Food cooling log sheet: free and printable

Print this sheet and keep it near wherever you cool food: the blast chiller, the sink you use for ice baths, or the rack by the walk-in. Fill in one line per batch. Use the button below or press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac): only the sheet prints.

How to use the sheet

1. Write your cooling limit at the top. There's no single legal time, so the limit comes from your own food safety system (more on that below). Everyone on the sheet should be working to the same number.
2. Probe when it comes off the heat. Note the time and the core temperature.
3. Probe again while it cools. One or two checks show the temperature is actually falling. Use a clean, disinfected probe each time.
4. Log when it goes in the fridge, with the time and temperature.
5. Note the method in a word or two: "ice bath", "trays", "blast chiller", "portioned".
6. Initial the line. If a batch missed the limit, write what you did in the method column or on the back.

What the rules say about cooling

The retained food hygiene regulation (852/2004) says food that will be held or served chilled must be cooled as quickly as possible after cooking. The FSA's Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) pack says the same for England, Wales and Northern Ireland: chill it down as quickly as possible, then put it in the fridge, because harmful bacteria can grow in food that's left to chill slowly. In Scotland, CookSafe says to cool food as quickly as possible and then refrigerate it, and to avoid putting hot food in refrigerators.

None of these sets one fixed cooling time for caterers. CookSafe's practical suggestion is to set a time limit on the cooling period and check the food can be refrigerated by then. That's what the box at the top of the sheet is for.

Once it's cool, chilled food must be kept at 8°C or below by law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that's recommended in Scotland. Most kitchens run fridges at 5°C or below.

Prove your method once, then log the risky batches

SFBB's "Prove it" method: when the food comes off the heat, probe it, start cooling it one way, and probe again at regular intervals to see how fast it falls. Try a different method on the same food and compare. You only need to do this once per method, and this sheet is a ready-made place to record it.

The SFBB options for chilling down hot food:

• divide food into smaller portions
• cut joints of meat in half
• cover pans and move them somewhere colder, or stand them in cold water or ice
• stir food regularly while it cools
• spread food out on a tray (rice especially)
• use a blast chiller, or an oven's "cool" setting if it has one

If food hasn't chilled down safely, SFBB says re-cook it if appropriate, or throw it away, and review the method so it doesn't happen again. Rice needs extra care. More detail in our guide to hot holding, cooling and reheating temperatures.

Making it stick on a busy close

Cooling usually happens at the worst time: end of service, one chef left, everyone wanting to go home. That's when the second probe check gets skipped and the stockpot goes into the walk-in with the lid on.

ShiftComplete can put "cooling checked and recorded" on the closing checklist for the days you batch-cook, with a required photo of the probe reading before it can be ticked. Each tick is named and timestamped, and a 2am close still counts as today. Your fridges and freezers sit alongside it as temperature log points, each with its own range, so out-of-range readings show on the dashboard. It helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see. Try it free for 60 days, no card needed.