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Temperature requirements and recommendations for foods

05/1999, 07.04.1999

BgVV pamphlet informs manufacturers, trade, control authorities and consumers

Again and again there are reports in the media about food infections and intoxications caused by the incorrect handling of foods in mass catering facilities like canteens, old people's homes etc. but also in the home. Some of these diseases can have very severe consequences and may even prove fatal. These risks can be avoided by complying with the right temperatures when refrigerating foods, when heating up foods and when keeping them warm until consumed.

Since in Germany up to now there were only partial statutory provisions for temperatures when handling foods, the Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers and Veterinary Medicine (BgVV), in co-operation with the federal Länder control authorities but also with representatives of consumer associations and industry, has published a pamphlet entitled "Temperature requirements and recommendations for food". This pamphlet gives the statutory temperatures but also those recommended by BgVV. The temperature recommendations should be seen as an expert comment by BgVV and are directed first and foremost at the circles involved in the trade in perishable foods. They do not constitute an interpretation of the Food Hygiene Regulations (LMHV) and are not legally binding. Besides the recommendations about temperatures to be complied with, the pamphlet also contains information about devices for temperature measurement, types of measurement and sites of measurement.

Exact compliance with the recommendations by all groups which come into contact with food - from the abattoir over the shipping agent, wholesale or retail trade down to the chef in a mass catering facility and the final consumer in the home - is a further way of reducing the risk of food infection. If the recommendations in the pamphlet are rigorously observed by plants, the number of complaints during controls by the monitoring authorities will also be reduced.

The pamphlet "Recommendations on the microbiological assessment of ice-cream" is directed towards the same group. It is also hot off the press. This pamphlet contains recommendations on germ counts which should not be exceeded when preparing ice-cream which does not contain any portion of milk or product on a milk basis.

The pamphlets can be obtained free of charge by writing or sending a fax to the BgVV Press and Public Relations Office. Furthermore, BgVV also has a pamphlet "Hygiene in mass catering facilities" which it publishes together with WHO for staff training in mass catering facilities. Since foreign staff is used on a large-scale in mass catering facilities, this pamphlet is not only available in German but also in English, French, Spanish as well as other languages like Chinese and Russian. This brochure can also be obtained free of charge from the BgVV Press and Public Relations Office.

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