Free hot holding temperature log sheet
In England and Wales hot food kept for serving must be at 63°C or above (England, Schedule 4, paragraph 6; Wales). This free tool makes an A4 log for the month: name your bain-maries, soup kettles or hot cupboards, choose how many checks a day, and print. Each check has the time, a reading for each unit and initials, and the last column is for what you did if a dish was not hot enough.
Make your sheet
A printable A4 hot holding log for the month: your own bain-maries, soup kettles and hot cupboards, up to four checks a day with the time, a reading per unit, initials and an action column.
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Preview
How to use the log sheet maker
- The check type is set to "Hot holding". You can switch to another kind of sheet.
- Type your café's name and the site, if you want them on the sheet, and pick the month.
- Add each bain-marie, soup kettle or hot cupboard, with the name your staff know it by.
- Choose how many checks a day, up to four. Each check gets its own time column.
- Press "Print or save as PDF", and put the sheet by the hot holding counter with a clean, disinfected probe.
- Staff probe the food, write the time, each reading in °C and their initials, and what they did if a dish was below 63°C.
The temperatures on the sheet
The sheet prints each unit's limit under its name and the figures below in its legend. Where a figure is the law it says so, and where it is FSA guidance it says that too.
- 63°C or above
- Hot food kept for serving. This is the legal limit in England and Wales (England, Schedule 4, paragraph 6; Wales, Schedule 4, paragraph 6).
- Steaming hot first
- FSA guidance: food must be cooked thoroughly and steaming hot before hot holding begins, and hot holding equipment is for hot holding only, not for cooking or reheating (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding").
- Under 2 hours
- The law allows a limited exception: food kept for service or on display for sale for less than two hours, if it had not been kept like that before (England, Schedule 4, paragraph 7; Wales, Schedule 4, paragraph 7). FSA guidance is that you can do this only once (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding").
Questions café owners ask
- What temperature should hot holding be?
- 63°C or above. In England and Wales, keeping cooked or reheated food for service below 63°C is an offence, with limited exceptions (England, Schedule 4, paragraph 6; Wales, Schedule 4, paragraph 6). The FSA's pack puts it as: hot food must be kept at 63°C or above, except for certain exceptions (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding").
- How do I check the temperature of hot-held food?
- FSA guidance is to use a clean, disinfected probe and insert it so the tip is in the centre of the food, or the thickest part (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Prove it"). How often you check is set in your own food safety procedures; the sheet holds up to four checks a day.
- What should I do if hot-held food is below 63°C?
- FSA guidance is to reheat it until it is a safe temperature and put it back into hot holding (only once), or chill it down safely and reheat it later before serving. If you can do neither, throw the food away (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding"). Write what you did in the last column of the sheet.
- Can I reheat food in a bain-marie?
- No. FSA guidance is that hot holding equipment is for hot holding only and should not be used to cook or reheat food, and that you should preheat it before you put any food in (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding").
- How long can hot food be kept out of hot holding?
- FSA guidance is that you can take food out of hot holding to display it for up to two hours, but only once. Food not used within two hours should be reheated until steaming hot and put back in hot holding, or chilled as quickly as possible to 8°C or below; if it has been out for more than two hours, throw it away (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Hot holding"). The law's two-hour defence is in Schedule 4, paragraph 7.
Sources
Every source below was read on 13 October 2026.
Keep the records that go with it.
managero records hot holding checks on a phone, with a name and a time against every reading, and flags any dish below 63°C the same day. £18.99 excl VAT a month for your first site, with managero HR & Safety included.