Check cooked food against the FSANZ two-stage cooling rule — 60°C to 21°C within 2 hours, then 21°C to 5°C within a further 4 hours. Free food cooling calculator.
The Food Standards Code says cooked potentially hazardous food should be cooled from 60C to 21C within two hours, and then from 21C to 5C within a further four hours, a total of six hours. This limits the time food spends where bacteria grow fastest.
The temperature danger zone of 5C to 60C is where food-poisoning bacteria multiply most rapidly and some can form toxins. Cooling food quickly through this range limits bacterial growth and keeps the food safe to store and reheat.
Divide food into smaller or shallow portions, use shallow trays, stir liquids, use an ice bath or blast chiller, and avoid stacking hot containers. Checking with a probe thermometer confirms you are hitting 21C and 5C within the time limits.
If food spent longer than the allowed time in the danger zone, treat it as unsafe and discard it rather than risk it. Record what happened and adjust your process, for example smaller portions or faster chilling, so it does not recur.
A probe thermometer is the reliable way to confirm food reached 21C and then 5C in time, because you cannot judge core temperature by feel. This calculator uses your measured temperatures and times to check compliance.
Yes. This tool gives you a free PDF result, and FoodSafety HQ can run cooling checks digitally so staff log start and end temperatures on a phone, get an instant pass or fail, and keep the records for inspections.