Food safety temperature monitoring software for fridges, freezers, display cabinets and cooking equipment. Digital logs with alerts for out-of-range readings.
A commercial fridge storing potentially hazardous food should keep that food at 5°C or below. That keeps food out of the temperature danger zone (5°C to 60°C) where food-poisoning bacteria grow fastest. Many operators set the fridge slightly colder so the food core stays at or under 5°C even when the door is opened often. FoodSafety HQ flags any fridge reading above your configured maximum so it can be actioned straight away.
The temperature danger zone is 5°C to 60°C. Bacteria that cause food poisoning multiply rapidly in this range, so the goal of temperature control is to keep cold potentially hazardous food at 5°C or below, keep hot food at 60°C or above, and move food through the zone as quickly as possible when cooking, cooling or reheating.
The Food Standards Code doesn't fix a single frequency — it expects you to monitor often enough to keep food safe and to know your controls are working. In practice, many venues check cold and hot storage units at least at open, during service and at close, plus probe checks when cooking, cooling and reheating. Your food safety program, council or Food Safety Supervisor requirements may set specific intervals, so check what applies to you.
Hot potentially hazardous food should be held at 60°C or above. A bain-marie, hot box or pie warmer needs to keep food at that temperature or hotter for the whole time it's on display. Bain-maries are for holding, not reheating — food should be reheated rapidly to 60°C first, then transferred to hold.
The 2-hour/4-hour rule is a guide for ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food that has been in the danger zone (5°C–60°C). Under two hours total, the food can be used or returned to refrigeration; between two and four hours it should be used immediately; over four hours it should be thrown out. The times are cumulative across the food's whole life, not reset each time it's handled.
FSANZ guidance is to cool cooked food from 60°C to 21°C within two hours, then from 21°C to 5°C within a further four hours. Dividing food into shallow containers, avoiding overpacking the fridge and using an ice bath all speed cooling. Logging the start temperature and a follow-up probe reading proves the food cooled within the required window.
If your business handles potentially hazardous food, Standard 3.2.2 requires a temperature measuring device that is readily accessible and accurate to plus or minus 1°C — in practice, a probe thermometer for checking food core temperatures. Check it against reference points regularly (0°C in an ice slurry, 100°C in boiling water at sea level) so readings stay accurate.
FoodSafety HQ helps you meet them by validating readings against the safe ranges in the Food Standards Code — cold PHF at 5°C or below, hot-holding at 60°C or above — and keeping timestamped, tamper-evident records with corrective actions. The software supports your compliance; you remain responsible for how food is handled. Requirements can vary by state and council, so confirm the specifics for your venue.
Yes. Australian environmental health officers accept digital records, and many prefer them because they are timestamped, tamper-evident and far easier to review than handwritten diaries. FoodSafety HQ generates clear, professional reports you can filter by date, unit or exception and hand over during an inspection.
FoodSafety HQ flags the reading immediately and prompts the staff member to log a corrective action — what they found, what they did to resolve it and the follow-up reading once it was fixed. That creates a complete audit trail showing not just that a problem occurred, but that your team responded, which is exactly what the Code expects.