Whether you’re serving meals in four compartment insulated Gator Trays or the six compartment Extra Deep Marathon Trays, you want to be sure that you’re getting the best possible temperature retention in whatever insulated jail meal tray your utilizing during transport. There are many different factors that affect just how well your insulated jail meal trays will perform, from the types of food in the tray on that particular day to the distance the tray needs to travel, time in transit and ambient temperature during transit. While you can’t change the distance the tray needs to travel or the ambient temperature during transit, there are things that you can control that will have an immediate impact on the performance of your insulated prison food tray. Make sure to follow these five tips to get the most out of your insulated tray:
1. Start with the Right Temperatures – while it may sound obvious, the single most important step that you can take is to make sure the hot food is really hot and the cold food is really cold. Ideally, the hot food should be above 165 degrees Fahrenheit and the cold food should be below 35 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Use Best Practices for tray Make Up - make sure the trays are moving at 15+ trays per minute, put room temperature food on first, then cold and always put hot food on last.
3. Cover Quickly – as soon as the last menu item is placed on the insulated jail meal tray, cover it as quickly as possible. This will keep the heat from escaping and keep the food hotter, longer.
4. Strap ‘em Down – By strapping the trays down, this will prevent ambient air from entering the food compartment which will cool the hot food quickly. The straps enhance the seal between compartment which locks in the temperatures.
5. Keep the Lid on: Whatever you do, don’t remove the lid or top tray until you are ready to serve it.
If you are looking to improve the temperature retention that you are getting from your insulated jail meal tray, then your first step is to make sure you are following the five steps listed above. If you need any additional assistance with your meal serving process, reach out to your territory manager at Cook’s or give our customer service a call and we will assist you. With 25 years and 2000 correctional facilities on our customer list, we have a good deal of experience at supporting efficient jail and prison meal delivery systems.
