The ChillMate Guide to Food Cold Storage & Temperature Recording
The importance of maintaining cold storage temperature logs
If you are a chef operating a commercial kitchen, a food manufacturer or grocery store, you are required by law to follow several food safety procedures. One that is particularly important is managing the temperatures of your fridges and freezers. It is crucial for you to maintain safe temperatures for food storage to ensure you minimise bacterial growth and keep the food that you serve or sell to customers safe. As controlling your fridge and freezer temperatures is such a critical step, the Food Standards Agency mandates that regular daily checks and clear records are kept for all cold storage units. Many establishments fail to follow this process, which means they could be at risk of running their fridges and freezers at unsafe and illegal temperatures and potentially losing food hygiene certifications if an Environmental Health Officer inspects your premises.
Manual temperature checks, the traditional but time-consuming method
The traditional way to track commercial fridge and freezer temperatures is by performing a manual inspection and maintaining a temperature log which demonstrates to enforcing authorities that you are following legal requirements. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends that you check and record your fridge and freezer temperatures at least once per day, which for a large supermarket for instance could present a time consuming task for one or more members of staff. However, depending on the level of risk, you may want to check more frequently. For example, if your food business is open for long hours and people regularly open and close fridges throughout the day. A more diligent manual approach may be to carry out three checks; once when staff arrive, once in the afternoon with a final check in the evening, but even this schedule may miss vital events.
ChillMate 24/7 monitoring with real-time alerts
If you run a busy food business environment there are many scenarios where cold storage temperatures may drift outside safe limits without immediate detection. The following situations are just a few examples:
- Human error where a member of staff records a temperature incorrectly or forgets to check one or more units
- A fridge or freezer unit door is not closed properly
- Hot food has been stored in a fridge or freezer too early raising the internal temperature above safe limits
- A fridge may become overfilled restricting the space for air to circulate and maintain the set temperature accurately
- A cold storage unit may be affected by strong sunlight at certain times of the day
- A unit may be showing signs of failure and be unable to maintain safe temperatures during active use
- A member of staff may accidentally switch a unit off or forget to switch a unit back on after cleaning
With the traditional manual temperature recording process these scenarios may go unnoticed with the risk of food spoilage, loss of valuable stock and present a serious risk to your customers wellbeing. If your equipment runs at unsafe temperatures, harmful bacteria can quickly grow in food. The traditional manual method of fridge and freezer temperature monitoring can therefore easily lead to negative consequences. It only takes a few bad experiences to significantly affect your customer base and land your business in legal issues.
ChillMate eliminates human error while detecting these operational risks and takes away the time-consuming manual process, freeing your staff to focus on preparation and customer service. Real-time temperature alerts can be delivered by SMS and email providing the opportunity to take corrective action should anything start to go wrong.
What are the UK guidelines for safe fridge temperatures?
The legal requirement for businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is for cold food to be kept at 8 °C or below. It is best practice is to keep your fridge below 5 °C, to make sure that food is kept cold enough and to ensure that every part of the fridge remains at an acceptable temperature. Cold display units often require particular attention in a busy environment where they have a constant turnaround of produce being loaded and removed for preparation. When serving or displaying chilled food, the maximum amount of time you can hold it at temperatures higher than 8 °C is 4 hours.
What is the food temperature danger zone?
Food business operators must also be aware of the temperature danger zone. This is the term used to describe the temperature range where food is most at risk of developing harmful bacteria and causing illness to anyone who handles or consumes it. Keeping food out of the danger zone will ensure it is safe to eat by limiting the growth of bacteria. The FSA sets the danger zone between 8 °C and 63 °C, and this is the range you want to keep your food out of. This means that food is safest when it is either frozen, chilled below 8 °C, or heated beyond 63 °C. Best practice recommends that food to be heated beyond 70 °C for minutes to further remove bacteria and to not keep food for long periods of time in the temperature range of 5 °C to 63 °C. There is legislative guidance in place providing recommendations on how to cool foods quickly to avoid bacteria multiplying and to reduce food poisoning incidents. Chilling of hot food should begin within 90 minutes after the cooking cycle has completed, this is known as the ‘90-minute rule’. For further information visit www.food.gov.uK
Tips for cooling cooked food quickly and safely
There are several ways you can accelerate the process of cooling cooked food ready for cold storage. Examples of how to do so safely include the following:
- Dividing food into smaller portions.
- With larger cooked items such as joints of meat, cut them in half or break them down into smaller portions if possible.
- Spread foods such as pasta or rice flat out on a tray to assist cooling.
- Move hot food containers to a colder area such as a storeroom or larder.
- Stand containers in cold or iced water.
- Stir hot food regularly while it is chilling.
Summary
Manual cold storage temperature checks have been an essential but time-consuming burden for food industry professionals for decades. The manual process is open to human error and may fail to detect unsafe temperatures caused by events such as those highlighted here.
ChillMate removes the human element while capturing accurate cold storage temperature records that will satisfy FSA requirement above and beyond expectations. More importantly, your customer wellbeing will be paramount, ensuring their safety and experience when dining or purchasing from your establishment. Contact the ChillMate team today to learn more
