What is essential for maintaining food quality in storage?

Maintaining food quality in storage primarily depends on temperature control because temperature directly affects the growth of bacteria and the overall freshness of food items. Proper temperature settings in refrigerators and freezers are critical for inhibiting spoilage and ensuring safety. For example, perishable items like meat, dairy, and certain produce require specific temperature ranges to preserve their quality. If these items are not kept at the correct temperatures, they can spoil more rapidly, leading to foodborne illnesses and waste.

While proper labeling, regular inventory checks, and organized shelves are also important practices in a storage system, they are secondary to temperature control in terms of directly impacting food quality. Labeling helps track freshness and ensures that older items are used first, regular inventory checks help identify products that may be nearing expiration, and organized shelves make it easier to manage storage space effectively. However, without adequate temperature management, these practices alone cannot prevent deterioration and loss of product quality.