Food service: food safety temperature control (US FDA Food Code)
For cooks, prep staff, shift leads and anyone who receives, stores, cooks, cools or serves food in a US restaurant, café, cafeteria or catering kitchen. No prerequisites. Covers the time and temperature limits in the FDA Food Code 2026 for receiving, cold and hot holding, cooking, reheating, cooling, thawing, date marking and using time as a public health control, plus thermometer accuracy and logs. Jurisdiction: US. The Food Code is a model that state, local and tribal authorities adopt, often an earlier edition and sometimes with changes, so your local health code may differ and is what you follow. This course is not a food protection manager or food handler certification and does not grant any licence or permit.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 75 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- State the receiving, cold holding and hot holding temperatures and the date-marking limit for food that needs temperature control
- Check that a food thermometer meets the Food Code accuracy limit and use it correctly
- Choose the minimum cooking temperature and time for a given raw animal food
- Choose a cooling or thawing method that meets the Food Code limits, calculate cooling deadlines and identify a failed cooling log
- Apply the four-hour time-as-a-public-health-control rules, including marking and discarding
Course outline
- 1.Which rules apply, and checking a food thermometer meets the accuracy limitLesson · 12 min
- 2.Receiving and holdingLesson · 14 min
- 3.Cooking and reheatingLesson · 15 min
- 4.Choosing a cooling or thawing method, cooling deadlines and cooling logsLesson · 10 min
- 5.Applying the four-hour time-as-a-public-health-control rulesLesson · 6 min
- 6.Food service: food safety temperature control (US FDA Food Code): knowledge checkKnowledge check · 15 questions
- 7.Food service: food safety temperature control (US FDA Food Code): practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
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