Food Temperature Control Compliance Guide
The most cited category in retail food inspection, and the most preventable.
Temperature control failures are why health departments inspect at all. They are also almost entirely a documentation and habit problem rather than an equipment problem.
Shop kitchen and food safety signage
The numbers that matter
- Cold holding: 41°F or below
- Hot holding: 135°F or above
- Cooling, stage one: from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours
- Cooling, stage two: from 70°F to 41°F within an additional 4 hours, for 6 hours total
That first cooling number is worth checking against whatever chart is taped to your wall. The stage-one requirement starts at 135°F, not 165°F. 165°F is a cooking and reheating temperature, not a cooling start point, and the two get conflated constantly.
What inspectors write up
- Cold or hot holding out of range at the time of inspection
- No temperature logs, or logs filled in retroactively
- Thermometers not calibrated, or none available
- Cooling done in deep covered containers, which cannot meet the time requirement
- Thawing at room temperature
- Date marking missing on ready-to-eat foods held more than 24 hours
Who enforces this
The FDA Food Code is a model, not a regulation. FDA publishes it and does not use it to inspect your restaurant. Your state or local health department adopts a version of it, often with amendments and often a cycle or two behind the current edition, and their inspectors enforce that version under local penalties.
This matters practically: if you are working from the current FDA Food Code and your county adopted the 2017 edition, some details differ. Ask your health department which edition applies.
Free daily temperature log
Download the Daily Food Temperature Log (PDF)
Where signage fits
Posted temperature ranges at the line, at the walk-in, and at the cooling station put the number where the decision happens, rather than in a binder in the office. Handwashing and thawing procedure signage does the same. Aluminum matters in a commercial kitchen for an obvious reason: it survives daily sanitizer.
Browse 8x12 aluminum safety signs or see all building and health code guides.