8 °C, 5 °C or your customer's limit? Where the rules differ
The law, the regulators' advice, your certification standard and your customer often give different figures for the same fridge. Each case below shows the sides with their sources, a risk-based way to decide, and what we recommend.
The law is the floor, not the target. Work to the strictest figure that applies to the product in front of you, write down where it comes from, and alarm early enough to act before the legal limit is reached.
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8 °C, 5 °C or your customer's limit?
Our chill stores alarm at 8 °C because that is the law. The auditor asked why not 5 °C, and our customer's code says something else again. Which one do we monitor to?
8 °C is the legal ceiling for the food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The FSA advises setting fridges to 5 °C or below, the Chilled Food Association targets 5 °C, Scotland and Ireland have no legal figure, and customer specifications can be tighter. We could not verify any publicly published retailer figure.
England, Wales, NI law
An offence to keep food that supports pathogen growth above 8 °C (paragraph 2), subject to defences. The figure is for the food, not the air.
Find every limit that applies to each product: label, shelf-life study, customer specification, 853/2004 and the law.
Work to the strictest one, and write its source in the HACCP plan.
Set the alert below the working limit so staff can act before it is reached.
Check the shelf-life study assumed the temperature you actually run at.
Ask your customer for the clause if their code is quoted to you.
Check with your inspector or RP:Ask your EHO or auditor if you intend to work above 5 °C for any ready-to-eat product, or rely on a manufacturer's upward variation above 8 °C.
We run sites in England and Scotland. Can we use the same chill and hot holding procedure in both?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland fix 8 °C and 63 °C with one-off four-hour and two-hour defences. Scotland fixes no chill figure: food must be refrigerated, in a cool ventilated place or held above 63 °C, but food exposed for sale is exempt, so there is no statutory hot-holding temperature on the counter, and there are no time defences.
England (and Wales, NI)
Above 8 °C is an offence; on display, one period under 4 hours is a defence; hot food below 63 °C is an offence with a defence for one period under 2 hours.
Food must be in a refrigerator, refrigerating chamber or cool ventilated place, or above 63 °C. Food being prepared, exposed for sale or cooled as quickly as possible is outside the rule. No tolerance periods.
Write one group limit that meets both: the 5 °C working limit works in each.
Do not build Scottish procedures on the two-hour or four-hour defences.
Hold hot food above 63 °C, not at 63 °C, so one figure fits both.
Record which national rule each site follows.
Check with your inspector or RP:Ask the Scottish local authority how it expects display and service periods to be controlled, since there is no defence to rely on.
What temperature do we reheat to? Our Scottish kitchens say 82 °C, the English ones 75 °C.
Only Scotland sets a reheating temperature in law: not less than 82 °C. The FSA advises 70 °C for 2 minutes or an equivalent; Northern Ireland's Safe Catering uses 75 °C as its example; the FSAI says 70 °C or more at the core, once.
Scotland law
Reheated food must be raised to not less than 82 °C, unless that would cause deterioration of its qualities.
Our frozen vehicle logged −16 °C for 40 minutes on a multi-drop route. Is that a breach?
Quick-frozen food must be kept at −18 °C or colder, with brief periods up to −15 °C in transport and up to −12 °C in UK retail cabinets; a cold store has no tolerance. ATP allows a brief surface rise of 3 °C during defrosting. Ireland caps retail tolerances at 3 °C (−15 °C, not the UK's −12 °C). None of the sources defines "brief".
Quick-frozen Foodstuffs (England) 2007
Maintained no warmer than −18 °C, except brief periods in transport not warmer than −15 °C, and retail display cabinets not warmer than −12 °C.
In a cold store, −18 °C is the limit with no tolerance; in transport, treat −15 °C as the edge of a brief, explained event, never a working temperature.
Look at duration and cause: door events and defrosts recover; a failing unit does not.
Probe between packs when the air has been warmer than −15 °C.
Tell the product owner and record the decision.
Check with your inspector or RP:Ask your authority or customer how they read "brief" if your routes regularly run warmer than −18 °C.
If the law allows four hours on display above 8 °C, why does our HACCP plan say discard after two?
The four-hour (chilled display) and two-hour (hot holding) allowances are one-off legal defences in England, Wales and NI, with the burden of proof on the business. The FSA (2016 guidance, written for caterers and retailers) says a single limited period up to two hours outside control is unlikely to be questioned. Ireland's I.S. 340 starts the clock at 5 °C, and HACCP asks for limits that control the hazard.
England law
Defence for food on display above 8 °C for one period of less than four hours, and for hot food below 63 °C for one period of less than two hours.
The law says monitor effectively. SFBB says once a day. BRCGS says every four hours. Which applies?
