Guide
Fridge and freezer temperature log: what to record
Updated
There is no statutory form and no statutory frequency. There is a legal duty to monitor your critical control points and to show that you did.
Talk to a specialist The duty is monitoring and records commensurate with your business, not a form somebody sold you.
Question 1
What kind of food business is it?
Pick the closest. gov.uk defines a food business broadly: if you sell, cook, store, handle, prepare or distribute food, including from home, a mobile unit or online, you are one.
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The rule underneath the log sheet
Retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004, Article 5 requires a permanent procedure based on HACCP principles. Two do the work. One is "establishing and implementing effective monitoring procedures at critical control points".
The other is "establishing documents and records commensurate with the nature and size of the food business to demonstrate the effective application" of the rest. Refrigerated storage is a critical control point in almost every catering business, so it is monitored and recorded.
There is no legal minimum frequency
Much published advice implies otherwise, but no UK regulation states how often you must check a fridge. The law requires monitoring that is effective for your business, a judgement your food safety management system makes and records.
The FSA's Safer Food, Better Business diary is built around daily records. That is the practical benchmark most inspectors expect from a caterer using SFBB.
What to record
- The unit. Which fridge, freezer, hot cupboard or display case, named the same way every time.
- The reading and how it was taken. A probe reading, a display reading or a data logger reading are different things; note which.
- The date and time. Times matter because both the England tolerances are time-limited: four hours for chilled display, two hours for hot holding.
- Who took it. A name, not initials, if you can.
- The corrective action when it is out of range. This is the entry that protects you. Article 5(2)(e) of 852/2004 requires "establishing corrective actions when monitoring indicates that a critical control point is not under control", so a log full of in-range numbers with no record of what happened on the day it failed is the weaker document.
The numbers to record against
- 8 °C, chilled
- gov.uk: "Chilled food must be kept at 8 °C or below. This is a legal requirement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It's recommended in Scotland." In England the underlying offence is in Schedule 4 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.
- 5 °C, the fridge setting
- gov.uk advice, not a legal limit: "Set your fridge to 5 °C or below to make sure food stays cold enough, even if the temperature changes." Setting to 8 °C leaves no headroom for a door left open.
- 63 °C, hot holding
- Schedule 4 makes it an offence to keep cooked or reheated food for service or display below 63 °C where that temperature is needed to control pathogens or toxin formation.
- 82 °C, reheating in Scotland
- Schedule 4 of the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 requires food that is reheated before service or display to be raised to not less than 82 °C. There is no equivalent figure in the England regulations.
Probes and data loggers
No particular instrument or digital system is required. Annex II of retained 852/2004 asks food premises to "provide suitable temperature-controlled handling and storage conditions of sufficient capacity for maintaining foodstuffs at appropriate temperatures and designed to allow those temperatures to be monitored and, where necessary, recorded".
A calibrated probe and a paper diary satisfy that. Automated logging changes the labour and the gaps, not the legal position.
If your probe reading and your fridge display disagree, record both and act on the probe. A display that has drifted is exactly the sort of thing your monitoring is there to find.