possible to catch a slow drift before it turns into an outright failure, and it becomes concrete proof of diligence in the event of an inspection or a customer complaint.

A power cut or a fridge breakdown needs a procedure decided in advance, not improvised in the moment it happens. Doors stay closed as much as possible to retain residual cold, the time the fault was noticed gets logged, a technician is contacted and, if available, the most sensitive product is moved to another working refrigerated unit. The decision on what to keep and what to discard after a prolonged interruption follows the supplier's guidance and, in doubtful cases, the view of the relevant health authority: it is not a call to make on instinct under pressure.

On the shelf, any package that is damaged, bulging, has a compromised seal or shows signs of leakage should be pulled from sale immediately, regardless of the printed expiry date. A bulging can in particular is a signal that should never be ignored: it points to internal fermentation in progress that makes the product unfit, even when the rest of its appearance still looks normal.

Batch traceability is what makes a manufacturer's recall manageable. Knowing which batches arrived, on what dates and in what quantity, means that if a supplier announces a recall, the shop can quickly isolate only the products involved instead of pulling an entire category out of caution, or worse, missing the recall entirely. Even a simple log of incoming batches turns this into a matter of minutes rather than hours spent checking every single pack on the shelf.

Hygiene of surfaces and bulk displays deserves the same attention as the fridges. Containers for biscuits, chews or scoop treats are cleaned regularly, dedicated tongs or scoops are never swapped for bare hands, and the counter where a customer's bag rests during weighing gets wiped down several times a day, because it is a constant point of contact between different products and different customers.

Finally, storage does not end at the till. A brief word to the customer on how to store the product at home, especially for open wet food, refrigerated items and raw diets, reduces the risk that all the care taken in the shop gets undone on a car ride under the sun or in a home fridge left unattended for days. Recommending an insulated bag for raw food in warm months, or a quick verbal reminder of how long a product can safely stay out of the cold, costs only a few seconds and belongs fully to the safety chain.

1. 1

   Every day, before opening

   Read the previous shift's temperature log, check fridge and freezer doors and seals by eye, and scan the shelf front for damaged or bulging packages.

2. 2

   Every day, during restocking

   Log the temperature of fridges and freezers, place new deliveries behind stock already on display using the first expired, first out rule, and check the dates on the products in the front row.

3. 3

   Every day, at closing

   Confirm doors and covers are properly closed, check that no refrigerated product was left out of the cold during the day, and note any anomalies observed.

4. 4

   Every week, dry storeroom check

   Inspect every opened bag in rotation for seal integrity, check corners and the space behind shelving for signs of pests, and confirm nothing rests on the floor or against a damp wall.

5. 5

   Every week, stock review

   Review the temperature log to catch slow drifts, check which products are approaching expiry in the coming days, and give bulk displays and work surfaces a thorough clean.

6. 6

   When something looks wrong

   Isolate the suspect product immediately without putting it back on sale, assess it against the supplier's or the relevant health authority's guidance, and write down what happened and what decision was made.