Check the pack before you eat: date, seal, shape, cold

The pack is in your hand at the pick-up door. Before it goes into the microwave, give it a few seconds: date, seal, shape, cold.

Four checks at the door

• The use-by date. Every Plate Mate meal has a use-by date on the pack. It is a safety date: after it, the food is no longer safe and could make you ill (GOV.UK). A pack can look perfect and still be past it, so read the date.
• The seal. The lid or film should be closed all the way round, with no tears, holes or lifted edges.
• The shape. Victoria's health department advises never buying food in damaged packaging, or in containers that are swollen or leaking (Better Health Channel).
• The cold. Meals in our machines are chilled, not frozen, so the pack should feel fridge-cold, neither frozen solid nor room temperature. Australian and New Zealand guidance puts refrigerated food at 5 °C or colder (FSANZ), a benchmark rather than Thai law. We monitor the temperature inside our machines remotely.

Once it is open

A sour smell, an odd look or a fizzing sauce: don't eat it. A normal look and smell, though, never makes up for a passed date.

Packs carry reheating instructions. Follow them and heat until the middle is steaming hot, not just the edges; even reheating explains why the centre lags.

Then eat it soon. Australia's Food Safety Information Council advises eating perishable food straight away once it has spent 2 to 4 hours between 5 °C and 60 °C, where bacteria grow, and throwing it out after 4 (Food Safety Information Council). If you are saving the meal for later, get it home fast and into the fridge; in Thai heat that trip is the weak link in the cold chain.

If something looks wrong

Don't eat it, and keep the pack. Photograph it with the date, note the machine and roughly when you bought it, and contact us on WhatsApp, Telegram or by phone; contacts are in the site footer. Some machines have a camera that helps us review disputed purchases, and the machine and time make that easier.

If you have a food allergy, ask us about the dish before you buy and read allergens and cross-contact. For a first visit to one of our machines, the first purchase guide covers the whole purchase.