If you’re serving individual milk cartons to students, a milk cooler is one of the best solutions for storing these milk cartons. Refrigeration is the single most important factor in maintaining the safety of milk. Milk Coolers are engineered to hold milk at temperatures below 40 degrees F which is ideal to protect milk’s quality. The cooler refrigerated milk is kept, the longer it lasts and the safer it will remain. As milk is allowed to warm, bacterial grow more rapidly and quality and safety are diminished. Properly refrigerated at temperatures below 40 degrees F, milk can be safely stored for about two weeks. Investing in a quality milk cooler is an investment in reliability and safety for employees and customers.
Once you’ve decided to purchase a milk cooler, you need to choose your milk cooler – so what should you look for? Here’s a short list that can help you narrow down your options to make the best decision for your foodservice operation.
Size – When sizing a milk cooler, you will typically base your needs by the number of milk cartons or crates that you need to store within the cooler at any given time. You should also look at the height and weight of the unit you are considering ensuring it will fit in the space you have allocated. On the smaller side, we offer the True Manufacturing TMC-34 which holds between 2 & 9 crates. For greater capacity, choose the True Manufacturing TMC-49-HC, with a capacity of 10 to 12 Milk crates.
Materials & Construction – the most popular material choice is stainless steel because it is highly durable and resists corrosion. It is also common to have the interior of a unit is stainless steel which is why they are corrosion resistance. The exterior construction of the True Manufacturing TMC-49-HC is stainless steel. You’ll want to be sure that the unit you select has a stainless steel interior.
Cleanout Drains – Milk coolers should be equipped with clean out drains. In some cases, you can locate the outlets of the drains over the floor drains or over a bucket to clean out any liquid waste and dispose of it appropriately. These drains are very handy when cleaning the unit as you can clean and rinse over the drain.
Digital Thermometers - Because milk coolers are all about keeping milk at the food safe temperature of below 40 degrees F, having a digital easy to read exterior thermometer is really a necessity rather than a nicety. Look for a unit that has a digital display on the outside of your box so it’s easy to keep track of.
Door Type – depending on the unit’s design, you can choose from two different types of doors; either duel sided or single sided. If you are putting the milk cooler under a worksurface, and against a wall, then the single sided unit is for you. In this type of a door, you can only access the product from one door way. Conversely , if you will be removing product from both sides of the unit, and it is not covered somehow, then a dual sided unit may be to your benefit. With this unit, you can speed up processing drinks because you have access from two people and they are unlikely to get in each other’s way.
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