Some foods carry their own temperature in law. Minced meat must be chilled to 2 °C, meat preparations and poultry to 4 °C, red meat to 7 °C and offal to 3 °C, and fresh fish kept close to melting ice. Those figures come from Regulation 853/2004 and bind approved establishments, which is most cold stores and processors handling meat, fish and dairy. Fresh produce, eggs and chocolate have no legal figure, but bananas, tomatoes and cucumbers are damaged by an ordinary chill room. One store can hold all of them, so the useful question is which limit each zone alarms on.
Why it matters
Different foods fail in different ways
Raw meat, mince and fish are limited by bacteria, and the law sets the tightest figure for minced meat: 2 °C, 5 °C colder than whole cuts of red meat. Vacuum packing adds another hazard: the FSA's guidance says non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum 'is able to grow and produce toxin at 3°C and above', so a pack of smoked fish labelled for storage below 3 °C relies on the chill chain to stay safe (FSA and FSS, VP/MAP guidance).
Fresh produce fails the other way. Many tropical and summer crops suffer chilling injury: the cells are damaged by cold that would be ideal for meat, and the damage often appears only after the produce warms up, as pitting, browning or decay. That is a quality loss, not a safety hazard, so the law does not cover it, but your customer will reject the load.
The limits
The figures, product by product
The table gives each figure with how binding it is. Law means a regulation; guidance means an FSA or FSS document an officer expects you to follow; industry means a commodity manual or assurance scheme that your customer may hold you to but no inspector can enforce. The 853/2004 figures are product temperatures (core or internal), not air.
Mince or meat preparation? Minced meat is 'boned meat that has been minced into fragments and contains less than 1 % salt'. Add seasoning, additives or more salt, or marinate it, and it becomes a meat preparation, which is 4 °C. Mechanically separated meat is meat recovered from bones by machine so that the muscle structure is lost, and it is 2 °C like mince. So plain beef mince is 2 °C and a seasoned burger or sausage meat is 4 °C (853/2004, Annex I).
| Product | Limit | Status | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minced meat | 2 °C internal, or −18 °C frozen | Law | Section V, Chapter III, 2(c) |
| Meat preparations | 4 °C internal, or −18 °C frozen | Law | Section V, Chapter III, 2(c) |
| Mechanically separated meat | 2 °C, or −18 °C frozen | Law | Section V, Chapter III, 3 and 4 |
| Red meat | 7 °C throughout the meat | Law | Section I, Chapter VII |
| Offal | 3 °C | Law | Section I, Chapter VII |
| Poultry and rabbit | 4 °C | Law | Section II, Chapter V |
| Fresh fish | Approaching melting ice, read as at or near 0 °C | Law; 0 °C is technical guidance | Section VIII, Chapter VII; Torry Advisory Note 12 |
| Frozen fish | −18 °C in all parts; brief rises of 3 °C in transport | Law | Section VIII, Chapters VII and VIII |
| Live oysters and mussels | No figure: must not harm safety or viability | Law | Section VII, Chapter VIII |
| Raw milk | 8 °C on farm (daily collection) or 6 °C; 10 °C on arrival; 6 °C at the dairy | Law | Section IX |
| VP or MAP chilled food, such as smoked fish | Below 3 °C, or a 10-day maximum shelf life at 3 to 8 °C where no other controlling factor applies | Guidance | FSA and FSS, VP/MAP guidance |
| Eggs before sale | Steady temperature, generally not refrigerated; Lion eggs 5 to 20 °C | Law; Lion figure is industry | Regulation 589/2008; British Lion Code |
| Quick-frozen food | −18 °C in storage; −15 °C brief transport rises; −12 °C UK retail cabinets | Law | Quick-frozen Foodstuffs (England) Regulations 2007 |
| Other chilled food, non-approved businesses | 8 °C (England, Wales, Northern Ireland); FSA advises 5 °C | Law; 5 °C is guidance | Schedule 4, England Regulations 2013 |
| Potatoes for chips and crisps | Above 6 °C in the manufacturer's own store | Law (acrylamide) | Regulation 2017/2158, Annex I |
| Bananas | 13 to 14 °C holding, 14 to 18 °C ripening; injury below 13 °C | Industry | GCCF manual |
| Tomatoes, unripe | 13 to 18 °C; injury below 12.8 °C | Industry | WFLO manual |
| Cucumbers | 10 to 13 °C; injury after 2 to 5 days below 10 °C | Industry | GCCF manual |
| Lettuce | 0 to 1 °C | Industry | GCCF manual |
| Chocolate | 20 °C or lower, steady; never above 30 °C once set | Industry | GCCF manual |
Who it applies to
Approved establishment or general food business
The 853/2004 figures bind establishments that must be approved. Article 4(2) says a business handling products of animal origin covered by Annex III 'shall not operate unless the competent authority has approved them', except for transport only, storage of products 'not requiring temperature-controlled storage conditions', and retail (853/2004, Article 4). A chilled store for meat or fish that supplies other businesses is normally approved, and Schedule 4 of the England Regulations, with its 8 °C, does not apply to it.
