Temperature Logging: Paper vs Digital & What EHOs Want to See

A comprehensive temperature logging programme covers several areas. Fridge and freezer temperatures should be checked and recorded at least twice daily, at the start and end of service, with an acceptable range of 0C to 5C for fridges and -18C or below for freezers (the 8C legal maximum is the absolute limit for fridges, but your logs should show you operating well below this). Hot holding temperatures should be checked every 2 hours during service, with a minimum of 63C. Cooking core temperatures should be recorded for every batch of high-risk food, with the target of 75C (or 70C for 2 minutes; 82C for reheating in Scotland). Cooling records should capture the time cooking ended and the temperature at 90 minutes, confirming food reached below 8C within the target window. Delivery temperatures should be recorded for every chilled and frozen delivery, checking against the 8C maximum for chilled and -18C for frozen. Each record needs the date, time, temperature reading, item or equipment being checked, the initials of the person who took the reading, and any corrective action if the reading was out of range.

Environmental Health Officers are experienced at reading temperature logs and can quickly identify genuine records from fabricated ones. They look for consistency with variation, meaning regular recording at the documented times with natural temperature fluctuations (a fridge that reads exactly 4C every single day for three months is not credible). They check for evidence of corrective actions, meaning some out-of-range readings with documented responses (a business that claims to have never had a single temperature failure is either fabricating records or not detecting problems). They verify that the recording frequency matches your documented procedure. If your HACCP plan says "check hot holding every 2 hours" but your logs only show one check per service, there is a gap. They also look at the overall picture: are fridge records, cooking records, cooling records, and hot holding records all present and consistent? A business that logs fridge temperatures religiously but has no cooking temperature records has a significant blind spot. Finally, they may cross-reference your records against their own observations during the inspection, probing food themselves and comparing their reading to your most recent logged temperature.