Safe Food Handling Practices and Time-Temperature Control
What the exam tests
This domain tests temperature control from receiving to service: accepting deliveries, storage, cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.
Core temperature rules
- Receiving: cold food at or below 5°C, hot food at or above 60°C, frozen food solid with no thaw evidence. Reject damaged packaging, expired products, pests or off-odours.
- Storage: cold at 5°C or below, frozen at -18°C or below; raw food below cooked and ready-to-eat food; FIFO; date labels.
- Cooking: poultry and stuffed products to 74°C; ground meat to 71°C; whole cuts to 63°C with a rest; fish to 63°C. Use a probe thermometer.
- Cooling: 60°C to 21°C within 2 hours, then 21°C to 5°C within a further 4 hours (6 hours total). Use shallow pans, ice baths, blast chillers; never cool at room temperature.
- Reheating: rapidly to 74°C within 2 hours, once only for hot holding.
- Holding: hot at 60°C or above, cold at 5°C or below. Discard food held in the danger zone beyond the allowed time.
Worked example
A 20-litre pot of stew is left on the stove to cool overnight. By morning the centre is 25°C. This is unsafe: the centre stayed in the danger zone for hours, allowing bacterial growth and toxin production. The correct method is to divide the stew into shallow pans, use an ice bath or blast chiller, and record the time and temperature until it reaches 5°C.
Traps that cost marks
- Measuring only the surface or the outside of a large item.
- Believing a hot holding unit can reheat food; it can only hold it.
- Cooling in deep containers because it fits the fridge.
- Reheating repeatedly or using a microwave without standing time and stirring.