Everyone else, including caterers and most shops, works to the general rule: 8 °C in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no figure in Scotland, with the FSA advising 5 °C (see Chilled food: 8 °C or 5 °C?). The FSA's VP/MAP guidance says it directly: businesses not subject to approval 'such as catering businesses and retailers' may lawfully store food at up to 8 °C. A retail business that only stores or transports meat for other businesses still has to meet the Annex III temperatures (Article 1(5)(b)).
Product temperature maxima. 2, 4 and 7 °C from Regulation 853/2004, Annex III (approved establishments); 8 °C from Schedule 4 of the England Regulations 2013 (other businesses).
Worked examples
A chilled store with mince, poultry and dairy
This is an illustrative example. An approved distribution site has one chilled chamber holding beef mince, whole chickens, yogurt and cheese. The limits are 2 °C for the mince, 4 °C for the poultry, and the temperature on the dairy labels. The room must meet all of them, so it has to run for the mince: in practice a set point close to 0 °C, with the mince stored away from the doors and the evaporator's defrost air.
If the room is set to 3 °C because most of the stock is dairy, the mince is out of specification all the time, even though nothing alarms. The usual alternative is to move mince and other 2 °C product into a colder chamber or a dedicated zone, and let the rest of the room run at 2 to 4 °C.
A banana ripening room
Bananas arrive green at a pulp temperature of 13 to 14 °C. The ripening room gasses them with ethylene and then runs a programme between 14 and 18 °C, warmer to ripen in 4 days, cooler to stretch it to 8 or 10. The manual warns against exposure 'below 56°F (13°C) even for a few hours': a few hours at 10 °C can dull the peel, and 12 hours at 7 °C generally makes the fruit hard to sell (GCCF manual, Bananas).
So the risk in a ripening room is a cold excursion, the reverse of a meat store. It also says bananas 'should not be stored nor transported with chilling resistant crops'. A pallet left in the general chill room overnight because the ripening room is full is exactly what that rules out.
- Holding and ripening: 13 to 20 °C
- Suggested alarm limits
Holding 13 to 14 °C and ripening 14 to 20 °C from the GCCF Commodity Storage and Handling Manual (industry guidance, not law). The alarm limits are our suggestion for air probes.
Where the rules conflict
Eggs, potatoes and the multi-temperature store
Eggs. The marketing rules say eggs 'should in general not be refrigerated before sale to the final consumer' and should be kept 'preferably at a constant temperature'; Class A eggs may not be chilled below 5 °C except for short spells (Regulation 589/2008). The FSA's advice to caterers is to 'store eggs in a cool, dry place, ideally keep refrigerated until use' (FSA). Both are right for their stage: steady and ambient in the supply chain, cold in the kitchen. The British Lion Code adds 5 to 20 °C for Lion eggs.
Potatoes. Manufacturers of chips and crisps must store their potatoes above 6 °C under the acrylamide regulation. For the home, the FSA now says people 'can choose to store either in the fridge or in a cool, dark place' (GOV.UK, Acrylamide), reversing its earlier advice.
One building, many limits. A store holding mince, eggs, bananas and quick-frozen food has four regimes: about 0 °C, steady ambient below 20 °C, 13 to 18 °C, and −18 °C or colder. No single zone can meet them all, and each needs limits set from its own products.
Northern Ireland and Ireland
The same chill figures, newer EU detail
Northern Ireland and Ireland follow the EU text of 853/2004, and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1141 has changed it since Brexit. The FSA's memorandum says it adds flexibility to transport meat above the required temperature, with new rules on recording surface temperature, and lets fish be held 'at the technologically required temperature for the purpose of slicing for up to 96 hours'. The core figures of 7, 3, 4 and 2 °C are unchanged. Ireland's general chill guidance is 0 to 5 °C (see Food in Ireland).
Quick answers
Questions we are asked
Is mince 4 °C? No. Minced meat is 2 °C; 4 °C is for meat preparations and poultry.
Does my shop have to keep mince at 2 °C? Only if it is an approved establishment, which a shop selling to its own customers is not. It falls under the general 8 °C rule in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, though your supplier's label may ask for colder.
Is chilling bananas illegal? No. It is a quality loss, not an offence. The 13 °C figure is industry guidance.
Do these limits refer to the air? No. The 853/2004 figures are product temperatures. Air probes give early warning; product or simulant probes show what the food reached.
In summary
The short version
- Minced meat 2 °C, meat preparations 4 °C, poultry 4 °C, red meat 7 °C, offal 3 °C, fresh fish near 0 °C: law for approved establishments.
- Non-approved businesses work to the general rule: 8 °C in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with 5 °C advised.
- Eggs in the supply chain are kept steady and generally not refrigerated; kitchens refrigerate them.
- Bananas, unripe tomatoes and cucumbers are damaged below about 13, 12.8 and 10 °C: industry guidance, not law.
- Alarm each zone below its strictest product, with a justified delay, and keep chilling-sensitive produce in its own zone.
- Northern Ireland and Ireland have the same chill figures, with newer EU detail on warm meat and fish slicing.