Temperature is the one control in food safety you can measure in seconds. A strong cold chain keeps chilled food at or below 5 °C and frozen food at −18 °C or colder from supplier to customer.
Check at delivery
Probe one item per chilled delivery, check frozen food is hard, and refuse anything outside your limits. Write down what you measured and what you did.
Cool cooked food fast
Divide large batches into shallow containers, use an ice bath or blast chiller, and get food into the fridge within two hours.
Monitor and record
- Fridge and freezer temperatures at least twice a day.
- Display units every few hours.
- A clear action when a reading is out: adjust, move product, assess, record.
Calibrate the thermometer
A thermometer that reads two degrees wrong makes every record wrong. Check it in iced water (0 °C) and boiling water every month.
