In a busy commercial kitchen, it's easy to overlook small things like dented pans or a tape stuck to a food container. But these seemingly minor issues can lead to major food safety risks, operational inefficiencies, and unnecessary costs. From unsanitary speed racks to cracked deli containers, these hazards can compromise your kitchen’s cleanliness, food quality, and compliance with health standards.
Luckily, there’s a better way to protect your food, staff, and bottom line. This food safety month, we're looking at Cambro's line of smart, durable, and food-safe solutions designed to eliminate these common kitchen threats for good, so you can focus on serving safe, high-quality food every day.
Metal speed racks serve an essential purpose and have always been a kitchen staple, but not without their problems. Overtime, they become grimy, corroded and broken. Until 2018, there weren’t any better options on the market. Then everything changed when Cambro designed the Ultimate Sheet Pan Rack to be everything traditional metal speed racks aren’t.
2. Cardboard Boxes of Produce
The cardboard boxes your produce arrives in have likely picked up some unwanted passengers during their journey—insects, bacteria, and who knows what else. When you bring those boxes into your storage areas, you’re giving contaminants a free pass into your kitchen.
Protect your ingredients (and your reputation) by immediately transferring produce into Camwear® Food Boxes. These food-safe containers help prevent contamination and make it easy to monitor inventory—especially when paired with a secure lid.
The truth is, no matter how hard you try, you can’t really clean rusty shelving. Eventually, you’re forced to throw it out and buy replacements. It’s an exhausting (and expensive) cycle—until you switch to Camshelving.
Camshelving Premium Series is built to break the cycle. Made from smooth, composite plastic wrapped around solid steel cores, it’s completely rust- and corrosion-free, and built to last a lifetime. The shelf plates lift off easily for the dishwasher, and the frames wipe clean in seconds.
When we see a shelving unit holding dozens of plastic wrapped food pans, we can’t help but cringe. Using plastic wrap instead of a proper lid doesn’t just look messy—it’s bad for your food, your storage space, and the environment.
If the wrap is loose, your food is wide open to cross-contamination. If it’s tightly wrapped like a mummy, sure, it’s covered—but now you can’t stack anything safely. That means wasted space or a risky balancing act just waiting to topple.
The good news? There's a better way. Simply using a Cambro Lid on your food pans solves all of these problems. Your food stays protected, pans can stack securely, and your storage space is used to its full potential.
Chefs and deli containers, it’s a classic relationship. But let’s face it, not all classics age well.
After a couple uses, deli containers start to smell funky, they get stained, and when stored in cold temperatures, they become brittle, crack and break down. And worst of all, many foodservice operations throw away thousands of deli containers each month, a lot of waste of your money and for the planet.
CamSquares® FreshPro Minis were created to be a sustainable upgrade from deli containers. Made with a durable, translucent material that is easy to clean, FreshPro Minis withstand temperatures -40°F to 160°F and are acid, stain and odor resistant. With CamSquares FreshPro Minis, you never have to throw away a deli container again.
Labeling your Cambro containers with tape might seem harmless—but it opens the door to all kinds of kitchen chaos. Most tape labels only include a name and a date—but is that the prep date? The expiration date? No one’s sure. And just like that, perfectly good food ends up in the trash… a tragic (and preventable) ending.
But the real villain here is the tape itself.
In the warm, steamy corners of the kitchen, tape becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. It peels, traps moisture, and gives germs a place to grow—turning your storage containers into a hygiene horror show. That grimy tape can lead to cross-contamination, putting your food and your kitchen’s safety at risk.
StoreSafe® Food Rotation Labels are the safe and smart alternative. With clear fields for item name, prep date, expiration date, and employee initials, they take the guesswork out of labeling. Even better? They’re 100% dissolvable in the dishwasher and biodegradable, leaving no sticky residue behind.
7. Dented Food Pans
Dented pans might not look like a big deal—but they can cause big problems. Even small dents can disrupt temperature control on your steam table and create chaos in your storage system, leading to uneven heating, wasted food, and unnecessary frustration.
Cambro's High Heat H-Pans are built to solve this. Engineered to withstand extreme temperatures from -40°F to 375°F, these durable pans resist dents, chips, and warping. Their translucent design also lets you quickly identify contents without lifting the lid—saving time and reducing exposure.
Build a Safer, More Efficient Kitchen with Cambro
Rust, contamination, cross-contact, and food waste don’t belong in your kitchen. Whether it’s replacing dented food pans, ditching plastic wrap, or saying goodbye to tape-labeled containers, Cambro offers proven solutions that improve food safety, increase efficiency, and stand up to the daily demands of foodservice environments.
Ready to break the cycle of waste, mess, and frustration? Reach out to your Sam Tell rep today to build a kitchen that works smarter, cleaner, and safer from the inside out.