Time as a Public Health Control

This is the exception that lets you hold food without temperature control, on the condition that the time is tracked and the food is discarded at the end.

Key points:

Cold food can be held up to 4 hours if it started at 41 F or below.
Hot food can be held up to 4 hours if it started at 135 F or above.
Cold food that starts above 41 F gets only 6 hours total and must be marked for discard.
Once time is used as the control, the food cannot go back to temperature control.

The exam rarely asks for a definition. It asks what you would do at 2 p.m. on a Friday with a full walk-in and a delivery at the door.

Free practice bank: FoodSafe Prep.