Danger zone for food temperature log planner

This plans a temperature log for a kitchen. Enter the fridges and cold displays, the freezers, the hot-holding units, the checks per unit per day, the days you open and the minutes a reading takes including the record, and the page returns the readings per day and per week, the minutes per day and hours per month spent on them, and the three limits the readings are checked against: the FDA's cold-holding limit, hot-holding minimum and freezer figure. The danger zone for food temperature is the band between the cold limit and the hot minimum, and a log exists to show that food was kept out of it.

Cold at or below 40, hot at or above 140, freezer at or below 0

The FDA's figures are short: use an appliance thermometer to be sure the refrigerator is consistently 40 °F or below and the freezer 0 °F or below, keep hot foods at an internal temperature of 140 °F or warmer, and keep cold foods at 40 °F or colder. The band between those is where bacteria grow, and the log is the proof that each unit stayed on the right side of it. The page prints the three limits beside the readings so the log carries its own rule.

The load is units times checks times days

Eight units checked twice a day, six days a week, is ninety-six readings a week and, at a minute each, about eight hours a month. That is the cost of the log, and it is why the checks have to be quick and the record has to be made at the unit. The page prints the minutes and the hours so a kitchen can decide how many checks it can honestly sustain rather than how many it can promise.

The two-hour rule is the fourth limit, and it is about time

Perishables are refrigerated within 2 hours of cooking or purchasing, and within 1 hour when the temperature outside is above 90 °F. That rule is not a reading; it is a clock, and it belongs on the cooling record beside the log. Pro puts the timer on the cooling batch and the reminder on the person who owes the reading.