The temperature a food must be kept at depends on three things: the food, the country and the step. EU law sets a few limits for everyone, mostly for food of animal origin and for quick-frozen food. Each country then adds its own rules or guidance for the rest. A business that ships from Ireland to France, or runs kitchens in both England and Scotland, works to more than one set of numbers.
This guide brings those numbers together. Every figure links to the legislation or the agency page it comes from, and the tables were checked on 31 October 2026. The HACCP critical limits guide explains how to turn them into critical limits, monitoring and corrective actions.
Quick summary by country
| Country | Chilled | Frozen | Hot holding | Cooling | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU, all states | By product: 2 °C to 7 °C for meat (853/2004) | −18 °C for quick-frozen, +3 °C brief tolerance | Not set | "As quickly as possible" (852/2004) | Law |
| Ireland | 0 °C to 5 °C, fridges set at 3 °C or 4 °C | −18 °C | Above 63 °C | Into the fridge within 2 hours | Guidance (FSAI) |
| England, Wales, Northern Ireland | 8 °C or below; 5 °C advised | −18 °C; −15 °C brief in transport, −12 °C in retail display | 63 °C or above | As quickly as possible | Law (chill, hot); guidance (5 °C) |
| Scotland | In a refrigerator or cool place; 5 °C advised | −18 °C | Above 63 °C | As quickly as possible | Law (no number for chill) |
| France | 2 °C to 8 °C by product; prepared dishes 3 °C | −18 °C quick-frozen; −12 °C other frozen | 63 °C or above | 63 °C to 10 °C in 2 hours, collective catering | Law |
| Germany | By product: minced meat 2 °C, meat preparations 4 °C, meat 7 °C | −18 °C, +3 °C tolerance | 60 °C advised | Not set in law | Law (chill, frozen); guidance (hot) |
| Italy | Transport limits by product (status unclear) | −18 °C, +3 °C tolerance | 60 °C to 65 °C (status unclear) | Not set in law | Law (frozen); see notes |
| Spain | Prepared meals 4 °C, or 8 °C if eaten within 24 hours | −18 °C | 63 °C or above | 60 °C to 10 °C in under 2 hours | Law |
The sections below give the detail, the exemptions and the exact source for each line.
EU law: the baseline everywhere
Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 sets the general rule but no numbers. Annex II, Chapter IX, point 5 says food that can support pathogens is "not to be kept at temperatures that might result in a risk to health" and that "the cold chain is not to be interrupted". It allows "limited periods outside temperature control" for handling during preparation, transport, storage, display and service. Point 6 asks for chilled food to be cooled "as quickly as possible" after cooking.
Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 sets numbers for food of animal origin. They apply to the businesses that produce and handle it, and national rules repeat them for retail.
| Product | Limit | Regulation 853/2004, Annex III |
|---|---|---|
| Meat of domestic ungulates | 7 °C or below | Section I, Chapter VII |
| Offal | 3 °C or below | Section I, Chapter VII |
| Poultry and rabbit meat | 4 °C or below | Section II, Chapter V |
| Minced meat | 2 °C or below, or −18 °C frozen | Section V, Chapter III |
| Meat preparations | 4 °C or below, or −18 °C frozen | Section V, Chapter III |
| Fresh fishery products | Close to the temperature of melting ice | Section VIII, Chapter VII |
| Frozen fishery products | −18 °C or colder in all parts | Section VIII, Chapter VII |
| Raw milk on the farm | 8 °C with daily collection, 6 °C otherwise | Section IX, Chapter I |
| Liquid egg awaiting processing | 4 °C or below, for up to 48 hours | Section X, Chapter II |
Directive 89/108/EEC sets the rule for quick-frozen food. Article 5 requires the temperature to be "stable and maintained, at all points in the product, at −18 °C or lower, with possibly brief upward fluctuations of no more than 3 °C during transport". The same 3 °C tolerance applies in local distribution and retail display cabinets, and a member state may allow up to 6 °C in retail display cabinets. Regulation (EC) No 37/2005 adds the recording duty: air temperature recorded during transport, warehousing and storage, with instruments to EN 12830, and records kept for at least a year. The EN 12830 guide covers it.
Ireland
Ireland applies the EU regulations through the European Communities (Hygiene of Foodstuffs) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 369 of 2006), which add no numeric temperatures. There is no statutory chill temperature for general food. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland publishes the working figures:
- Chilled: "between 0 °C and 5 °C", with fridges "set at 3 °C or 4 °C".
- Frozen: −18 °C or colder. Ice cream may be held at −12 °C in food service areas.
