Temperature is the control most kitchens rely on and the one most often recorded badly. The danger zone is the range in which bacteria multiply fastest, and the whole point of the chilling, cooking and hot holding rules is to move food through that range quickly or keep it out of it entirely.
The food danger zone, 8 to 63 degrees Celsius
Between 8 and 63 degrees Celsius is the range GB food hygiene practice treats as the danger zone, with the fastest growth in the middle of it. Chilled food is held at or below 8 degrees by law in England, and good practice targets 5 degrees or below to leave headroom.
Cooking and reheating
The widely used working standard is a core temperature of 75 degrees Celsius, or an equivalent time and temperature combination such as 70 degrees for two minutes. Reheating in England is expected to reach the same core standard, and a probe rather than a guess is what evidences it.
Hot holding and cooling
Hot held food is kept at or above 63 degrees. Cooling is the step most often missed: food should move through the danger zone quickly rather than sitting on a bench, and the FSA's guidance on chilling sets out the practice and the records.
Freezer temperatures
Frozen storage is normally run at minus 18 degrees Celsius or below. A freezer that has drifted is a records problem as much as a food one, because without checks nobody knows how long it drifted for.
The temperature danger zone celsius figures a kitchen works to
The two numbers written into GB food law are 8 degrees and 63 degrees: food that needs refrigeration is held at or below 8, and food held hot is held at or above 63. Between them bacteria multiply, which is what the phrase danger zone describes. Most training materials quote 5 to 63 rather than 8 to 63, and that is not a contradiction: 5 degrees is the practical fridge setting that keeps food reliably under the legal 8 once the door has been opened all day and a warm delivery has gone in. The other figures a kitchen works to sit at the edges of that band, 75 degrees as the usual cooking check in the thickest part, and 70 for two minutes as the equivalent, with reheating treated as cooking rather than as warming.
Questions people ask about food safety temperatures UK
What is the danger zone temperature?
Between 8 and 63 degrees Celsius in GB practice. Food should be kept below or above that range rather than within it.
What core temperature should food be cooked to?
75 degrees Celsius is the commonly used core standard, or an equivalent combination such as 70 degrees held for two minutes. Check with a clean, calibrated probe.
What temperature should a freezer be?
Minus 18 degrees Celsius or below is standard for frozen storage, checked and recorded like any other critical limit.
What is the danger zone for food left out on a counter?
The same band, and the practical rule is the clock rather than the thermometer. Chilled food taken out for service may be kept above 8 degrees for a limited display period, which the law allows once, for up to four hours, after which it is used or thrown away rather than returned to the fridge. Hot food held below 63 gets the same treatment: two hours in law, and less in practice. What the rule is not is a licence to leave a tray out for the afternoon because it looks fine; the organisms that matter do not change the appearance of the food, which is the whole reason the limits are numbers.