Can food be moved to a different counter?

I get bothered by my out of season counters being left in my bakery with food on them. Yes, I could throw out the food to delete the counter, but that seems wasteful. Is there a secret to being able to move several thousand plates of food to a chosen counter so the out of season one can be stored? I often forget to check to see how many counters are empty when harvesting the foods, and I get stuck with the old counter for another month or more. There are bigger problems in the world, but it?s bothered me for years! Thanks!

At this time, we can't move food from an older counter to a newer one. The game itself is coded so that if you have the same recipe on several counters it will condense to a single counter when you run out of space. And, the way the game decides which counter gets all the recipes condensed onto it is by when the counter was placed.

For example: I place 3 counters on my board one white, one blue and one red, in that order. As I start to serve Brownies, they will show up on the counters in the same order of white, blue, red. Once Brownies are on all three counters if I then serve one Chocolate Cake, the Brownies will all condense onto the first counter, the white one and the Chocolate Cake will show on the blue counter.

I like to remodel every month so I've tried lots of different things but have found what works the best for me that I'll share below. Keep in mind this is just what works for me and might not work as well for everyone but at least it's a few idea for you to take and start experimenting in your own bakery :)

When I'm doing a remodel:

Spoiler: show

* Make sure my bakery is laid out as efficiently as possible

- This will ensure I have the customers getting in and out as fast as they can move and that my food is selling that fast as well

* Stop cooking any extra food

- Only currently needed goal recipes will get served and only in amounts of what the goal requires, no extra food for now

* Put out as many counters as possible that match my new theme

- I don't go crazy but I do like to place a few more than I think I need and in an amount that will work with my new layout
- Extra counters ensure that the little food I am still serving will be less likely to condense down.
- I think this helps it serve faster but I don't know that this has been proven yet...

* Move all unwanted counters to one location

- Works best if it's an area that I'll be forced to look at every time I log in

* Organize counters from least amount of food to most amount of food

- I usually go with a standard left to right organization but whatever you like will work
- You don't have to get super specific, general amounts will work great
- ie: all counters with recipes in the 500s together, all the 1,000s together then the 2,000s and so on.
- This way, the counters are already roughly set up in the order that they're going to empty

* Every time I open the game, I scan the counter corner and pack away all the empties

- This area should generally empty in the way its already organized
- There will sometimes be a sneaky counter that jumps the queue and goes from 10k down to 400 during the time my 800 counter goes down by a few
- It's a rare occurrence but it does happen so I thought I'd make a note

* Once a day I'll take a minute to go through the remaining counters and check to see how the numbers have dropped.

- This will help me find any tricky recipes that have jumped queue
- I hate to waste food but if I'm super annoyed with the old counters I will toss some out BUT only if its count was down to 100 or less.
- I justify this because the new recipes are only worth $4 per serving
- Those 100 and under counters are going to bring me less than $400 total
- This is a number I feel is an acceptable loss, but you can choose your own cut off point

* When all the counters are gone, I resume normal cooking to master until my next redesign when I'll do this all over again!

Thank you for your answer, AnnirasSweets! That was the piece I?ve been missing, that the counters fill from oldest placed to newest.
In the last few months, I?ve started making additional food to earn gems, since I never seem to be able to get free gems anymore. It used to be that I had only the goal food, but now I have 40 counters of food. 😬
I like your suggestion of adding lots more current counters and moving the unwanted ones all to one area. I do keep them in quantity order, but I usually consolidate the food so the counters don?t take up so much of my decoration space!
Thank you again for your help, today and during every goal. You are appreciated!!