Food Safety Command Center 16 items
Retail TCS Food & Date Marking Checklist
Verify retail and foodservice control of time/temperature control for safety (TCS) foods, covering cold and hot holding, cooling, reheating, and date marking.
FDA Food CodeRetail Food
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Cold & Hot Holding
- Are cold TCS foods held at 41°F or below? *
- Are hot TCS foods held at 135°F or above? *
- Recorded cold holding temperature (°F)
- Recorded hot holding temperature (°F)
Cooling
- Are cooked TCS foods cooled from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours? *
- Are foods cooled from 70°F to 41°F within an additional 4 hours (6 hours total)? *
- Are approved cooling methods used (shallow pans, ice baths, ice wands, blast chiller)? *
Cooking & Reheating
- Are minimum cooking temperatures met for each food type (e.g., poultry 165°F, ground meat 155°F)? *
- Is TCS food reheated for hot holding to 165°F within 2 hours? *
- Are food thermometers available, calibrated, and used to verify temperatures? *
Date Marking
- Are ready-to-eat TCS foods held more than 24 hours date-marked with a consume-by date? *
- Is the maximum holding limit no more than 7 days when held at 41°F or below? *
- Is date-marked food discarded when the consume-by date is exceeded? *
Time as a Public Health Control
- Where time alone is used as a control, is a written procedure in place with a defined time limit?
- Is food marked with the discard time and discarded when the limit is reached?
- Does the food start at 41°F or below (or 135°F or above) when time control begins?
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