Chilling a board before you send it out is not optional

Cheese is the part people worry about and cured meat is the part that gets forgotten. Both are perishable, and both are fine right up until a box sits on a porch on a warm afternoon.

Forty degrees for two days

A properly made board keeps its cold chain for about 48 hours, which covers an overnight courier comfortably. It does not cover a parcel left in a depot over a weekend, which is why we do not ship on a Friday and why we will not deliver to a post office box. There is nowhere cold to put it.

Why we do not deliver Sundays or Mondays

The courier networks are quiet at the weekend, and a quiet network means a parcel sitting somewhere instead of moving. A Monday delivery is the same problem one day later. It is not a kitchen capacity decision, it is a cold chain decision.

What to do when it arrives

Open it straight away and put the board in the fridge. If the ice pack is still frozen and the cheese is cold to the touch, you are fine. If the pack has thawed and the cheese is warm, do not eat it, and tell us the same day. We will replace it and we will not ask you to send it back.

One week refrigerated is the practical limit for an opened board. After that the cured meat is fine and the soft cheese is not, which is a good excuse to eat it sooner.