A fridge should be kept at 5°C or below, and ideally set to 3–4°C. In Australia, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) uses 5°C as the upper safe limit for refrigerated food because above this point, harmful bacteria begin to multiply quickly (FSANZ).
Aim for a set point of 3°C to 4°C rather than exactly 5°C. This gives you a safety buffer: fridge temperatures naturally rise and fall as the door opens, the compressor cycles, and warm groceries go in. Setting the fridge a degree or two under 5°C means that even during those swings, your food stays out of the danger zone.
Going much colder isn’t necessary and can freeze fresh produce, milk and salad items at the back of the fridge, where it’s coldest. The sweet spot for most refrigerators is 0°C to 5°C, targeting the 3–4°C mark, which holds true whether you own a Westinghouse, Fisher & Paykel, LG, Haier or Hisense, since the safe temperature is about the food, not the brand. The only way to know your fridge is truly in range is to measure it, ideally with a temperature data logger that records the real internal temperature over time.
A freezer should be kept at −18°C or below. At this temperature, bacterial growth effectively stops,s and food can be stored safely for months (Better Health Channel).
Freezing doesn’t kill bacteria; it puts them on pause,e so food returns to its normal spoilage clock once thawed. For that reason, always thaw food in the fridge rather than on the bench, and never refreeze food that has fully thawed unless you’ve cooked it first.
The temperature danger zone is 5°C to 60°C, the range where food-poisoning bacteria multiply most rapidly. It’s the reason your fridge target sits below 5°C and hot food is held above 60°C (FSANZ 2-hour/4-hour rule).
Between these two points and especially between about 20°C and 50°C, bacteria can double roughly every 20 minutes. A single bacterium can become millions within a few hours, enough to make someone seriously ill.
The main pathogens of concern in Australian kitchens are Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and Staphylococcus aureus. Importantly, Listeria monocytogenes can still grow slowly even at fridge temperatures, which is why vulnerable groups,s pregnant women, older people and anyone immunocompromised are advised to avoid higher-risk chilled foods and to keep the fridge genuinely cold (healthdirect).
On most fridge dials, the higher number is colder,r so 5 is colder than 1. The numbers represent cooling power, not degrees in Celsius, so “5” runs the compressor harder and produces a colder fridge than “1”.
This trips a lot of people up. Because the dial doesn’t show actual degrees, the only reliable way to know your fridge’s true temperature is to measure it, then adjust the dial until you hit 3–4°C. Start around the middle setting, measure after 24 hours, and nudge it up or down from there. A wireless data logger that records continuously makes this trial-and-error far easier than repeated manual checks.
**For accuracy and record-keeping, a digital temperature data logger is the gold standard.** Unlike a dial thermometer you have to remember to check, a data logger records temperature continuously and stores the readings, so you can see exactly how your fridge performs over hours or days, including overnight, when problems most often show up. (New to these devices? Our guide to what data loggers are explains how they work.)
This overnight blind spot is where a lot of fridges quietly fail: a manual check at 9 am might read a healthy 4°C, while the logger reveals the fridge climbed to 8°C for three hours after the last late-night door opening. Continuous logging catches what spot-checks miss.
Wireless data loggers can send readings to your phone or computer and trigger a text or email alert if the fridge drifts out of range, invaluable for a fridge full of expensive groceries, stock or medication. Whatever tool you use, make sure it’s calibrated, as an inaccurate thermometer is worse than none at all.
Food businesses must keep cold potentially hazardous food at 5°C or below; it’s a legal requirement under Standard 3.2.2 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, not just good practice. Businesses must also be able to demonstrate that they do it.
Under a HACCP-based food-safety program, temperature control is a critical control point, meaning regular monitoring and written records. Many councils and auditors expect a temperature log for each fridge, coolroom and freezer. For a practical walkthrough of doing this in a hospitality setting, see our guide to restaurant temperature monitoring.
Commercial fridge and coolroom temperatures should be checked and recorded at least twice a day, for example,e at opening and closing, or monitored continuously with a data logger. Manual checks work but rely on someone remembering, and they miss what happens overnight. A continuous temperature monitoring system with alerts records around the clock, flags any excursion immediately, and produces audit-ready reports automatically.
Vaccines must be stored between 2°C and 8°, C never frozen, under Australia’s National Vaccine Storage Guidelines, whose “Strive for 5” campaign encourages a steady +5°C. Because vaccines are ruined by even brief excursions outside 2–8°C, purpose-built vaccine fridges and continuous temperature monitoring with wireless data loggers and alarms are essential in clinics and pharmacies.
| Setting | Recommended temperature |
| Fridge (home) | 5°C or below — ideally 3–4°C |
| Freezer | −18°C or below |
| Temperature danger zone | 5°C to 60°C (avoid) |
| Hot holding food | 60°C or above |
| Vaccine / medical fridge | 2°C to 8°C |
| In Fahrenheit (approx.) | Fridge ≈ 41°F, Freezer ≈ 0°F |