- Cooking: 75 °C at the core instantaneously, or an equivalent such as 70 °C for two minutes.
- Hot holding: above 63 °C, or use the food within 2 hours of cooking.
- Reheating: 70 °C or above at the core, once only.
- Cooling: into the fridge within 2 hours. Food still above 10 °C after 2.5 hours is served at once or discarded.
FSAI Guidance Note 15 covers cook-chill in food service. Chilling starts within 30 minutes of cooking and reaches 3 °C or below within a further 120 minutes. Storage is at 3 °C or below, and shelf life is at most 5 days, including the day of production. The note says plainly: "This is not a legal document."
United Kingdom
England, Wales and Northern Ireland set the chill and hot-holding limits in law, in Schedule 4 of their food hygiene regulations (England: S.I. 2013/2996; Wales: S.I. 2006/31; Northern Ireland: S.R. 2006/3).
- Chill holding: an offence to keep food that needs chilling "at a temperature above 8 °C". Food may be above 8 °C for a single period of up to 4 hours on service or display, during transfer to or from a vehicle, and for a limited period for unavoidable reasons such as a defrost cycle or a breakdown.
- Hot holding: an offence to hold such food below 63 °C, unless it is on service or display for a single period of up to 2 hours.
- Above 8 °C by design: a manufacturer may recommend a higher storage temperature where a "well-founded scientific assessment" supports it.
The Food Standards Agency advises setting fridges "to 5 °C or below", so that a door opening or a warm delivery does not reach the legal limit.
Scotland's rules differ. The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006, Schedule 4, require food that needs chilling to be kept "in a refrigerator or refrigerating chamber or in a cool ventilated place", with no number. Food reheated for service must reach at least 82 °C. Food Standards Scotland advises 5 °C or below.
Quick-frozen food in England follows the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs (England) Regulations 2007: −18 °C or colder, not warmer than −15 °C for brief periods in transport and not warmer than −12 °C in a retail display cabinet.
France
The arrêté of 21 December 2009, amended in 2020, sets maximum storage temperatures for products of animal origin in retail, storage and transport, and in catering. The arrêté of 8 October 2013 sets the same values for other foods.
| Product | Maximum |
|---|---|
| Minced meat, mechanically separated meat | +2 °C |
| Fresh fish, cooked and chilled crustaceans and molluscs | +2 °C |
| Fish packed in ice | Melting ice, 0 °C to +2 °C |
| Offal | +3 °C |
| Ready-made culinary preparations | +3 °C |
| Meat preparations, poultry, rabbit, portioned red meat | +4 °C |
| Raw milk, egg products, other very perishable food | +4 °C |
| Red meat, whole carcasses and large cuts | +7 °C |
| Other perishable food | +8 °C |
| Ice cream, frozen minced meat, frozen fish | −18 °C |
| Other frozen food | −12 °C |
| Hot meals delivered or served hot | +63 °C or above |
Annexe IV of the same arrêté applies to collective catering, including central kitchens. Cooked food must not stay between 63 °C and 10 °C for more than 2 hours, and is then stored at 0 °C to 3 °C. Reheated food must pass from 10 °C to its serving temperature in 1 hour or less, and be held at 63 °C or above. Quick-frozen food (surgelés) is held at −18 °C or colder, with brief rises of no more than 3 °C, under the décret of 9 September 1964. Article 3 of the arrêté allows other temperatures under a validated guide to good hygiene practice or the business's own hazard analysis.
Germany
The general food hygiene ordinance (LMHV) has no numeric temperatures. The numbers are in the ordinance for food of animal origin (Tier-LMHV) and the ordinance for frozen food (TLMV).
- Tier-LMHV, Anlage 5: in retail production, minced meat at +2 °C or below at the core and meat preparations at +4 °C or below, or frozen at −18 °C. Meat for cutting is held at +7 °C, offal at +3 °C and poultry at +4 °C.
- Tier-LMHV, § 15(3): the same 7 °C, 3 °C and 4 °C limits for storage and transport, and +2 °C for mechanically separated meat.
- TLMV, § 2: quick-frozen food at "minus 18 Grad C oder tiefer" until sale, with up to 3 °C above that in transport, local distribution and retail freezers. § 2a requires the air temperature to be recorded with instruments that meet Regulation (EC) No 37/2005.
DIN 10508 (Lebensmittelhygiene: Temperaturen für Lebensmittel, March 2022) is a standard, not a law. It collects legal and recommended temperatures in one table. For hot holding, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR, opinion 037/2020) advises at least 60 °C throughout the food.
Italy
Italy has national law for quick-frozen food. Legislative decree 110 of 1992, Article 4, requires −18 °C or colder, with brief rises of up to 3 °C in transport, local distribution and retail cabinets.
