ServSafe® Temperature Chart: Every Temp and Time, Cited
The temperature danger zone is 41°F to 135°F (5°C to 57°C). Below are the temperatures and times the ServSafe Manager exam turns on, each with the FDA Food Code section it comes from, so you can check us rather than trust us.
Scope, said up front: every number on this page is cited to its own section, and a number we have not read in its own section is not on this page. Warewashing and sanitizer values are the gap — see the last question in the FAQ. Every value is the 2022 FDA Food Code (10th edition) — the edition ServSafe's current Manager material is aligned to. FDA published a 2026 edition on 17 September 2026; ServSafe has not moved the exam to it.
Screenshot this page. It is built to be read at arm's length on a phone propped against a speed rack.
Holding: the danger zone, cold and hot
| Rule | Number | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature danger zone | 41°F – 135°F (5–57°C) | Annex 3, 3-501.16 |
| Cold holding | 41°F or less | 3-501.16(A)(2) |
| Hot holding | 135°F or above | 3-501.16(A)(1) |
| Hot holding, roasts cooked per 3-401.11(B) | may be held at 130°F or above | 3-501.16(A)(1) |
| Untreated shell eggs, storage | ambient air 45°F or less | 3-501.16(B) |
Two numbers do the work. Cold stays at or below 41. Hot stays at or above 135. Everything in between is the zone, and every rule below is about moving through it on a clock, or staying out of it.
Cooking: every minimum internal temperature, with its hold time
The temperature is half the answer. Each carries a hold time — how long it holds at the thickest part — and hold times are where old study material goes wrong.
| Food | Cook to | Hold for | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poultry; stuffed foods | 165°F | under 1 second (instantaneous) | 3-401.11(A)(3) |
| Ground and comminuted meat; ratites; non-intact meats; raw eggs not cooked for immediate service | 155°F | 17 seconds | 3-401.11(A)(2) |
| — the same foods, chart alternatives | 145°F / 150°F / 158°F | 3 minutes / 1 minute / under 1 second | 3-401.11(A)(2) |
| Seafood; intact meat; whole cuts of beef and pork; eggs cooked for immediate service | 145°F | 15 seconds | 3-401.11(A)(1) |
| Roasts | 130°F up to 145°F | 112 minutes at 130°F, down to 4 minutes at 145°F | 3-401.11(B)(1) |
| Plant foods cooked for hot holding | 135°F | — | 3-401.13 |
| Microwave cooking | 165°F throughout | stand covered 2 minutes after cooking | 3-401.12 |
Learn the ladder as a sequence — 165, 155, 145, 135 — and hang the food group on each rung. Roasts are the exception that shows you understood it: the Code prints a full chart between 130°F for 112 minutes and 145°F for 4 minutes, because a low temperature held long enough does the same job as a high one held briefly.
A practice question from our bank — written by us, not an exam question
A batch of beef stew comes off the range and passes 135°F at 10:00 a.m. as it starts to cool. By what time must the stew reach its first cooling checkpoint, and what is that checkpoint?
Cooling and reheating
Cooling: two stages, one clock
| Stage | From → to | Time | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | 135°F → 70°F | within 2 hours | 3-501.14(A)(1) |
| Stage 2 | 135°F → 41°F | within 6 hours total | 3-501.14(A)(2) |
| Food made from ingredients at ambient temperature | → 41°F | within 4 hours | 3-501.14(B) |
Stage two is measured from 135°F, not from 70°F. Chili at 135°F at 9:00 a.m. has to hit 70°F by 11:00 a.m. and 41°F by 3:00 p.m. — six hours end to end, not two plus six.
Reheating
| Situation | Number | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|
| Reheating for hot holding | 165°F for 15 seconds, reached within 2 hours | 3-403.11(A), (D) |
| Commercially processed food, reheated for hot holding | 135°F | 3-403.11(C) |
Reheating and poultry are both 165°F. Cooking poultry holds it under a second; reheating holds it 15 seconds. Same temperature, different rule, and a question can key either.
Handwashing, date marking and time as a public health control
Handwashing and the hand sink
| Rule | Number | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|
| Handwashing, whole procedure | at least 20 seconds | 2-301.12(A) |
| Handwashing, scrub step | rub together vigorously 10–15 seconds | 2-301.12(B) |
| Hand sink water temperature | at least 85°F | 5-202.12(A) |
Both numbers are real and they are not alternatives. Twenty seconds is the whole procedure; 10 to 15 seconds is the scrubbing inside it. Prep sites pick one and call it the answer.
Date marking
| Rule | Number | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum hold, refrigerated | 7 days at 41°F or less | 3-501.17(A) |
| Counting | the day of preparation is Day 1 | 3-501.17(A) |
| Opened commercial container | the day it is opened is Day 1 | 3-501.17(B) |
Day 1 is the day it was made or opened, not the day after — the off-by-one is the easy mistake here.
Time as a public health control
| Option | Number | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|
| 4-hour option | 4 hours, measured from when the food leaves 41°F or 135°F | 3-501.19(B) |
| 6-hour option | 6 hours, starting at 41°F or below, and the food may not exceed 70°F | 3-501.19(C) |
| Before either is used | written procedures prepared in advance | 3-501.19(A)(1) |
The written procedures are the manager half of this rule, and what scenario questions are built on. This is not a call you make on the line at 2 p.m.; 3-501.19(A)(1) requires the procedures beforehand.
