Food Safety Checklists for Food Service: Standard 3.2.2A, Temperature Logs and Digital Records

Cafes, restaurants, caterers, aged care kitchens and takeaway shops all run on the same basics: keep cold food cold, hot food hot, surfaces clean and hands washed. Since December 2023, Standard 3.2.2A has added clear requirements for food safety supervisors, food handler training and, for higher-risk businesses, records that show critical controls are working. This guide covers what the standard requires, a practical daily checklist and how to keep records that stand up to an inspection.

What Standard 3.2.2A requires

Standard 3.2.2A Food Safety Management Tools, part of the Food Standards Code, came into effect in December 2023. It applies to food service, catering and retail businesses that handle unpackaged, potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat, such as caterers, restaurants, cafes, takeaway shops, pubs, supermarkets, delis and food vans.

Category one businesses must keep records, or be able to demonstrate to an authorised officer, that key requirements are met for receiving, storing, processing, displaying and transporting food, and for cleaning and sanitising. Check with your local council or state food regulator for how this applies to your business.

Daily food safety checklist

Receiving

• Chilled deliveries at 5°C or below and frozen food frozen hard
• Packaging intact, labelled and within use-by dates
• Supplier and delivery vehicle clean

Storage

• Fridge and cool room temperatures recorded
• Raw food stored below ready-to-eat food
• Food covered, labelled and dated

Cooking, cooling and reheating

• Cooked food reaches safe core temperatures
• Food cooled quickly and recorded
• Reheated food heated thoroughly before hot-holding

Display and hot-holding

• Hot food held at 60°C or above
• Cold display at 5°C or below

Cleaning, hygiene and pests

• Surfaces and equipment cleaned and sanitised
• Hand-wash basins stocked with soap, warm water and paper towel
• Staff fit for work, with clean clothing and hair tied back
• No signs of pests

Temperature control basics

Potentially hazardous food should be kept at 5°C or below, or at 60°C or above, to limit bacterial growth. Food Standards Australia New Zealand also describes a 2-hour/4-hour guide for ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food held between 5°C and 60°C: under 2 hours, use or refrigerate; 2 to 4 hours, use it but don’t refrigerate; over 4 hours, throw it out. Use a calibrated probe thermometer, and record temperatures at consistent times.

Setting up your food safety checks

1. Work out your category. Confirm whether Standard 3.2.2A applies and whether you are category one or two.
2. Appoint and train. Make sure you have a certified food safety supervisor and that food handlers are trained.
3. Build your checklists. Create daily opening, closing and temperature checklists that cover your critical controls.
4. Set what happens on a fail. Decide what staff do when a temperature is out of range, such as adjusting, moving or discarding food, and who is told.
5. Train staff on the checks. Show everyone how to take and record temperatures and what to do when something is wrong.
6. Review records regularly. Check records are complete and look for recurring problems, such as a fridge that runs warm.

Records that stand up to an inspection

Paper logs are easy to forget, fill in later or lose. Digital records help show that checks were done at the time. With DIGI CLIP, staff complete temperature logs and daily checklists on a phone or tablet, with photos where needed, and each form is location- and time-stamped. An out-of-range temperature can create an action in the Action Log, so the supervisor follows up and records what was done. Recurring checks send reminders when they are due, and records can be exported to PDF for an inspector.

Illustrative scenario: a warm cool room

At a catering kitchen, the opening check shows the cool room at 8°C. The chef records the reading in DIGI CLIP, which creates an action for the kitchen manager. Food that has been above 5°C for too long is discarded following the kitchen’s procedure, the rest is moved to a backup fridge, and a technician fixes a faulty door seal that afternoon. The action is closed out with the new reading and a photo of the repair.

This scenario is illustrative. It shows how a business could use DIGI CLIP and is not an account of a specific customer.

For cold chain and storage, see DIGI CLIP for cold storage and warehousing and our pest monitoring forms.