For chilled food, the older numbers are in Presidential decree 327 of 1980: Allegato C for transport (for example, meat −1 °C to +7 °C, poultry −1 °C to +4 °C, fresh fish 0 °C to +4 °C under ice) and Article 31 for cooked food (60 °C to 65 °C for food eaten hot, 10 °C or below for food eaten cold). Legislative decree 27 of 2021 repealed most of that decree, with a saving clause, and the official database still shows these provisions in force. Ask the local health authority (ASL) before you treat them as binding. In practice, Italian businesses set their chilled limits in the HACCP plan from Regulation 853/2004 and the sector's good practice guide. Legislative decree 193 of 2007 sets the penalties: €1,000 to €6,000 for having no HACCP-based procedures.
Spain
Spain rewrote its rules in 2022. Royal decree 3484/2000 on prepared meals is repealed; its temperatures now sit in Article 30 of Royal decree 1086/2020, as amended by Royal decree 1021/2022.
- Prepared meals: 63 °C or above hot; 4 °C or below chilled if the shelf life is over 24 hours, 8 °C or below if it is under 24 hours; −18 °C or below frozen.
- Cooling: "disminuir de 60 °C a 10 °C en menos de dos horas", from 60 °C to 10 °C in less than 2 hours.
- Reheating: 74 °C for at least 15 seconds, or an equivalent.
Royal decree 1021/2022, Article 4, sets the retail limits, which include restaurants: red meat 7 °C, offal 3 °C, poultry and meat preparations 4 °C, minced meat 2 °C, fresh fish 0 °C to 4 °C, cut fruit and vegetables 4 °C, frozen and quick-frozen food −18 °C. Royal decree 1109/1991 sets the quick-frozen rule at −18 °C, with a 3 °C tolerance in transport and local distribution. Its text still allows up to 6 °C in retail display cabinets, the member-state option in Directive 89/108/EEC.
Using these limits in a monitoring system
A legal limit is the line food must not cross. It is not a good alarm setting. Set the alarm inside it, with a delay that matches how fast the product warms:
| Unit | Legal or advised limit | Typical alarm | Typical delay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiller in England | 8 °C law, 5 °C advised | Above 5 °C | 20 to 30 minutes |
| Chiller in Ireland | 5 °C advised | Above 5 °C | 20 to 30 minutes |
| Minced meat display | 2 °C | Above 2 °C on a product probe | 15 minutes |
| Freezer, quick-frozen food | −18 °C, +3 °C brief | Above −15 °C | 45 to 60 minutes, beyond the defrost |
| Hot holding | 63 °C | Below 65 °C | 15 minutes |
The alarm settings and delays here are examples, not rules. They depend on where the probe is, whether it reads air or product, and how the unit defrosts. The temperature probe placement guide explains those choices.
An EpiSensor system records each unit with a TES probe temperature sensor, ±0.2 °C from −20 °C to 70 °C and ±0.5 °C down to −40 °C, and runs the alarms on the Gateway in Edge. The limits, the plan and the decisions about the food remain the food business operator's.
The HACCP temperature monitoring guide shows where these probes go in a kitchen or shop.
Common questions
What temperature should chilled food be stored at?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the legal maximum is 8 °C, and the Food Standards Agency advises 5 °C or below. In Ireland, the FSAI advises 0 °C to 5 °C. France sets a maximum by product, from 2 °C for minced meat to 8 °C for other perishable food. EU law sets 7 °C for meat, 4 °C for poultry and 2 °C for minced meat.
What temperature should frozen food be kept at?
Quick-frozen food must be kept at −18 °C or colder at all points of the product, with brief upward fluctuations of no more than 3 °C during transport, local distribution and in retail display cabinets. France allows −12 °C for frozen food that is not sold as quick-frozen.
Is 8 °C the legal limit for a fridge?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, yes: Schedule 4 of their food hygiene regulations makes it an offence to keep food that needs chilling above 8 °C, with exemptions. Scotland requires chilling but sets no number, and Ireland has no statutory chill temperature for general food.
What is the legal hot holding temperature?
63 °C or above in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and in French and Spanish law. FSAI guidance in Ireland also uses 63 °C. In England, food may be held below 63 °C for one period of up to 2 hours on service or display.
How fast must cooked food be cooled?
France requires collective catering to cool from 63 °C to 10 °C in 2 hours or less, and Spain requires prepared meals to fall from 60 °C to 10 °C in less than 2 hours. FSAI guidance in Ireland is to put food in the fridge within 2 hours of cooking.