UK fridge temperature regulations: what the law says, what EHOs expect

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title: "UK fridge temperature regulations: what the law says, what EHOs expect" description: "The legal limit for chilled food in the UK is 8°C. Here's exactly what that means in a cafe kitchen, how EHOs check it, and what to do if a fridge drifts." date: "2026-04-14" keyword: "fridge temperature uk regulations" author: "LogFather"

The UK legal limit for chilled food storage is 8°C or below. That comes from the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, Schedule 4, which enforces the temperature control requirements of retained EU Regulation 852/2004.

For practical purposes, though, 8°C is the ceiling, not the target. Most cafes aim for 5°C or below — because a fridge full of product opened twenty times a day needs headroom.

What your EHO actually checks

During an inspection, the EHO will usually:

1. Ask to see your temperature logs for the past 2–4 weeks.
2. Take a probe reading of at least one fridge — usually the busiest one.
3. Ask how often staff check temperatures and what they do if a reading is out of range.
4. Look for evidence of corrective action on any previous out-of-range readings.

No temperature log = points off immediately. Missing corrective action for a logged high reading = worse. A clean log with every day at "5°C, all good" and no variance looks suspicious; EHOs know fridges aren't perfect and expect to see the occasional blip with a documented response.

What counts as "out of range"

| Reading | What it means | Action | |---|---|---| | ≤5°C | Operating normally | Log it, move on | | 5–8°C | Legal but warm — check the door seal, check what's inside | Log it, note what you checked | | 8–10°C | Over legal limit but food still safe short-term | Move food to working fridge, log corrective action, call engineer | | 10–15°C | Food at risk if it's been there more than 2 hours | Discard at-risk items, log corrective action in full | | >15°C | Treat as fridge failure | Discard chilled high-risk food, document loss, engineer callout |

The 2-hour and 4-hour rules (from the FSA) are practical: chilled food between 8–15°C for less than 2 hours can be returned to chilled storage; between 2 and 4 hours it must be used within that day; over 4 hours it must be discarded.

How often should you check?

There's no legal minimum frequency — the regulation is "ensure temperature is maintained". In practice:

• Cafes / small restaurants: opening, midday, and closing. Three readings per fridge per day is the industry norm and what most EHOs expect to see in a log.
• Takeaways / delivery kitchens: opening and closing minimum, midday strongly recommended.
• Bakeries: once per day is usually fine if the fridge is rarely opened and contents are stable.

If you've got a fridge that's known-problematic, check it more often until it's replaced.

Where paper logs fall down

The most common reason cafes fail inspection on temperature records isn't that they weren't checking — it's that the paper log was:

• Lost, damp, or illegible
• "Filled in later" in the same handwriting (EHOs spot this instantly)
• Missing the last 3 days because nobody picked up the clipboard
• Showing 5°C every single day for 2 years, with zero corrective actions (not credible)

Checklist: a compliant temperature log

• Dates every reading (day + time)
• Staff initials or PIN against every reading
• The actual reading, not just "OK" or "✓"
• Fridge/freezer identifier (if you have more than one)
• Corrective action logged when out-of-range — what happened, what you did, what you discarded

Cooling food after cooking

Adjacent rule worth knowing: cooked food that's going into the fridge must be cooled to below 8°C within 90 minutes (FSA guidance). A large pot of cooked rice left on the counter to cool down overnight is a textbook fail.

Split large portions into shallow trays. Stir. Move to the coolest part of the kitchen. Get it into the fridge as soon as it's stopped steaming.

One thing to do today

Write a temperature-check frequency into your food safety management system and stick the check times on the fridge itself. Every staff member should know that 10am, 2pm, and 10pm = temp check, full stop. Consistency beats cleverness here.