The numbers that changed between Food Code editions
This is where studying hard still goes wrong. A 2017 quiz set can outrank a current one, cheat sheets get photocopied for years, and every value below moved.
| Number | Old | Current | Changed in | Food Code § |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand sink water temperature | 100°F | 85°F | 2022 Food Code | 5-202.12(A) |
| Ground meat hold time at 155°F | 15 seconds | 17 seconds | 2017 Food Code | 3-401.11(A)(2) |
| Poultry and stuffed foods at 165°F | 15 seconds | under 1 second (instantaneous) | 2017 Food Code | 3-401.11(A)(3) |
| Major food allergens | 8 | 9 — sesame added, effective 1 January 2023 | 2022 Food Code | 1-201.10 |
| Reportable illnesses | Big 5 | Big 6 — nontyphoidal Salmonella added | 2013 Food Code | 2-201.11(A)(2) |
| Reduced-oxygen packaging (ROP) refrigerated shelf life | 14 days | 30 days | 2013 Food Code | 3-502.12(B)(3)(b) and (B)(4) |
The hand sink catches nearly everybody. Free tests, videos and laminated cheat sheets still say 100°F. If a practice question keys 100°F it was written before 2022, and the rest of that material is the same vintage.
"Big 9" means allergens. There is no Big 9 illness list. Prep material welds the two together constantly, so hold them apart:
- Big 6 reportable illnesses, 2-201.11(A)(2): Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella spp., STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli), Typhoid fever (Salmonella Typhi) and nontyphoidal Salmonella. Five became six in the 2013 Food Code — not 2017, not 2022.
- 9 major food allergens, 1-201.10: milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame.
- Reportable symptoms, 2-201.11(A)(1), are a third list again: vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, and a lesion containing pus.
One honest limit on this section. These are the edition changes we verified — against FDA's own summary of changes for the 2013 and 2017 editions, and against the 2022 Food Code itself. FDA's 2009 summary was unreachable when we researched this, so anything that moved before 2013 is unaudited here. This is the set we could check, not every value that has ever changed. One reassurance: the Supplement to the 2022 Food Code, released 4 November 2024, changed definitions and several provisions but no temperature, time, cooling, holding, date-marking, handwashing, allergen or reportable-illness number. Studying from 9th Edition material? The numbers did not move underneath you. Nor did FDA's 2026 Food Code, published 17 September 2026, move any temperature or time on this page — its cooling change adds a method, not a new time or temperature.
If you only have tonight
Candidates who write about this exam afterward describe times and temperatures as the thing they had to memorize. That is what they report, not a published weighting — ServSafe publishes no blueprint and no domain percentages, so nobody can honestly tell you how many temperature questions you get. In this order:
- 41 and 135. The zone, cold holding, hot holding.
- The ladder: 165 / 155 / 145, with its hold time — under a second, 17 seconds, 15 seconds — then 135 for plant foods cooked for hot holding.
- Cooling: 2 hours to 70°F, 6 hours total to 41°F.
- Reheating: 165°F for 15 seconds, inside 2 hours.
- 85°F at the hand sink, 20 seconds of handwashing.
- 7 days at 41°F, prep day is Day 1.
Then stop reading and take a timed run. Knowing a number and retrieving it under a clock are different skills run a free full-length test.
Our own build, so you know what this page stands on: we wrote 203 original questions against the 2022 Food Code, citing 95 distinct sections. Every question cites a section, and every numeric answer is machine-checked against that section's own text. Sixteen are edition-change questions, built on the changed values above test yourself on the edition-change questions. The first full timed run is free with a free account and no card; the printable one-page card is part of Full Prep at $34.
FAQ
What is the temperature danger zone for ServSafe? 41°F to 135°F, or 5°C to 57°C — Annex 3 and 3-501.16 of the 2022 Food Code.
What temperature does chicken have to reach? 165°F for under one second, instantaneous, under 3-401.11(A)(3). The same rule covers stuffed foods.
Is the hand sink 85°F or 100°F? At least 85°F, under 5-202.12(A). 100°F is the pre-2022 figure, still all over free study material.
Is handwashing 20 seconds or 15? Both numbers sit in 2-301.12 and they measure different things: at least 20 seconds for the whole procedure, 10 to 15 seconds for the scrub step.
How long can food take to cool? Two hours from 135°F to 70°F, then six hours total from 135°F down to 41°F — 3-501.14(A)(1) and (A)(2). From ambient-temperature ingredients: 41°F within four hours, 3-501.14(B).
How many major food allergens are there? Nine, since sesame was added effective 1 January 2023 — 1-201.10.
What is the reheating temperature? 165°F for 15 seconds, reached within two hours — 3-403.11(A) and (D). Commercially processed food reheated for hot holding: 135°F, 3-403.11(C).
What about dish machine and sanitizer temperatures? Not on this page. Candidates sometimes report being asked about warewashing water and sanitizer strength, and we do not print a number we have not checked against its own section. When we have read those values in the sections that carry them, they will appear here with those sections; until then this page stays silent on them.
Which Food Code edition does the exam test? The 2022 Food Code, tenth edition, as amended by the Supplement of 4 November 2024 — the edition ServSafe's own Manager materials name. The Supplement changed none of the numbers on this page, and neither did the 2026 Food Code FDA published on 17 September 2026 — ServSafe has announced no exam change to it, and accredited programs have up to five years to update ServSafe Manager study guide.
How we source, verify and correct everything on this site: our editorial standards.
Figures pending
- cooling-clock-diagram
Two-stage cooling rule: 135 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within 2 hours and 135 to 41 within 6 hours total, FDA Food Code 3-501.14(A).
- cooking-ladder-diagram
Minimum internal cooking temperatures: 165, 155, 145 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit with hold times and Food Code sections.
- temperature-card.png
One-page ServSafe Manager temperature reference card with FDA Food Code sections.