A practical reference for private chefs and small food businesses — with UK food-safety guidance, legal limits and sensible operating targets clearly separated.
This is a practical summary for training and day-to-day use — not legal advice. Food law and official guidance change, and some rules differ between England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Check the primary sources at the foot of this page for the current position that applies to you. Veriqo is not a government scheme, and using it does not by itself make a business compliant. Last reviewed 31 August 2026.
Showing all 23 entries
| Food / process | Temperature | What it means | Source / context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking — reference time/temperature | 70°C for 2 minutes | One of several combinations FSA guidance treats as achieving the same reduction of harmful bacteria. Others include 65°C for 10 minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds, 80°C for 6 seconds and 60°C for 45 minutes. | FSA guidance No single cooking temperature is fixed in law for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. |
| Cooking — simple single check | 75°C at the centre | A widely used single instantaneous reading that stands in for the combinations above. In plain terms: hot right through, or piping hot throughout. | FSA guidance A practical proxy, not the only lawful method. |
| Higher-risk items — poultry, pork, mince, burgers, sausages, rolled or reformed joints, kebabs | 75°C core, or equivalent | Control by time and temperature: cook right through and check the centre or thickest part with a probe, avoiding bone. Visual signs — no pink meat, juices running clear — are a secondary check for when you cannot probe, not a substitute for the temperature/time control. | FSA guidance Higher-risk foods need extra care but no separate number in law. |
| “Piping hot” / “steaming hot throughout” | No number | Plain-language descriptions used in FSA guidance. They are not measurable legal limits — confirm with a probe. | FSA guidance Wording, not a threshold. |
| Veriqo default — cooking / reheat check | 75°C | The operational threshold the Veriqo app uses for cooking and reheating checks, adjustable in Settings. It is not a legal threshold; FSA guidance recognises equivalent time/temperature combinations. | Veriqo default Product setting, not law. |
| Reheating — England, Wales, Northern Ireland | 75°C throughout, once only | No fixed reheating temperature in law here. FSA guidance is to reheat thoroughly to 75°C or until piping hot throughout, and to reheat food only once. | FSA guidance England, Wales and NI. |
| Reheating — Scotland | 82°C throughout | Under the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006, reheated food must be raised to at least 82°C. It is a defence that the food could not reach 82°C without a deterioration of its qualities — then reheat to as high a temperature as is practicable. | Legal requirement Scotland only — see Food Standards Scotland. |
| Hot holding for service | 63°C or above | The statutory minimum for keeping hot food hot before service, subject to the time-limited exception and statutory defences below. | Legal requirement Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 and equivalents in Wales, NI and Scotland. |
| Hot holding — time allowed below 63°C (England, Wales, NI) | Below 63°C for one period of up to 2 hours | Allowed once. After that, use the food, cool and refrigerate it, or throw it away. Check Food Standards Scotland for the Scottish position. | Legal requirement England, Wales and NI. |
| Veriqo default — hot transport check | Warns below 70°C, fails below 63°C | App default for hot food in transit, adjustable in Settings. The 63°C fail point matches the legal hot-holding minimum. | Veriqo default Product setting, not law. |
| Fridge / chilled storage — operating target | 5°C or below | The FSA recommended target. Working below the legal maximum gives a safety margin for door openings, warm loads and equipment variation. | FSA recommendation A target, not a legal maximum. |
| Cold holding — legal maximum (England, Wales, Northern Ireland) | 8°C or below | The statutory maximum for food that needs temperature control for safety. | Legal requirement Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 and equivalents. |
| Cold holding — Scotland | 8°C or below | Temperature-control requirements also apply in Scotland under the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and related temperature-control law. Check Food Standards Scotland for detail. | Legal requirement Scotland. |
| Cold food on display — time allowed above 8°C (England, Wales, NI) | Above 8°C for one period of up to 4 hours | Allowed once, for service or display. Afterwards, return the food to 8°C or below, or discard it. | Legal requirement England, Wales and NI. |
| Veriqo default — fridge / chilled delivery check | Warns above 5°C, fails above 8°C | App default, adjustable in Settings. The warn point matches the FSA target; the fail point matches the legal maximum. | Veriqo default Product setting, not law. |
| Cooling hot food | As quickly as possible, then refrigerate | There is no single cooling time fixed in UK food hygiene law. Cool cooked food as quickly as possible, then refrigerate it. Current FSA / GOV.UK guidance describes getting cooked food into the fridge within one to two hours. To cool faster: divide into smaller portions, use shallow trays, stir, or use an ice-water bath or a blast chiller if you have one. | FSA guidance Guidance, not a universal legal limit. |