UK law sets no monitoring frequency. SFBB and the FSAI Safe Catering pack set a once-a-day minimum for small businesses. BRCGS Food Safety 4.15.3 and Storage and Distribution 7.3.2 ask for alarms or recorded checks typically every 4 hours, and Position Statement 20, for contract chilling and freezing sites relying on manual checks, gives a general guide of every 2 hours for chilled and every 4 hours for frozen, continuing at weekends and holidays, and possibly less often while doors stay shut.
Regulation 852/2004, Art. 5
Effective monitoring procedures at critical control points, and records commensurate with the nature and size of the business. No frequency.
BRCGS FS 4.15.3, S&D 7.3.2 and Position Statement 20 (paraphrased)
Recording with suitable alarms on all controlled stores, or recorded manual checks typically at least every 4 hours; for contract chilling and freezing sites relying on manual checks, as a guide every 2 hours chilled and 4 hours frozen, continuing at weekends and holidays, possibly less often while doors stay shut.
The certification standard applies on top of the law if you are certified.
Ask whether a check frequency would catch a failure before product is at risk.
Nights and weekends are where manual frequencies fail.
Write the frequency and the reason into the HACCP plan.
Check with your inspector or RP:Ask your certification body whether it applies Position Statement 20's 2-hour manual-check figure to general chilled storage.
How long must we keep temperature records? We have heard 12 months, two years and shelf life plus a year.
UK law fixes a period only for quick-frozen food (at least one year). Irish law fixes HACCP record periods for HSE-supervised businesses only (S.I. 369/2006; businesses under S.I. 22/2020 have none). BRCGS, SALSA and NI Safe Catering each set their own. These are differences between regimes: the longest that applies wins.
UK law
HACCP records commensurate with the business; other records for an appropriate period. Quick-frozen recordings at least one year, or longer for the shelf life (Regulation 37/2005).
Food Safety Issue 9: at minimum shelf life plus 12 months. Storage and Distribution Issue 4: never less than 1 year. SALSA Issue 7: shelf life plus one year.
Cooling: as quickly as possible, 90 minutes or 150?
How fast must we cool cooked food? Every guide gives a different time.
UK law says only "as quickly as possible". SFBB gives no time. NI Safe Catering and the FSAI say into the fridge within two hours. Scotland's ButcherSafe allows 90 minutes at ambient for small items. FSAI GN15 asks for 3 °C or below within 150 minutes for cook-chill.
Regulation 852/2004
Cooled as quickly as possible to a temperature that does not result in a risk to health.
Our records show air temperature. The law talks about the food. Is that a problem?
The FSA guidance (2016; written for caterers and retailers) says the chill requirement is for the food, not the air. Regulation 37/2005 requires air recording for quick-frozen food. ATP limits are food temperatures. Officers start with air records and move to product readings.
FSA guidance
The requirement is for the temperature of the food, not the surrounding air.
Our hauliers give us refrigeration unit printouts. Is that enough?
Hygiene law asks only that temperatures can be monitored. BRCGS Food Safety 4.16.3 accepts data loggers or records of refrigeration operation. Storage and Distribution 5.4.2 asks for automatic load-space recording (or recorded manual checks where there is no such equipment). Quick-frozen loads need EN 12830 recorders. ATP applies only to international journeys.
Regulation 852/2004
Conveyances capable of maintaining appropriate temperatures and allowing those temperatures to be monitored.
Load-area temperature monitored and recorded by automatic equipment, with records readily accessible, or by recorded manual checks at an appropriate frequency where there is no such equipment.
Probe checks or calibration: monthly, twice a year or annually?
How often do our probes and sensors need checking, and how often calibrating?
Two different things get muddled. A probe check (iced and boiling water, ±1 °C) shows a thermometer still reads roughly right: SFBB suggests monthly, NI Safe Catering at least twice a year. Calibration compares a device with a traceable reference and states its error and uncertainty: FSAI GN20 says working thermometers at least annually, preferably to ±0.5 °C, and BRCGS 6.4 is risk-based and traceable. No UK or Irish law sets either interval. EHO thermometers must be ±0.5 °C.
SFBB (a check, not a calibration)
Check the probe regularly, for example once a month: −1 to 1 °C in iced water, 99 to 101 °C in boiling water. If it reads outside that, replace it or send it back to be calibrated.
Working thermometers at least annually or by risk assessment; ±1.0 °C minimum, preferably ±0.5 °C; reference thermometers at least every three years; ISO 17025-accredited providers.
A chilled delivery arrives at 7 °C. Do we accept it?
SFBB gives no delivery temperature. NI Safe Catering says reject chilled ready-to-eat food above 8 °C. CookSafe suggests your own limit, for example 5 °C. The FSAI Safe Catering forms use 0 to 5 °C chilled and −18 °C or below frozen.
In 20 minutes we go through your limits, alarms and records against the law, your standard and your customers. You get the gaps in writing. No product tour.