By staying consistently hot or cold, club and resort chefs can maintain food safety protocols.
Temperature logs are a resourceful tool used by club and resort chefs. When used consistently, temperature logs become pivotal to food safety. Temperature logs document various products with timed measurements taken throughout multiple stages. Although not required by all, many state health codes require kitchen operators to keep well-maintained temperature logs for food safety protocol.
Temperature logs help club chefs maintain accountability as well. The standard format for temperature logs includes listing the name of the item, time and temperature documentation and the name of the employee responsible for temping the item and documenting it.
Temperature logs help ensure proper steps are being followed to prevent food safety hazards. During the various stages of the cooking process, including cooling and reheating, temperatures are taken and documented in two-hour increments.
If an item is cooked and intended for future use, proper cooling processes must reach the desired set temperature range within a set amount of time.
The same principle applies to cooked items. If an item is cooked and intended to be held hot for continuous service, the item(s) must hold a certain temperature for a set amount of time. For cooked items intended for continuous service, documentation will also provide information on when an item must be discarded. To prevent food safety hazards, items held at 135°F or higher for continuous service must be discarded after 4 hours.
Consistent temperature logs also help establish effective critical control points and critical limits in a standardized HACCP program. If the minimum or maximum established critical limit is not met with each temperature measure, the deviation in the critical control point is documented and the necessary corrective action is implemented to help prevent any food safety hazards.