| The danger zone | 8°C to 63°C | The range where bacteria multiply fastest is usually given as 8°C–63°C in UK guidance. Keep the total time food spends in it short. | FSA guidance A working concept, not a numbered rule. |
| Frozen storage | −18°C or below | The recommended standard for frozen storage. For commercially quick-frozen foods, −18°C is set by the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations, with small permitted tolerances during transport and display; for other frozen food it is guidance rather than a fixed legal figure. | FSA recommendation — with Legal requirement status only for foods covered by the quick-frozen-food legislation. |
| Veriqo default — freezer check | Warns above −18°C, fails above −15°C | App default, adjustable in Settings. | Veriqo default Product setting, not law. |
| Chilled food in transit | 8°C or below (5°C or below recommended) | Temperature-control rules apply during transport, not just in the kitchen. Pre-chill the food and the cool box, use ice packs, keep journeys short, and check the temperature on arrival. | Legal requirement 8°C maximum, plus FSA recommendation of 5°C. |
| Hot food in transit | 63°C or above, if held hot | Where food is transported hot and kept under hot-holding control, keep it above 63°C. An equally valid approach is to transport it chilled (8°C or below) and reheat it fully on site. Transport itself is covered by the general duty to keep food safe, not a separate transport thermometer law. | FSA guidance Applies the 63°C hot-holding control; chilled transport plus full reheating is an alternative validated control. |
| Frozen food in transit | −18°C or below (small tolerances) | Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations. Use a freezer box and minimise time out of the freezer. | Legal requirement For quick-frozen foods. |
| Veriqo default — cold transport check | Warns above 5°C, fails above 8°C | App default, adjustable in Settings. | Veriqo default Product setting, not law. |
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Most temperatures on this page apply across the UK, but there are differences. The clearest is reheating: in England, Wales and Northern Ireland there is no fixed reheating temperature in law, and FSA guidance is 75°C or piping hot throughout; in Scotland, regulations require 82°C unless that would spoil the food. The time-limited exceptions to hot and cold holding described above are the England, Wales and Northern Ireland rules — check Food Standards Scotland for the equivalent Scottish detail. Always confirm which nation's rules apply to where you are working.
Hot food that is being kept hot must normally be at 63°C or above. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it may be below 63°C for a single continuous period of up to two hours — for example while it is on a buffet — after which it must be used, cooled and refrigerated, or thrown away. Chilled food that needs temperature control must normally be at 8°C or below, but may be above 8°C for a single continuous period of up to four hours for service or display, after which it must be returned to 8°C or below or discarded. These are single periods, not something to repeat. Further statutory defences (for example a manufacturer-specified temperature, or an unavoidable reason such as equipment breakdown) can also apply — see the regulations.
The destruction of harmful bacteria depends on both temperature and time. A lower temperature held for longer can achieve the same result as a higher temperature reached briefly. FSA guidance therefore lists a set of combinations — including 60°C for 45 minutes, 65°C for 10 minutes, 70°C for 2 minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds and 80°C for 6 seconds — as broadly equivalent ways to cook food safely. A single reading of 75°C at the centre is the version most caterers use because it is quick to check.
Where the Veriqo HACCP app checks a reading against a threshold, these are the values it ships with. You can change any of them in Settings.
These are simple operational thresholds used by the Veriqo app. They are not legal thresholds in themselves, and UK FSA guidance also recognises equivalent time/temperature combinations. Choose the standard that suits your food and write it into your food safety management system.
Records, not just readings
Veriqo HACCP is a digital record-keeping app built for private chefs. It is not a government scheme and it does not make a business compliant on its own — but it makes the everyday records an Environmental Health Officer expects quick to keep and quick to produce:
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Killing harmful bacteria depends on both how hot food gets and how long it stays there. A lower temperature held for longer can be as effective as a higher temperature reached for an instant. That is why FSA guidance lists several time/temperature combinations — 70°C for 2 minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds, 80°C for 6 seconds, 60°C for 45 minutes — as broadly equivalent. A single probe reading of 75°C at the centre is a convenient shorthand most caterers use because it is easy to check in a busy kitchen, but it is not the only lawful way to cook food safely.
