How to Set Up Hot Holding Temperature Checks

Date modified: 1st June 2025 | This article has been written by Pilla Founder, Liam Jones, click to email Liam directly, he reads every email. Or book a demo to see how hospitality businesses use Pilla to manage food safety.

TLDR: About Hot Holding 

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  Hot holding is when you cook food and then use equipment to keep that cooked food hot before serving. Hot holding is not a method for cooking food but rather a way to maintain safety by keeping already cooked food at safe temperatures.

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  Hot holding food must be held at a minimum temperature of 63°C, with a temperature of between 65-68°C preferred. This temperature prevents bacterial growth and food poisoning. When cooked food is left in the danger zone (between 5°C and 63°C), bacteria can multiply rapidly, leading to foodborne illnesses. Hot holding ensures that food is kept at a safe temperature, reducing the risk of food poisoning. Hot holding helps to maintain the quality and texture of cooked food, ensuring that it remains safe and enjoyable for consumption. 

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  If you carry out hot holding, then you should record the temperature of five held foods every day. Pilla has a pre-built cooked food temperature check inside which includes all of the inputs for staff to record compliant checks.The check will record all of the required information including the food item, the food temperature at 2, 4 and 6 hours, the date/time and the person who recorded the reheated food each time.

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  If anything goes wrong, highlight the issue using the using 'Issue' button and follow the corrective actions below. Record everything that you do as a post inside the hot holding food temperature check so you are create a full digital paper-trail of compliance.

Demo: Setting up Hot Holding Checks in Pilla

1. •Click the '+' button underneath any day on the planner to create a new activity and use these settings:
   - Name: Hot Held Temperatures
   - Site: Select the appropriate venue
   - Team: Choose the team who will carry out the checks
   - Start: Set the start time to be the first time you want the checks to be carried out (this should be a future date and time)
   - Finish: Set the date and time that the first checks should be finished by (this is the target finish time)
   - Frequency: Set to 'Daily' and select every day that you are open- Tag: Add the relevant Tag (most likely Kitchen Checks unless you've created another one)
2. •Click 'Create' to create the activity
3. •Click 'Add Check' and use the dropdown menu to select 'Hot Held Temperatures'.You should add five of these so that your teams can record five hot held food temperatures each day. Name then 'Hot Held Food 1, Hot Held Food 2' and so on.
4. •You now have a recurring daily activity which will have your hot held food temperature checks inside. The activity will recreate itself one day in advance.