Cooling Food Safely UK: 90-Minute Rule & HACCP Controls

Cooked food that will be chilled for later service should be cooled from hot holding or cooking temperature to below 8C as quickly as possible. A common UK hospitality benchmark is to cool from 63C to below 8C within 90 minutes, then refrigerate. The purpose is to move food quickly through the danger zone where Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus can multiply. Large pots, deep trays, rice, sauces, curries, stews and joints of meat need active cooling; leaving them on a worktop until they feel cool is not a control.

Blast chillers are the most effective cooling tool, capable of bringing food from 70C to 3C within 90 minutes. If you produce large volumes of cooked food for later service, a blast chiller is a worthwhile investment and will make your cooling CCP far easier to manage. Without a blast chiller, several techniques can speed cooling. Divide large batches into smaller, shallow containers (no more than 50mm deep) to increase the surface area exposed to cold air. Transfer hot food from deep cooking pots to wide, shallow trays before refrigerating. Use an ice bath: place the container of hot food in a sink or large tray filled with ice and cold water, stirring regularly. Stirring is important because it breaks up the hot core and brings it into contact with the cold container walls. Ice paddles (frozen plastic paddles filled with water) can be stirred directly through soups, sauces, and stews. For solid items like joints of meat, slice or portion before cooling. Never place large quantities of hot food directly into a standard fridge - this raises the fridge temperature and compromises everything else stored inside.

Cooling is a CCP that needs monitoring and records like any other. Probe the food at the start of cooling (the temperature when it leaves the heat source), and again at the 90-minute mark. The target is below 8C at 90 minutes, or below 21C if you use the two-stage approach. If using a blast chiller, most units display the core probe temperature and the cycle time. Record the start time, start temperature, end time, and end temperature for each batch cooled. If the 90-minute target is not met, assess the situation: food that has reached below 21C can continue cooling but must reach below 8C within the total 6-hour window. Food that is still above 21C at 90 minutes should be discarded, because it has spent too long in the high-risk zone. Record any corrective actions taken. Review cooling records regularly to identify patterns - if the same product consistently misses the target, the method needs adjusting (smaller portions, different container, blast chiller).