Pick one clear standard and apply it every time. For most private chefs that is “75°C at the centre, or piping hot throughout” for cooking and reheating, “5°C or below” for the fridge, and “63°C or above” for anything held hot. Writing your chosen limits into your food safety management system and checking against them consistently is what an Environmental Health Officer wants to see — not a different number every service. Keep the underlying guidance in mind so you can explain why your limit is safe, and tighten it for higher-risk dishes.
There is no single fix — it depends on the food and where it went wrong. Some practical examples: if cooked food is below your limit, keep cooking and re-check; if a fridge is running warm, move stock to another unit, judge whether the food has been too warm for too long, and get the fridge looked at; if hot food has dropped below 63°C, reheat it thoroughly (to 75°C, or 82°C in Scotland) if it is still within the permitted time, otherwise discard it; if chilled food has been in the danger zone too long, throw it away rather than risk it. Whatever you decide, write down what happened and what you did.
For each check: what was checked (the dish, the fridge, the delivery), the result (the reading), the date and time, any corrective action taken, and — where more than one person works the job — who did the check. Records do not need to be long, but they must be complete, honest and up to date. Keep them long enough to show your food-safety controls are being followed, and to meet any specific legal, customer or business requirements that apply to you; there is no single retention period fixed in the general food hygiene regulations. Allergen information must be accurate, provided in writing where appropriate, and kept up to date. Digital records are fine; an Environmental Health Officer will accept them as readily as paper.
A private chef carries risks a fixed restaurant does not. You are often using a fridge you have never seen, with an unknown service history and a thermostat that may be optimistic. You have transported food in a car boot. Service can be delayed while guests finish their drinks. And you cannot always drop something into a blast chiller.
Practical steps that make the difference:
Probe the thickest part or the centre of the food — the slowest point to heat through, and for chilled checks the point most likely to be warm. Do not let the tip touch bone, the tray or the pan, or you will read the metal, not the food. For a whole bird, probe the thickest part of the thigh and the breast, away from the cavity. Clean and disinfect the probe before and after use, and always between raw and cooked food, using probe wipes or 70% alcohol wipes. Check the probe's accuracy from time to time and after any knock: a slush of ice and water should read about 0°C, allowing roughly ±1°C. Everyday catering does not need laboratory calibration, but a probe that has drifted is worse than no probe.
There is no single cooking temperature set in law for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. FSA guidance recognises several equivalent time/temperature combinations, such as 70°C for 2 minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds or 80°C for 6 seconds. Many caterers use one instant reading of 75°C at the centre, or “piping hot throughout”, as a simple check.
No. 75°C is a common operational check and a convenient shorthand, not a figure fixed in law for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The legal duty is to cook food so that harmful bacteria are destroyed, and FSA guidance describes time/temperature combinations that achieve this. Veriqo uses 75°C as an adjustable default check, not a legal threshold.
The FSA recommends chilled food is kept at 5°C or below. The legal maximum for cold-holding food that needs temperature control is 8°C or below in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a similar requirement in Scotland. Aiming for 5°C leaves a safety margin.
No. 5°C is the FSA's recommended target. The legal cold-holding maximum is 8°C in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Food may be above 8°C for a single period of up to 4 hours on display, after which it must be chilled or discarded.
63°C or above. This is a legal minimum for hot holding before service. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland food may be kept below 63°C for a single period of up to two hours, after which it must be used, chilled, or thrown away.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland there is no fixed reheating temperature in law; FSA guidance is to reheat thoroughly to 75°C or until piping hot throughout, and to reheat food once only. In Scotland, regulations require reheating to 82°C unless that would unacceptably spoil the food.
−18°C or below. This is the recommended standard, and commercially quick-frozen foods are legally required to be held at −18°C, with small permitted tolerances during transport and display.
Record what was checked, the reading, the date and time, any corrective action, and who did the check if more than one person is working. Keep records long enough to show your controls are being followed and to meet any legal, customer or business requirements that apply to you — there is no single retention period set in the general food hygiene regulations. Allergen information must be accurate, written where appropriate, and kept up to date. See our printable temperature log.
Yes. Environmental Health Officers accept digital records as readily as paper, provided they are complete, time-stamped and available on request. Veriqo HACCP produces EHO-ready PDF and CSV exports.
Every safety-related figure on this page is drawn from UK primary sources. Check them for the current position — guidance and regulations are updated over time.