---
title: "Bakery & Patisserie Display Case Checklist"
canonical: "https://peakscaleops.com/checklists/bakery-display-case-checklist/"
---

> Source: https://peakscaleops.com/checklists/bakery-display-case-checklist/

[Checklists](/checklists/) / [Bakery & Patisserie](/checklists/bakery/) / Display, Turnover & Chilled Control

# Bakery & Patisserie Display, Turnover & Chilled Control Checklist

A Bakery & Patisserie display checklist has to run two different disciplines side by side: **chilled cream-filled stock at 0–5°C (32–41°F) with a short date code, and ambient bread merchandised for abundance**. These 8 checks cover both, plus the hourly sell-down log that builds tomorrow's bake plan and step-by-step price cuts (markdown) that start at the afternoon baking round rather than at closing. The chilled checks come straight from FSAI's 997-sample survey, in which 5 of the 8 pathogen failures were recorded in units above 5°C.

[Run this checklist - free](/run/bakery/?list=display) [Download PDF](/checklists/pdf/peakscale-bakery-checklists.pdf)[Download Excel](/checklists/excel/peakscale-bakery-checklists.xlsx)

The checklist · 8 checks

### Chilled cream-filled control

**1\. Log the chilled cake and cream cabinet three times a day, and hold it at 0–5°C (32–41°F)** Display temperature is the biggest thing you can control for cream-cake safety. A cabinet that drifts out of range spoils stock before its date.

**2\. Return cream-, custard-, and soft-cheese-filled items to 0–5°C (32–41°F) as soon as decorating or restocking is done** Most temperature problems happen at the bench and during service, not in the fridge. The clock starts the moment the tray leaves the cabinet.

**3\. Put a date code on every cream-filled item based on its short shelf life, and pull it on that day** These items last days, not weeks. A missed date code turns a sellable cake into a food safety problem.

### Keep the display case full and selling

**4\. Combine trays and rearrange the display every hour** Two half-empty trays look picked-over. One full tray looks fresh. It's the same stock, but it sells differently.

**5\. Move high-profit and slow-selling room-temperature items to eye level and the checkout area during the midday slow period** Put the items you need to clear where customers will see them first, before you have to cut the price at 4pm.

**6\. Log hour-by-hour sales for each item, to help build tomorrow's wave plan** Hour-by-hour sales data is what wave baking is built on. Without it, tomorrow's bake is just a guess, with the same errors as today.

### Room-temperature compared with chilled, and cutting prices step by step

**7\. Review weekly which items are kept at room temperature and which are kept chilled** Chilling bread that doesn't need it makes it stale faster and takes up case space. Leaving a filled item at room temperature risks the whole batch. Review the split yourself - don't just keep doing what was done before.

**8\. Start cutting prices step by step at the first afternoon wave: cut the price, then bundle it, then offer it to staff or donate it, then throw it out** If you cut the price at 3pm, you recover most of the cash. At 6pm, you recover only a fraction. Thrown out, you recover nothing.

## Frequently asked questions

**What temperature should a bakery display case be?**

Cream-, custard- and soft-cheese-filled items should be held at 0–5°C (32–41°F), logged at least three times a day. In FSAI's survey of 997 ready-to-eat cakes, pastries and desserts across 4,525 tests, samples at 0–5°C were 97.9% satisfactory versus 95.7% at 5.1–10°C (41–50°F), and 5 of the 8 unsatisfactory or unacceptable results for the key pathogens were in units recorded above the limit, at 5.1–10°C - one was recorded at 4°C (39°F) and two carried no recorded temperature, so keeping food cold (cold holding) narrows the risk rather than removing it. Every unacceptable sample contained fresh dairy cream, custard or soft cheese. Ambient bread lines do not need chilling - chilling them stales them faster.

**How often should bakery display trays be consolidated?**

Hourly. Two half-empty trays read as picked-over; one full, faced tray reads as fresh - same stock, different sell-through. How the shop is set up is not a small thing: a study across 39 bakery and retail-network outlets recorded losses reaching 20% of bakery and confectionery department sales, and named bakery section organisation, product display method and human error as the root causes - not spoiled food.

