Guide 1 of 6
5°C or colder
What temperature must a cool room or display fridge hold?
Potentially hazardous food is kept at 5°C or colder, and food meant to be stored frozen stays frozen. The same duty follows the food through receiving, storage, display and transport, and a thermometer is how a business shows it is being met.
General information, published by Dotto. For your own premises, check with the agency that regulates your business.
The line, and the food it applies to
The duty in the Food Standards Code is short. Clause 6 of Standard 3.2.2, read here in compilation No. 8, in force on 13 August 2025, says:
A food business must, when storing potentially hazardous food (a) store it under temperature control; and (b) if it is food that is intended to be stored frozen, ensure the food remains frozen during storage.
"Temperature control" is defined in the same instrument, and it carries the number. It means keeping food at 5°C or below, or at 60°C or above, or at another temperature if the business can demonstrate that keeping the food there will not adversely affect its microbiological safety. Food Standards Australia New Zealand restates it for businesses: generally, potentially hazardous food must always be at 5°C or colder, or 60°C or hotter, to keep it safe, and food may be kept at another temperature only where the business can show it stays safe there.
The scope word is "potentially hazardous". The Code defines it as food that has to be kept at certain temperatures to minimise the growth of any pathogenic microorganisms in it, or to prevent the formation of toxins. FSANZ's list of examples is worth reading against your own fridge: raw and cooked meat or poultry; foods containing eggs, cooked or raw; dairy products like milk, cream and fresh custard; seafood; sprouted seeds like beans and alfalfa; cut fruit and vegetables; cooked rice, and fresh or cooked pasta; sandwiches, pizzas and sushi.
Standard 3.2.2 applies to all food businesses and food handlers in Australia, so the line above is not written for a kind of business or a kind of cabinet. FSANZ's guide to the standards, Safe Food Australia, covers food storage at the same clause 6 and explains potentially hazardous food in its Appendix 1.
Frozen food
Frozen food has a duty, not a number. Clause 6 asks that food intended to be stored frozen remains frozen during storage, and it attaches no figure in degrees to that. That is why the scale on this page carries a frozen block with no figure: the block is drawn below the cold line because frozen food is colder than the line, not because the law names a temperature for it.
The plain-language version the ACT Government publishes for food businesses is to randomly check food items so that chilled food is 5°C or below and frozen food is frozen hard. On receipt, the Code is specific: food intended to be received frozen must be frozen when it is accepted.
Four moments, one table
The Code follows the one duty through the moments a business handles food, and FSANZ points to clauses 5, 6, 8 and 10 as the home of the specific requirements. Written out side by side, the duty reads as follows at each moment.
| Moment | Clause | What the clause requires |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Clause 5 | Potentially hazardous food is accepted only at 5°C or below, or 60°C or above, unless the business transporting it can show the time in transit is safe. Food meant to be received frozen must be frozen when accepted. |
| Storing | Clause 6 | Potentially hazardous food is stored under temperature control, and food meant to be stored frozen remains frozen during storage. |
| Processing | Clause 7 | Time spent at temperatures that permit the growth of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms is minimised, and cooked food has two clocks of its own: 60°C to 21°C within two hours, then 21°C to 5°C within four more. |
| Displaying | Clause 8 | Potentially hazardous food is displayed under temperature control, and food meant to be displayed frozen remains frozen. |
| Transporting | Clause 10 | Food is protected from contamination, potentially hazardous food is transported under temperature control, and food meant to be transported frozen stays frozen. |
Clause 7's clocks are the subject of Cooling cooked food. FSANZ's plain summary of the whole picture is that food must be kept under temperature control at all other times, including when it is received, stored, displayed or transported.
Checking the temperature
The Code requires the thermometer as well as the temperature. A food business handling potentially hazardous food must have a temperature measuring device that is readily accessible and can accurately measure the temperature of potentially hazardous food to within one degree either way. FSANZ puts the same requirement in plainer words: at least one thermometer somewhere easy to get to, accurate to within 1°C, and the standard's clause 22 is where the requirement sits.
What the device measures matters. FSANZ is explicit that gauges on equipment like bain-maries and refrigerators measure the equipment's temperature, and that a probe thermometer is what tells you the food's own temperature, so a business should not rely on fixed gauges alone. It suggests measuring different foods in the same refrigerator or display unit, because there can be spots where food is not at the right temperature, and using the probe in the thickest part of the food.
Thermometers need looking after as well: FSANZ says to keep one in good condition, have it calibrated regularly, replace flat batteries and repair or replace it if it breaks. The ACT Government's guidance adds the record: record the temperature checks, with the date and time they are done and the temperatures measured, and measure and record the temperatures of food when it arrives.
Two more figures from the ACT's guidance are worth having in front of a cool room: monitor the temperature of your cool room and refrigerators to keep food between 0°C and 5°C, and regularly check that chilled food is 5°C or below and frozen food is frozen hard. Its page also gives the storage limit it applies to food held at 5°C: potentially hazardous food stored at that temperature should not be kept for more than seven days.
Every cabinet and cool room
Standard 3.2.2 applies to all food businesses, so the duty follows potentially hazardous food into whichever cabinet holds it; food meant to be frozen must stay frozen. The equipment has its own clause as well: food premises and all fixtures, fittings and equipment must be maintained in a good state of repair and working order, having regard to their use.
Who checks it: FSANZ's page for regulatory agencies says complaints about food quality, safety or contamination, and questions about food business permits or licences, go to your local food regulatory agency, and it lists a contact for each state and territory. Three of the state entries name the council directly. In New South Wales, contact the council for the premises for complaints about hygiene and standards at most retail outlets. In Queensland and in Victoria, contact your local council and ask for an environmental health officer.
The food question that follows a fault is a different one, and When the fridge fails takes it up: what the time between the two lines means for what can still be sold.