Sometimes a hot day will make it difficult to operate your truck the way you normally would. Even with proper ventilation and air conditioning it can be significantly warmer in your truck than it is outside. I have worked eight hour serving shifts where the temperature exceeds 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius), although ambient outside temperature needs to be around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) for that to happen. On a more typical summer day in Pennsylvania the internal temperature of my truck nearest the cooking line rarely exceeded 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius). In the situation of extreme heat the most important thing to do is to stay hydrated and make sure you are consuming calories throughout the day. If you do not treat yourself and your workers as your most valuable pieces of equipment your business will not be able to complete service in extreme conditions. If you need to slow down, slow down. Make sure you are eating —even if it means taking a break from service— every couple of hours. I do not recommend eating directly in front of your customers during service, but you should be able to devise a way to subtly eat without a service interruption. Drink as much water as you need to feel hydrated. The odds are low that you will need to use the bathroom because of the hot conditions and subsequent perspiration you will experience. On a day like I’m describing it is better to drink water than sell it, but ideally you can do both!
You can also consider installing an air conditioning unit into your kitchen, but carefully think through the likelihood it will be effective before taking on that expense. An AC unit will create a major electric draw and if you have equipment like a deep fryer running in your space it may render your air conditioning ineffective. If you are not sure an AC unit will work well with your setup, consider setting up fans on either side of your kitchen to create a cross breeze and keep air from becoming stagnant within your mobile unit.
Now that you are taking care of your people, you can give special attention to other parts of your operation that also get stressed on a hot day. This, of course, is refrigeration. When your refrigeration units work in a hot environment they are especially taxed. It is very important to make sure the compressor is well ventilated and able to take in air from outside the vehicle. In the below photo you can see an example of a ventilation screen on the exterior of a food truck that is specifically placed in front of a refrigerator compressor to allow the compressor easy access to fresh air.
It is also important to understand that the more you open your refrigerators on a hot day the harder they will have to work. Additionally, if you open them too frequently they will not be able to hold an appropriate temperature even as they are properly working. For this reason, you should have small amounts of any product you need to regularly use out and at room temperature. Keep only enough out such that you do not have to be preoccupied with product sitting in the danger zone for too much time before you can go through it, but also enough that you will not have to open your refrigerator on a constant basis. Doing so will enable you to keep your refrigerators holding at an appropriate temperature as well as all of the contents inside them. When you do go to open one of your refrigerators, do so with purpose. Know what you intend to take out and think ahead so you can potentially take multiple items out at once. Select said items and remove them from the refrigerator in an expedient manner.
The best example I can provide as an illustration to my point in the above paragraph is the use of cheese. Cheese, according to health department code, should be stored below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). This is reasonable. However, the key thing to realize is that if you open your refrigerator too often the entire unit will not hold at 40 degrees and, therefore, none of the contents of your refrigerator, including your supply of cheese, will hold at 40 degrees. Cheese, of course, is also a food that melts at a relatively low temperature. Therefore, if you take too much cheese out of your refrigerator at once you risk ruining it. In a restaurant setting, you would simply keep any cheese being held outside of refrigeration for an extended period of time on ice. This is not practical on a food truck because ice melts quickly in a mobile food environment and cannot easily be replenished. Your best bet is to set out enough cheese to last between 30 minutes and one hour of service. While this cheese will end up being warmer than 40 degrees, it won’t completely melt before use and it won’t be subject to danger zone rules due to the short exposure time out of your refrigerator. Having said that, always consult with your local health department. While I have sometimes had success reasoning with inspectors about the nuances of the health code, ultimately the inspector always has the final say on how to interpret food safety rules.
If you do not have hot cooking equipment on your mobile unit such as a flat top grill, steam table, or deep fryer, it will be much easier to keep your refrigeration working properly during the warmest days of the year. For example, if you are operating an ice cream truck these concepts may not need to be followed.
If you choose to operate in cold weather, equipment that runs hot becomes more at risk for breaking down than refrigeration. When turning your propan powered equipment on in below freezing temperatures it is important to let the burners of your equipment heat slowly. If you turn on a piece of equipment from a below freezing state and immediately turn it to a high setting you risk cracking the gas lines that feed your burners or the burners themselves due to the sudden and drastic temperature change. Much like with refrigeration, it is also important to make sure your propane powered equipment has sufficient air flow around its gas lines to reduce the chance of damaging your equipment through everyday use.
As a rule of thumb I allow 50% more start up time when operating on a cold winter day. After all, in addition to the need to heat your burners more slowly it will also take longer for your cooking surfaces and fry oil to reach their appropriate holding temperatures.
Once your cooking equipment is at the correct temperature it will need to work much harder to maintain that temperature. This means you will burn through propane more quickly. Additionally, propane has difficulty flowing in cold weather and if your tank is not insulated you will not have the ability to completely empty it before needing to refill. As a result, a propane tank’s run time in winter may only be half of what it is in warmer months of the year. If you regularly operate in cold weather, to combat this you may want to invest in an electric propane blanket.
If you are storing your truck in an area that can drop into freezing temperatures it is also advisable to completely drain your water tank after every shift when there is a frost warning to keep your plumbing lines from potentially freezing. If you have the luxury of storing your truck in a heated space you do not need to concern yourself with this. If you are using a space heater to keep your truck warm, make sure you have chosen a generator that can handle the additional electrical load the space heater will demand.
Lastly, when operating in cold weather it becomes more difficult to serve hot food at an appropriate temperature. Heat lamps may help, but the cold surrounding ambient temperature may also render them useless. Cooking to order will take longer, but becomes more important if you want to serve a quality product in a safe manner.
For all of the inconveniences that come into play in cold weather coupled with the fact that there are generally less people interested in food trucks when the weather dips below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) where I live I prefer not to operate during winter. However, there have been times when I have done so out of necessity and it certainly can be done.
Key Takeaways:
*Make sure to eat and hydrate throughout long, hot shifts; use fans to keep air moving
*Take extra care not to tax equipment in very hot or very cold environments
*In freezing temperatures, take extra care that food is being served at the correct temperature