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REFRIGERATION

Food storage

How to store butter (salted, unsalted, white)

Butter is around four-fifths fat, so it resists bacterial growth better than milk or cream, but it has two weaknesses: it absorbs odours easily and its fat slowly turns rancid with warmth, light and air. Salted butter keeps a little better than unsalted, and white (unsalted, home-style) butter is the most delicate. Commercial kitchens and bakeries should keep working stock at 0 to +4 °C and bulk stock frozen at −18 °C or colder, bringing out only what a shift needs.

  • Chilled0 to +4 °C
  • Frozen−18 °C or colder

Do

  • Keep butter in its original foil or wrap, or in a covered container, away from onions, spices and fish.
  • Freeze bulk blocks in their sealed packaging. Thaw them in the fridge overnight rather than at room temperature.
  • In bakeries, hold butter for lamination at the temperature your recipe needs, usually chilled, and return it to the fridge between folds.
  • Cut table butter portions on clean boards and keep them chilled until service.
  • Rotate stock by date. Butter that is past its best shows a sharp, cheesy or stale smell and darker yellow surface.
  • Use a dedicated shelf or drawer so butter is not exposed to warm air every time the door opens.

Avoid

  • Do not leave a butter block on the tandoor or tawa station; it melts, separates and can go rancid within a day.
  • Do not store butter unwrapped in a fridge holding curries or chopped onion.
  • Do not let butter partly melt and resolidify repeatedly; the texture becomes greasy and grainy.
  • Do not keep butter in sunlight or under bright display lights for long periods.

In Indian conditions

Indian kitchens use butter heavily on naan, kulcha, pav bhaji and makhani gravies, so a working block sits near hot equipment all service. Keep a small portion at the station in a covered dish and refill it from an undercounter fridge rather than leaving the full block out. Bakeries working with puff and croissant doughs in 35–40 °C rooms often need chilled worktops or a reach-in nearby to keep butter workable. White butter (makkhan) from local dairies has more moisture and buttermilk residue, so treat it like fresh dairy. Freeze bulk stock ahead of known power-cut periods.

General good practice for commercial kitchens and shops. Where your FSSAI licence conditions or food-safety plan set stricter limits, follow those.