What is in it
One monthly log in two formats: an Excel workbook for the office and a one-page A4 PDF, laid out sideways, to print and stick on the fridge.
- Columns for two fridges, a freezer and a hot-holding unit, with a morning and an afternoon reading for every day of the month.
- Initials for each round and a corrective action column for what you did, when and who did it.
- The Annexure E limits from R638 printed at the top, so staff do not have to remember them.
- A probe calibration check line.
- In the Excel version, readings outside the limit you set for each unit turn red and are counted at the bottom of the month.
Who it is for
Any food business with chilled, frozen or hot-held food: kitchens, takeaways, butcheries, delis, bakeries and care homes. Regulation 6(5) requires a thermometer on every chiller, freezer and hot-holding unit. This log shows you read it.
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Questions about the log
What temperature must my fridge be? Annexure E of R638 sets 4 °C or colder for raw unpreserved fish, molluscs, crustaceans, edible offal, poultry meat and milk, and 5 °C or colder for any other perishable food kept chilled. Hot-held food must be at 60 °C or hotter.
Why does the log say minus 18 °C or colder? The gazette prints the frozen limits with a greater than or equal to sign, which reads as a misprint. Minus 18 °C or colder applies to the frozen products Annexure E lists, including ice cream, and minus 12 °C or colder to any other food marketed as frozen.
How do I check my probe? Put it in a slurry of crushed ice and water. It should read close to 0 °C. R638 defines a thermometer as one accurate to approximately 1 °C, so take a probe that reads outside that out of use.
Staff who understand why the limits matter fill in logs properly. The Basic Food Safety Practices for Food Handlers course covers temperature control in plain language.