**When should a bakery start marking down?**

Start cutting prices at the first afternoon baking round, not at closing - cut the price, then bundle, then staff sale or donation, then waste. There is no published field experiment on bakery-specific price-cutting timing or discount depth, which is exactly why the checklist makes you log how much you recover by cutting prices: what sold at reduced price versus what was binned. Because bakery waste runs high, recovery rate is a number worth owning.

## More Bakery & Patisserie checklists

[Goods-In & Receiving](/checklists/bakery-receiving-checklist/)[Opening & Bake Plan](/checklists/bakery-opening-checklist/)[Cake Orders, Decorating & Collection](/checklists/bakery-cake-order-checklist/)[Allergen & Label Control](/checklists/bakery-allergen-labeling-checklist/)[Closing, Unsold & Waste](/checklists/bakery-closing-checklist/)[Weekly Checks](/checklists/bakery-weekly-checklist/)

One free app has all of them: [open the Bakery & Patisserie Checklists app](/run/bakery/) - offline, no account, add it to your home screen.

## Sources

Every statistic on this page comes from public inspection and food-safety data:

-   [End Food Waste Australia - Bread and Bakery Sector Action Plan](https://endfoodwaste.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bread-and-Bakery-Sector-Action-Plan_Full-Report-1.pdf)
-   [WWF Germany study via Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethrushe/2018/10/06/germans-waste-1-7m-tonnes-of-baked-goods-every-year-new-wwf-study-finds/)
-   [USDA ERS Loss-Adjusted Food Availability documentation](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-availability-per-capita-data-system/loss-adjusted-food-availability-documentation)
-   [Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists](https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/paaero/330067.html)
-   [Journal of Food Protection study reported by Food Safety Magazine](https://www.food-safety.com/articles/8496-most-major-food-allergen-recalls-caused-by-preventable-labeling-errors-study-finds)
-   [CFIA - Food Safety Targeted Surveys: Undeclared Allergens in Bakery Products](https://inspection.canada.ca/DAM/DAM-food-aliments/STAGING/text-texte/undeclared_allergens_bakery_products_report_1643649844061_eng.pdf)
-   [Food Safety Authority of Ireland - Survey of the microbiological safety of ready-to-eat cakes, pastries and desserts](https://www.fsai.ie/getmedia/fa18aa77-da0b-41b0-9003-78226f4f28fa/7937-ready-to-eat-cakes-accessible-\(1\).pdf?ext=.pdf)
-   [Where's My Shrink - National Supermarket Shrink Survey](http://wheresmyshrink.com/shrinkbydepartment.html)
-   [FDA - Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors in Selected Institutional Foodservice, Restaurant, and Retail Food Store Facility Types](https://www.fda.gov/media/157223/download)
-   [Farage et al., 'Gluten contamination in gluten-free bakery products: a risk for coeliac disease patients', Public Health Nutrition](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/gluten-contamination-in-glutenfree-bakery-products-a-risk-for-coeliac-disease-patients/8315A5B961393978CFFF02A61A5A1633)
-   [LOWINFOOD project summary of a Sustainable Production and Consumption paper](https://lowinfood.eu/2025/02/04/the-power-of-prevention-and-valorisation-for-reducing-surplus-and-waste-of-bakery-products-publication/)
-   [Hübner et al., Journal of Industrial Ecology 28(5):1117–1131](https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v28y2024i5p1117-1131.html)
-   [Food Industry Association](https://www.fmi.org/newsroom/news-archive/view/2022/12/06/retail-in-store-bakery-performance-on-the-rise)
-   [UK FSA retail surveillance survey reported by Food Safety Magazine](https://www.food-safety.com/articles/11616-uk-fsa-finds-persisting-compliance-issues-in-targeted-survey-of-retail-foods)
-   [UK FSA food product compliance survey reported by Food Safety News](https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/02/fsa-survey-assesses-food-product-compliance/)
-   [USDA Economic Research Service, Chart of Note](https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=89526)
-   [Cheesman, 'Prevalence of Gluten Contamination in Certified and Non-Certified Foods Labelled Gluten-Free', Current Developments in Nutrition](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8181807/)
-   ['An Impact Assessment of Par-Baking and Storage on the Quality of Wheat, Whole Wheat, and Whole Rye Breads', Foods](https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/2/224)
-   [WRAP - Household Food and Drink Waste in the UK 2022 press release](https://www.wrap.ngo/media-centre/press-releases/household-food-waste-levels-threaten-uks-carbon-reduction-ambitions)