What Temperature Kills Bacteria in Food?

What temperature controls do you need by law?

What temperature kills bacteria in food? It’s a question many food businesses ask, together with ‘what temperature control laws are there?’

If you struggle with these questions too, you’ve come to the right place. As food safety consultants, we find temperature control to be an area that many businesses let slip.

Why?

In the fast paced working environment of a food handling business it can be easy to forget about temperature control. Sometimes this is caused by lack of knowledge, sometimes by lack of resources, sometimes by the sudden influx of fifty simultaneous orders when your staff are already at capacity, and in the panic, those temperature checks are inevitably be forgotten.

The Food Hygiene Regulations 2006 state that:

It is an offense for anyone in a food business to keep food anywhere other than:

  • in refrigerated/chilled holdings, or
  • above 63°C.

This is otherwise known as ‘THE DANGER ZONE’ (find out more about this later).

There are exceptions, of course, as well as re-heating particulars. You can see the full legislation here.

What do we mean by “bacteria in food”?

“Leaving food out for too long at room temperature,” says Anjii Harris, one of our food safety consultants and trainers, “can cause bacteria (such as Staphylococcus Aureus, Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia Coli,  and Campylobacter) to grow to dangerous levels. This can cause illness, i.e, FOOD POISONING.

What temperature kills bacteria in food?

Bacteria grows most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 8°C and 63°C.  This range of temperatures is often referred to as ‘THE DANGER ZONE’.

When asked “what temperature kills bacteria in food?”, Anjii goes on to provide some safe temperature information (see the image below).

You should use the following guidelines when managing temperature of food in your workplace:

  • Bacteria stops growing at 8°c and below, and at 63°C or above. You should store food at these temperatures.
  • Bacteria is killed at 100°C and above (boiling point).
  • Bacteria definately won’t grow at -18°C (freezer temperature), but might still stay live.

You should use the following guidelines when managing temperature of food in your workplace:

  • Bacteria stops growing at 8°c and below, and at 63°C or above. You should store food at these temperatures.
  • Bacteria is killed at 100°C and above (boiling point).
  • Bacteria definately won’t grow at -18°C (freezer temperature), but might still stay live.
What Temperature Kills Bacteria in Food? find out about safe temperatures in food

How long does it take for bacteria to grow to dangerous rates?

When food is left out at ambient temperatures within ‘THE DANGER ZONE‘, bacteria can double in number in as little as 20 minutes.

It is vitally important, therefore, that you limit the time that food is left out of refrigerated conditions.

The advised time periods are:

  • Never longer than 90 minutes between 8°C and 32°C.
  • No more than 1 hour if temperatures exceed 32°C! The recommended, however, is no longer than 30 minutes.

Common breaches

Some examples of common temperature control breaches are:

  • At salad bars and buffets, where prepared foods are left out on display and uncovered well past the advised time limits.
  • Frozen foods left out to defrost for hours at room temperature.
  • Foods left sitting out for long periods after use and not returned to refrigerated conditions quickly enough. For example in a short-staffed kitchen, on a hot summer’s day, raw bacon from a previously opened pack was left exposed on a chopping board for well over an hour.

Temperature control tips

Hopefully the above information helps you to understand ‘what temperature kills bacteria in food’.

Here are some tips from Anjii on how to ensure temperature controls don’t slip in your workplace.

  • Don’t be tempted to defrost food at room temperature.
  • Plan ahead and ensure that sufficient stock levels are removed from freezer in plenty of time to allow for thorough defrosting in the fridge.
  • Don’t forget that larger or bulky items may require longer defrosting times. By defrosting foods in the fridge, your food should never enter ‘THE DANGER ZONE’.
  • Where this is not possible, then use a microwave on the defrost setting directly before cooking.
  • Check the guidance on food packaging – how long does it require to be defrosted? Can this item be cooked from frozen? Do you even need to defrost? Very often burgers and other foods do not require defrosting and can be cooked directly from frozen.
  • Make sure that foods are thoroughly defrosted before cooking. Partially defrosted foods may not cook evenly, meaning that harmful bacteria could survive the cooking process. Once food has been defrosted, eat/use it within 24 hours.
  • Check and record temperatures of deliveries. Refuse delivery if unpackaged foods are within the ‘danger zone’.
  • Store foods immediately following delivery.
  • Do not leave foods uncovered at ambient temperatures for longer than the required times, return to refrigerated conditions immediately.
  • Record all checks on a thawing checklist.

Record Keeping

We encourage you to keep all of your food hygiene checklists (including a thawing checklist) within a due diligence logbook. This allows you to prove to auditors, inspectors (and prosecutors in the event of a food poisoning allegation) that you are compliant with relevant  legislation. For this reason, it’s vitally important that you keep your record keeping and checks up to date.

If you do not have a due diligence book, you may want to speak to Anjii or one of our other food safety consultants to get advice on this, as it’s a legal requirement to keep suitable records.

Simply contact us with a message, or give us a call on 01926 623 133 to discuss this matter.

Free Thawing Checklist

If you don’t have a thawing checklist, here’s a free copy. Simply click the button below to download the link.