Hot food buffets: safety and quality tips from the experts

Displaying hot food for your customers to enjoy at any time of day is a challenge for any business. With both safety and quality concerns to wrestle with, it’s important you ensure you have the perfect equipment for your needs and get it right first time.

Alongside concerns about keeping your food at a safe temperature while maintaining taste, ease of cleaning is also a high priority. Food debris in the unit can cause a hygiene risk if not removed quickly. Opt for a food heating unit with removable shelves if possible, this will help mitigate any risk arising from improper cleaning.

In addition, following these tips will ensure your hot food buffet is always delicious and always safe.

Food which stays fresh, tasty and looking good for longer

A countertop heated display unit, or snack warmer cabinet, should be fitted with a water container for humidification. This will ensure the food stays moist and fresh for longer.

Constructed from 430 satin polished steel, our vision aire heated buffet countertop maintains food at a consistent 65 – 75⁰C temperature and uses a water container to ensure your buffet options always taste fresh, giving your customers or staff the best possible buffet experience.

For smaller hot food display units, a heated perforated base and ambient perforated shelf will ensure temperature is easily circulated throughout.

Our vision aire warmer buffet countertop circulates heat throughout constantly, making it the ideal storage solution for pre-warmed pastries, croissants and more by ensuring the items are kept at a warm, consistent temperature.

Some hot plates feature heat lights over the food as well as under heating. This ensures the food is evenly heated all the way through and doesn’t risk parts of the food cooling down too much, or the base of the food becoming burned in order to maintain a high temperature throughout.

The manhattan heated countertop ceramic glass hotplate is the ideal Counterline solution should you require this. It maintains your food at a regulated temperature and ensures its piping hot throughout and is perfect for anyone serving larger, heartier items which commonly cool down in the middle.

Hot wet well and dry well bain maries are both effective at keeping heated food at a safe temperature, which one you use to keep quality for longer depends on the food type.

• Dry well bain maries are best to high volumes of food, and food which are more ‘solid’ or heavy
• Wet well units are the preferred choice for sauces and more delicate foods.

Available in both dry well and wet well variations, our manhattan heated countertop bain marie provides you with the flexibility you need to serve a range of food to your customers, from hearty potatoes to your delicious sauce which brings the whole meal together.

Hot food display cupboards are usually open fronted. If you own a retail outlet, ensure your unit has fan-assist to keep all food, even that at the front, hot. You could also get a unit with separate temperature controls for each level.

Our icapacity standard heated display ensures all food maintains all your pre-cooked foods  at a regulated temperature of 63^oC – 72^oC, meaning your customers always get their hot food at the perfect temperature. It also provides you with the ability to keep food at a different temperature on each level, giving you the freedom to easily stock a range of hot food even if different temperatures are required.

Find out more

We’ve been helping businesses with the food display requirements for many years and have worked with some of the biggest businesses across the globe. To learn more about our range of heated food display units, contact us today on 0151 548 2211 to discuss your requirements with a member of our team.