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The number on the fridge dial is one of the few places where UK food law names a figure. Here's the 8 °C legal maximum, why good practice targets 5 °C, what applies to hot holding and freezing — and the records that show you're on top of it.
Sources checked 2026-07-16 · your local authority always has the final say.
UK temperatures · at a glance
England, Wales & NI regulations name 8 °C and 63 °C. Scotland's law names 63 °C hot holding; chilled guidance is the same in practice.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, food that needs refrigeration to stay safe must legally be kept at or below 8 °C. That's the ceiling, not the setting: fridges cycle, doors open, and a fridge set at 8 °C will spend part of every hour above it. That's why FSA guidance — and SFBB's safe methods — treat 5 °C or below as the working target, leaving headroom before you're near the legal limit.
Scotland's regulations are written differently (they name 63 °C for hot holding but no single chilled figure) — in practice Scottish guidance points to the same 'keep chilled food cold, aim low' discipline.
Hot food held for service — soup on the counter, the breakfast hot plate — must be kept at 63 °C or above. Between 8 °C and 63 °C is the range where bacteria multiply fastest, which is why time out of temperature control is limited and why 'it's been sitting out a while' is the answer inspectors probe.
Freezing has no single legal number for storage, but −18 °C is the near-universal convention (it's what frozen food labelling assumes), and a freezer creeping up toward −10 °C is a warning worth acting on before stock is at risk.
SFBB's safe methods call for checking chilled units at least once a day, recorded in the diary. Many cafes add a second, later check — opening and mid-afternoon — so a unit drifting during service is caught the same day; that's good practice, not an SFBB or EHO requirement. The record matters as much as the reading: date, time, the number, and what you did when it was wrong.
That last part is the one inspectors look for. A log of perfect 3 °C readings proves less than a log with one 9 °C reading followed by 'moved stock to fridge 2, engineer booked, rechecked at 4 °C'. Corrective action is the evidence the system works.
Common questions
The legal maximum for chilled food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 8 °C. Good practice — and FSA guidance — is to run fridges at 5 °C or below so normal door-opening and defrost cycles never take the food itself over the legal limit.
At least once a day is what SFBB's monitoring calls for, recorded with the actual reading and initials. Many cafes check twice — at opening and later in the day — so drift is caught during service; that's a good habit, not an SFBB or EHO requirement.
Dial numbers aren't temperatures — on most units a higher number means a colder setting, but the mapping varies by make. In a food business the only reading that counts is a thermometer where the food sits: adjust the dial until the unit holds food at 5 °C or below (the 8 °C legal maximum is the ceiling, not the target), then keep logging the real readings.
Act and record: move stock to a working unit, check how long the food has been above temperature, decide whether it's safe to use, and note the action on the same record. Food that may have spent more than a short period well above 8 °C is a judgement call food safety training covers — when in doubt, throw it out.
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Links verified 2026-07-16. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.
More guides: SFBB for cafes · UK allergen rules · EHO inspections · Cleaning schedules · Food hygiene ratings · Chopping board colours · Day dots
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