What Temperature Should a Commercial Fridge Be? The 5°C Rule for Australian Food Businesses

If you sell or serve food in Australia, one number does most of the work in your kitchen, your cool room and your display cabinet: 5°C. Food that can grow harmful bacteria has to be kept at 5°C or colder, or 60°C or hotter, and your commercial fridges are what keep it on the cold side of that line. This guide covers where the rule comes from, how to check you're meeting it, and what to look for in a fridge that still holds 5°C when the kitchen is flat out on a 40-degree day.

The short answer

Keep potentially hazardous food at 5°C or below. That limit comes from the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, and it applies to the temperature of the food itself, not the number on the fridge's display.

Most commercial fridges let you set the temperature anywhere within a range of a few degrees. The Polar G-Series DM076-A display fridge runs from 2°C to 8°C, for example, and Bromic's two-door UBC1360SD-NR under bench fridge runs from +1°C to +5°C. A range that reaches above 5°C is normal, because drinks and some packaged goods are happy a little warmer. For food that needs temperature control, set the controller so the food sits at 5°C or colder, with a little margin for a busy service when the door opens every few minutes.

What the Food Standards Code says

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) writes the Code. Your state or territory food regulator and your local council enforce it. Two standards matter most for fridges.

Standard 3.2.2, Food Safety Practices and General Requirements. Potentially hazardous food must be kept under temperature control, which means 5°C or colder or 60°C or hotter, when it is received, stored, displayed or transported. "Potentially hazardous" covers foods where bacteria can grow to unsafe levels if they're left warm: raw and cooked meat, dairy foods, seafood, cooked rice and pasta, prepared salads and cut fruit, egg dishes, and anything made with them, such as sandwiches, quiches and pizza. The same standard sets the cooling times for cooked food (clause 7) and requires an accurate thermometer in every business that handles this kind of food (clause 22). Frozen food must arrive frozen and stay frozen while it's stored.

Standard 3.2.2A, Food Safety Management Tools. In force from December 2023, it adds three tools for food service, catering and some retail businesses:

• Category one businesses (caterers and food services that process unpackaged potentially hazardous food into ready-to-eat food) need a food safety supervisor, trained food handlers, and evidence that their key food safety controls, such as temperatures, are being met.
• Category two businesses (retailers that sell this kind of food unpackaged, without making it on site apart from slicing, weighing, repacking, reheating or hot-holding) need a food safety supervisor and trained food handlers.

If you're not sure which category you fall into, ask your local council's environmental health team. FSANZ's guide to the standards, Safe Food Australia, explains every clause in plain English.

The 2-hour/4-hour rule

The Code lets you control ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food in another way once it's out of the fridge: by time. FSANZ's guidance adds up every minute the food spends between 5°C and 60°C:

• Less than 2 hours in total: use it, or put it back in the fridge.
• Between 2 and 4 hours: use it, but don't put it back in the fridge.
• 4 hours or more: throw it out.

The clock is cumulative, so prep time, transport and time on the counter all count. This is also why a fridge that quietly drifts to 7°C or 8°C matters. The food in it is no longer under temperature control, and you can't be sure how much safe time it has left.

FSANZ is clear that cooling is a separate process. The 2-hour/4-hour clock doesn't apply to food that's cooling down after cooking; that has its own rule, below.

Freezers: frozen means frozen

The Code doesn't name a single freezer temperature. It says frozen food must stay frozen, which in practice means a freezer that keeps food hard frozen through every door opening of a busy day. Check the range in the spec list before you buy. The Bromic UF0374SDS-NR upright freezer runs from -22°C to -18°C, and the Thermaster SD-666K glass lid chest freezer from -18°C to -22°C. You'll find both, and the rest of the range, in our commercial freezers.

Cooling cooked food: 60°C to 5°C in six hours

Clause 7 of Standard 3.2.2 sets two deadlines for cooling cooked potentially hazardous food:

1. From 60°C down to 21°C within 2 hours.
2. From 21°C down to 5°C within a further 4 hours.

You can use a different process only if you can show the food stays safe. A deep pot of stock or a tray of rice set in an ordinary fridge will struggle to meet those times, and it warms everything stored around it while it tries. Splitting food into shallow pans helps. A blast chiller is built for exactly this job: makers in our range rate theirs to take food from 70°C to 3°C in 90 minutes, and the Polar G-Series CK640-A countertop model, for one, chills 8 kg of hot food in that time.

