Every commercial fridge has one number to keep, and it is 5°C

Potentially hazardous food, the food that has to be kept at certain temperatures to limit bacterial growth, belongs at 5°C or colder, or 60°C or hotter. The two lines are Standard 3.2.2's and FSANZ's, and the clock runs between them.

General information, published by Dotto. For your own premises, check with the agency that regulates your business.

Who may open the machine Gas for an older machine

60°C and above: hot hold
between 5°C and 60°C: the clock runs
- Less than 2 hours: the food can be used, sold or put back in the fridge to use later.
- Between 2 and 4 hours: the food can be used or sold, but it can't be put back in the fridge to use later.
- More than 4 hours: this food can't be sold and must be thrown away.
21°C: cooked food being cooled must reach this within two hours of 60°C
5°C or colder: cold hold for potentially hazardous food
frozen: stays frozen during storage

Display fridge test classes

The food lines are Standard 3.2.2's, as FSANZ restates them, and the display cabinet classes are Schedule 3 of the 2024 determination. The nine classes a display fridge may be tested in are drawn to scale in the display fridge guide; L1, L2 and L3 sit below the scale at -12°C or colder.

5°C or colder: the line for potentially hazardous food, whatever cabinet holds it

If it has stopped

Start with the food. While a cabinet or cool room sits between 5°C and 60°C, the clock runs, and the total time decides what can still be used or sold. When the fridge fails works the rule through one display case.
Then the machine. Opening the refrigerant circuit to repair it is licensed work, and the National Environmental Protection Agency says handling a regulated refrigerant without a licence is an offence. Who may fix it sets out the licences and where each is checked.

Two laws, two regulators

The food

Standard 3.2.2 in the Food Standards Code sets the temperature lines. A food business storing potentially hazardous food must keep it under temperature control, and if the food is to be stored frozen, it must stay frozen. Food Standards Australia New Zealand restates the same lines for businesses, and sends complaints and permit questions to your local food regulatory agency.

Enforcement runs through local government: New South Wales sends most retail complaints to the council for the premises , and Queensland and Victoria both say to ask the council for an environmental health officer .

The gas

The sealed circuit that holds the cold answers to a different law: the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations 1995. Handling a regulated refrigerant without a licence is an offence, and the Australian Refrigeration Council administers the regulations.

A business that acquires, possesses or disposes of regulated refrigerant needs to hold a Refrigerant Trading Authorisation, the National Environmental Protection Agency says. Gas for an older system follows where the supply of HFC refrigerants is heading under the phase-down to 2036.