Food safety

🔥 Hot-holding: keeping served food out of the danger zone

Buffets and bain-maries need a minimum temperature. What it is, where the number comes from, and how long you can hold.

This is general guidance. Food-safety rules can change — always verify the current requirements with your national food-safety authority ↗. The operator remains responsible for compliance; we accept no liability for this information.

Official limits · EU baseline

Hot-holding (min)≥ 60 °C

EU law mandates HACCP + an unbroken cold chain but leaves the exact figures to national rules — confirm your country's number.

EU 852/2004 — no single numeric table; set via HACCPSource ↗

Food kept warm for service must stay hot enough that bacteria cannot grow. Once it drops into the danger zone and sits there, risk climbs quickly.

The number is national, not EU-wide

60-65 CHot-holding (varies by country)

check on set-upand periodically

EU Regulation 852/2004 requires hot food to be held at a temperature that prevents a health risk, but it sets no single figure - national rules do, and most land between 60 and 65 C. The official limit for your country is shown on this page. All of them are notably stricter than the US FDA figure of 57 C (135 F). Check the temperature when you set up the servery and at intervals during service; food that falls below and cannot be quickly reheated should be discarded, not left out.

Add hot-holding as a recurring check on service days using your country's floor as the minimum; the "kiosk" flags any reading below it.

EU 852/2004 requires temperature control without fixing a figure; hot-holding numbers are set nationally. US FDA Food Code uses 57 C.

This guide reflects general EU practice — always check the current rules for your own country and business type.