Serving and Displaying Food

Foods should be prepared as close to serving as possible for the welfare of all consumers. If foods are prepared and reheated, special care must be taken to prevent contamination and preserve the quality and safety of food.

Displaying hot foods

Hot foods on display must be heated to 80°C before being put into a display case, which must keep the food at over 65°C. Hot food must not be displayed for longer than one day.

Displaying cold foods

Cold perishable foods must be displayed at less than 4°C, or not displayed for longer than two hours before being disposed of as unsafe to eat. Many people buy expensive chilled display cases that are not designed to act as fridges and leave perishable foods in them all day at temperatures between 10°C and 20°C. This could be dangerous and is an offence under the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974.

It does not matter whether you use time or temperature to protect your food, but one of them must be used. Check the temperature of your display cases using a thermometer to assess how long you may display perishable foods in them. If they are not cold enough for all-day display, keep a small amount on display and store the rest in the fridge.

Low-risk foods

Foods that aren't readily perishable, such as sweet muffins and cakes, fruit and vegetable dishes, may not need chilled display. However, ALL foods on display must be covered and protected from contamination.

Ensure foods on display do not touch each other if they are of a different risk type. Do not allow the bottoms of containers to touch other foods and ensure serving utensils are available for each dish to prevent cross-contamination. In self-serve situations, your customers may have to be supervised to ensure they provide no risk to the foods by misuse of utensils or contamination by poor handling.

During preparation and once displayed, food must be handled directly as little as possible. Use multiple sets of clean utensils, tongs and scoops to avoid cross-contamination between foods.

Leftover food

Leftover food must be thoroughly reheated to piping hot, but only once. Do not make leftovers out of reconstituted leftovers as the time/temperature ratio will have been tested too many times to guarantee safety. Store cold leftovers in a fridge and eat within three days.