How to check: probe thermometers and logs

Clause 22 requires a thermometer that can measure the temperature of potentially hazardous food to within ±1°C, kept where staff can reach it. FSANZ's guidance adds three practical points:

• Use a probe thermometer and measure the warmest part of the food, usually the centre.
• An infrared gun reads only the surface, so it isn't enough on its own.
• Check the probe in an ice slurry. It should read 0°C, give or take 1°C. If it doesn't, have it checked.

The display on the front of a fridge shows the air temperature near its sensor. That can be quite different from the yoghurt at the front of the top shelf after a busy lunch. Probe the food, write the reading down, and you'll know for sure.

For a record without the clipboard, the SKOPE Connect EYE sits inside any brand of fridge, freezer or cool room. It connects to SKOPE's free app over Bluetooth, sends an alert when a unit goes outside approved temperatures, tracks door openings, and lets you download two months of temperature data as a spreadsheet. SKOPE quotes a battery life of up to five years in a fridge and up to three in a freezer.

Why fridges drift above 5°C

When a fridge runs warm, the cause is usually one of these:

• The room is hotter than the fridge is rated for. Every model has a maximum room temperature (more on that below).
• The door opens too often or stays open too long. Busy service, a door that doesn't close itself, or a door propped open during restocking.
• Hot food goes straight in. A pot of curry lifts the temperature of everything around it.
• The cold air can't move. Overfilled shelves, boxes pushed against the fan or the back wall, or stock blocking the vents.
• The fridge can't breathe. The condenser needs air. Polar asks for a 20 cm gap between its counter fridges and the wall, and more space again when the neighbour is a heat source.
• A dusty condenser or a tired door seal. Both make the system work harder for longer, and warm air sneaks in past a seal that no longer grips.

Choosing a fridge that holds 5°C in summer

Before you buy, check these on the product page.

The room rating. Makers rate each model for a maximum room temperature, often with a humidity figure, and in our range you'll see ratings from 25°C right up to 43°C. The Thermaster LG-580BP glass door drinks fridge is rated to 38°C at 65% humidity. Polar says its G-Series G622-A counter fridge can operate in rooms up to 40°C, with that 20 cm gap behind it. In a hot kitchen, behind a bar full of glass washers, or in a shop with west-facing windows, choose a higher rating. Some spec lists also give a climate class code (the DM076-A lists 3H2); we print those exactly as the maker gives them.

Fan-forced cooling. A fan moves cold air around the cabinet, so the temperature recovers quickly after the door has been opened. Polar says the forced-air circulation in its U-Series counter fridges gives "a rapid chill recovery rate" and keeps food fresh even when the doors are opened often.

A range that reaches well below 5°C. If a fridge's coldest setting is 5°C, you have no margin on a hot afternoon. Look for a range that goes down to 1°C or 2°C, like the examples above. You'll find storage models in our upright fridges and under bench fridges, and cabinets for cakes, deli and grab-and-go food in our display fridges. A display cabinet has the same job as any other fridge: it has to hold the food at 5°C, not just make it look good.

When you've found the right fit, you can compare every commercial fridge for sale by size, doors and temperature range.

Frequently asked questions

Is 5°C a legal requirement in Australia?
Yes. Standard 3.2.2 of the Food Standards Code requires potentially hazardous food to be kept at 5°C or below, or at 60°C or above, unless the business can show that another temperature or time limit keeps the food safe, as the 2-hour/4-hour rule does. The Code applies right across Australia and is enforced by state and territory food regulators and local councils.

What temperature should a commercial freezer run at?
The Code says frozen food must stay frozen; it doesn't name a number. Choose a freezer that keeps food hard frozen through service and check its range on the product page. The two freezers mentioned above both run between -18°C and -22°C.

Do I have to keep fridge temperature records?
If you're a category one business under Standard 3.2.2A, you need evidence that your key food safety controls, including temperature control, are being met. For other businesses, records aren't always required, but they're the easiest way to show an inspector that your fridges are doing their job. A probe thermometer and a written log work well, and so does a monitor like the SKOPE Connect EYE.

Sources: Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ): temperature control requirements, cooling and reheating food, thermometers, food safety management tools and Safe Food Australia, Appendix 2 (time as a control). Product figures are the makers' own, from each product's listing.