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Food Storage in car for small PT Vendor


ssteiner13

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I was wondering if anyone can help me figure this out and/or share some of their own tricks with me for this situation:

I am a very very small part time vendor. I have 4 vending machines that I will be filling with snacks and drinks. I have an SUV and my plan was to go to like a warehouse store and buy supplies and then fill the machines, but I live in PA, and I wanted to leave the stuff in the car for long periods of time (like 4-8 hours). If I am just buying chips (that type of snack) and drinks like water, soda, and sports drinks - can that all keep even when the inside of my car might get 90 degrees or more in the summer? Is it okay for that type of stuff to get hot for long periods and then be cooled again? Will it harm the products and make them either taste bad, or worse, make someone sick.

As far as chocolate, I know I'd have to set up a cooler or something for that. Any trick in that regard would help. I've read some good ones on here.

Thanks everyone!

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Chips, soda and,even pastry items will be ok for a couple of days. For choc items a cooler is a must. I use frozen 1liter bottles as the cold source but anything you can refreeze will work. Most choc items now have a plastic wrapper so even if a frozen bottle of water thaws and leaks the only thing that ruined is the cardboard. The notable exception is M&M's. Make sure they are in plastic or elevated off the bottom of the cooler in the event of a leak.

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I was wondering if anyone can help me figure this out and/or share some of their own tricks with me for this situation:

I am a very very small part time vendor. I have 4 vending machines that I will be filling with snacks and drinks. I have an SUV and my plan was to go to like a warehouse store and buy supplies and then fill the machines, but I live in PA, and I wanted to leave the stuff in the car for long periods of time (like 4-8 hours). If I am just buying chips (that type of snack) and drinks like water, soda, and sports drinks - can that all keep even when the inside of my car might get 90 degrees or more in the summer? Is it okay for that type of stuff to get hot for long periods and then be cooled again? Will it harm the products and make them either taste bad, or worse, make someone sick.

As far as chocolate, I know I'd have to set up a cooler or something for that. Any trick in that regard would help. I've read some good ones on here.

Thanks everyone!

its not a great idea, no.

can soda - will deform the can and explode in high heat

plastic bottle water - can taste funny if exposed to high heat/sunlight

candy/chocolate - will melt in moderate heat can become disclored

pastries - almost all of these will melt/ruined by heat

peanuts - can make the bag appear cloudy/geasy

etc..

chips and crackers will be OK but you may as well take everything in

Chips, soda and,even pastry items will be ok for a couple of days. For choc items a cooler is a must. I use frozen 1liter bottles as the cold source but anything you can refreeze will work. Most choc items now have a plastic wrapper so even if a frozen bottle of water thaws and leaks the only thing that ruined is the cardboard. The notable exception is M&M's. Make sure they are in plastic or elevated off the bottom of the cooler in the event of a leak.

u dont have a problem with pastries? i have lost entire boxes of

choc and powdered donuts leaving them in the car ..honey buns get nasty too

but are ok if you cool them back down in the fridge them seem to reconstitute.

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Choc and powder donuts absolutely die in the heat. Cinn roll and cloverhill honey buns do fine. Choc cups and zingers can take one day of the heat. I store them in air conditoned space so they are somewhat cool in the am and only put enough in the truck for the day. Have not had any problems with this method and the temp in the cargo area of my truck easily exceeds 100 degrees for several hours each day.

Choc and powder donuts absolutely die in the heat. Cinn roll and cloverhill honey buns do fine. Choc cups and zingers can take one day of the heat. I store them in air conditoned space so they are somewhat cool in the am and only put enough in the truck for the day. Have not had any problems with this method and the temp in the cargo area of my truck easily exceeds 100 degrees for several hours each day.

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HI,

My 2 cents is to add vent visors (or similar) so you can keep the windows part way open (and not worry about the rain) to reduce heat build up inside the vehicle (without vent visors ....On a sunny 90 degree day your interior (if unvented) would most likely get way hotter than 100 degrees....Also, park in the shade if possible).

If your vehicle does not already have them tinting the windows helps out big time in terms of less heat.

If you have the space, you can buy the huge white cooler Sams sells and put heat sensitive items in there....I make my own 2 gallon ice cubes by buying new 2 gallon gas jugs, filling them with water and freezing them solid....In my step, van the ice cube needs changing about every other day in hot weather (I used to put the ice cube in a tray to catch the condensation but I got rid of the tray to make more room for product....some boxed may get a little moist but hasn't been a real problem since the foods inside the cardboard boxes are waterproof).

Hope this helps you.

Andrew

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I was wondering if anyone can help me figure this out and/or share some of their own tricks with me for this situation:

I am a very very small part time vendor. I have 4 vending machines that I will be filling with snacks and drinks. I have an SUV and my plan was to go to like a warehouse store and buy supplies and then fill the machines, but I live in PA, and I wanted to leave the stuff in the car for long periods of time (like 4-8 hours). If I am just buying chips (that type of snack) and drinks like water, soda, and sports drinks - can that all keep even when the inside of my car might get 90 degrees or more in the summer? Is it okay for that type of stuff to get hot for long periods and then be cooled again? Will it harm the products and make them either taste bad, or worse, make someone sick.

As far as chocolate, I know I'd have to set up a cooler or something for that. Any trick in that regard would help. I've read some good ones on here.

Thanks everyone!

The problems I have seen is everything seems to get stale a lot sooner and any type chocolate melts.

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Choc and powder donuts absolutely die in the heat. Cinn roll and cloverhill honey buns do fine. Choc cups and zingers can take one day of the heat. I store them in air conditoned space so they are somewhat cool in the am and only put enough in the truck for the day. Have not had any problems with this method and the temp in the cargo area of my truck easily exceeds 100 degrees for several hours each day.

the mrs freshleys honey buns seem to kind of melt/go soft. maybe because the cloverhill ones are meant to be microwaved they are ok. I agree cinnamon rolls are pretty much indestructible.

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Does everyone pretty much agree though with Dogcow about even canned soda and water being a problem with the heat? Because I was hoping I could get away maybe taking mission's advice and getting like a big plastic storage container and putting frozen 2 liter water bottles in it to keep what's in there cool - and use that for the pastry and chocolate - but leaving all the drinks out since they won't fit and just stacked in there. They'd be in there for about 4-8 hours, like I said. I was hoping that would be a problem for them - but now I am worried. I don't want the plastic leeching in because of the heat, or cans exploding.

Thanks for all the advice so far, I'm taking it all in. Luckily in PA this time it's starting to cool down a bunch, so I should be all right for the short term and through the winter until next summer. There will still be a hot day here or there, but not a lot. Is there anything I need to worry about for winter with the same time frames and it being below freezing. Soda or water in a car won't freeze in that short amount of time, right? Any tricks there?

Thanks again!

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I don't have a problem w hot cans deforming or exploding often. Only after spending a week or so in the truck. The thing to remember is that if they are hot to the touch is to handle gently. Hot cans can be like miniture hand grenades. :-)

ive had it happen after 8hrs in the car, it all depends i guess. i cant imagien its hotter in florida than texas. but then again sometimes 1 case of cans will explode

and all the others are fine or half the cans in the case will deform.

all i am saying is once you had a few cases explode on you , you wont want it to happen again.

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