Food Standards Australia New Zealand

Authority

Official guidance

Territories

AU, NZ

Primacy

primary

Commercial interest

none

Retrieved

2026-08-20

State

Read and citable

Original document

The third jurisdiction in this catalogue to carry a cooling or reheating rule, after the FSA and Food Standards Scotland, and the first outside the United Kingdom. Retrieved as a PDF from the foodstandards.gov.au document store after the equivalent HTML page returned nothing usable — the same route that worked for the temperature-control and sausage-sizzle sources. WHO IT BINDS, WHICH IS THE WHOLE OF ITS SCOPE. Standard 3.2.2 applies to FOOD BUSINESSES, and the document says so in its first sentence. It is not consumer guidance and BBQHQ does not present it as any reader's rule; it is carried for the same reason Scotland's 82 °C regulation is carried, which is that a jurisdiction's business figure explains its consumer wording rather than replacing it. AND ITS REHEATING CLAUSE ANSWERS A NARROWER QUESTION THAN IT APPEARS TO. The 60 °C figure is for reheating TO HOT HOLD — food going back into a bain marie — not for reheating leftovers to eat. The document is explicit that hot-holding equipment must not be used to do the reheating. Its one sentence that does reach the domestic question is the advice to avoid reheating potentially hazardous food more than once, which is the same instruction both UK authorities give and the first non-UK corroboration of it here.

Safety, Technical

• Explicitly not culinary practice: A cooling and reheating standard is silent on eating quality. It says how fast food must pass through the danger zone and nothing about whether the result is any good.

• “When cooling cooked potentially hazardous food, it must be cooled to 21°C in two hours or less, then cooled further from 21°C to 5°C in four hours or less. You can use a different cooling process but you must be able to show that it keeps the food safe.”

  FSANZ requires food businesses in Australia and New Zealand to cool cooked potentially hazardous food to 21 °C within two hours, and from 21 °C to 5 °C within a further four hours. An alternative process is permitted where the business can demonstrate it keeps the food safe.

  Food businesses, under Standard 3.2.2 clause 7. It is not consumer guidance and must never be rendered as a reader's rule. Carried for the reason Scotland's 82 °C regulation is carried: the business figure explains the jurisdiction's thinking rather than replacing its consumer wording.

  Shape:

  Two stages, which is the interesting part. The FSA and Food Standards Scotland both tell consumers to cool leftovers and get them into the fridge within a stated time and neither publishes a temperature staircase. This is the first cooling rule in the catalogue expressed as temperatures rather than as a single deadline, and the two are not interchangeable.

  The standard explicitly permits a different process on demonstration of safety, so the figures are a safe harbour rather than the only lawful method. Recorded because omitting it would make the rule sound more absolute than its own publisher does.

• “avoid reheating potentially hazardous food more than once, so it doesn’t go through multiple warming periods”

  FSANZ advises food businesses to avoid reheating potentially hazardous food more than once, so that it does not pass through multiple warming periods.

  The first non-uk corroboration of the reheat-once instruction. The FSA and Food Standards Scotland both tell consumers to reheat once only; FSANZ tells businesses to avoid reheating more than once, and gives the reason neither UK authority publishes — repeated warming periods rather than a single one.

  'Avoid' rather than 'must'. It sits in a tips list rather than in the requirements paragraph above it, so it is advice within a binding standard rather than the binding part. BBQHQ records the modal verb as published and does not promote it.

  Food businesses under Standard 3.2.2, not consumers.

• “If you are reheating potentially hazardous food to hot hold, you must heat it quickly to 60°C or hotter — ideally in two hours or less. … don’t heat food using bain maries, pie warmers or other equipment designed only to hold food hot - this is likely to take too long or not heat the food enough to keep it safe”

  Where a food business reheats potentially hazardous food in order to hot-hold it, FSANZ requires the food to be heated quickly to 60 °C or hotter, ideally within two hours, and states that hot-holding equipment must not be used to do the reheating.

  What it covers:

  Reheating to hot hold, which is a narrower question than it looks. This is food going back into a bain marie, not leftovers being reheated to eat. The 60 °C figure is the hot-holding floor the same publisher states elsewhere, reached by heating rather than by holding — so it is not an eating endpoint and must not be presented beside the FSA's 'steaming hot' as though the two answered the same question.

  The prohibition on using holding equipment to reheat is the operative instruction for a caterer and has no domestic analogue, which is part of why this record is business-scoped.

• Food Standards Australia New Zealand requires food businesses to cool cooked potentially hazardous food to 21 °C within two hours and from 21 °C to 5 °C within a further four hours, unless an alternative process is demonstrated to be safe. It binds businesses and is not consumer guidance.
• Food Standards Australia New Zealand advises food businesses to avoid reheating potentially hazardous food more than once, because repeated reheating puts the food through multiple warming periods.
• Where a food business in Australia or New Zealand reheats potentially hazardous food in order to hold it hot, Food Standards Australia New Zealand requires the food to be heated quickly to 60 °C or hotter, ideally within two hours, and prohibits using hot-holding equipment to do the reheating.

If this source changes, these are the claims that need rechecking. That is the point of recording provenance per claim rather than per page.