Who is responsible for temperature logs
By Vimal Bhaya, Founder and Lead Systems Architect · Last reviewed 21 October 2026
This is a continuation of Temperature log basics, a 4-part tutorial. You are on part 3 of 4.
The person in charge of each shift is responsible. Under the FDA Food Code, they must oversee staff's routine temperature checks every day, and the permit holder must make sure a person in charge is there whenever the place is open.
In practice, the job splits three ways. The person on the round takes and writes each reading. The person in charge reads the log that shift and acts on anything high. One named owner keeps the plan, the thermometers and the files. Logs go blank, or get faked, when one of those three has no name.
The Food Code puts it on the person in charge
The FDA Food Code is the model code that state and local food rules in the US are built on. It names one role for this: the person in charge, or PIC.
- There is always one. The permit holder is the person in charge, or names one, and makes sure one is "present at the food establishment during all hours of operation" (2-101.11).
- They oversee the checks every day. The PIC makes sure cold and hot holding temperatures are kept "through daily oversight of the employees' routine monitoring of food temperatures" (2-103.11). The same section covers cooling, receiving, and staff being trained in their duties.
- They hand over the records. When the inspector asks, the PIC provides the records the Code requires (8-402.11).
So the PIC does not have to take every reading. They have to make sure the readings happen, and that they are real.
The job splits three ways, and each part needs a name
| Role | Usually | Does | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taker | The team member on the round | Takes each reading, writes it at the time with initials, and flags anything out of range | Every check |
| Checker | The person in charge of the shift | Reads the log, chases blanks, makes sure every high reading has an action, and initials the log | Every shift, at least daily |
| Owner | The kitchen manager or food safety lead | Decides which boxes and how often, keeps thermometers checked, trains takers, files the logs, and looks for trends | Weekly, and whenever something changes |
A state school log shows the same split on paper: initials for each entry, and a box for the manager's initials and the date, with the manager reviewing it "each working day".
In a food plant under FDA preventive controls, the checker's job has a deadline in law. Monitoring and corrective action records are reviewed "within 7 working days after the records are created", by or under a preventive controls qualified individual (21 CFR 117.165).
Logs go blank where nobody's name is on the job
A missed log is often not a person refusing the job. It is a job nobody was sure was theirs. In our research, long-term care dietitians described exactly this: not knowing who owned the daily fridge and freezer logs, and audits spent chasing unfilled ones.
The gaps tend to open in the same places:
- Shift change. The 3 PM check falls between two shifts, and each one thinks it belongs to the other.
- Nights and weekends. The person in charge is the newest manager, or the only one on site.
- Shared boxes. A walk-in used by the kitchen and the bar, or by two departments.
- New staff. Nobody showed them where the thermometer is, or what to write when a reading is high.
The fix is plain. Put a name against every round on the rota, the same way you would for opening and closing, and hand the log over in person at shift change. A job with a name gets done, or gets noticed when it is not.
A job with too many rounds for the people on shift is the other way logs fail. They get filled in later from memory, which is the subject of pencil whipping temperature logs.
Responsibility does not stop when the doors close
The box keeps running after everyone has gone home. If a compressor stops at midnight, the person who finds out is the opener at 6 AM. On paper, nobody is responsible for the hours in between.
Name who gets the call at night, and a second person if the first does not answer. TemperatureWise does this per sensor: email to as many people as you want, and texts, WhatsApp messages and phone calls to up to 3 people, escalating until someone answers. How to set that up is in alerting more than one person.
TemperatureWise takes the readings, and the people keep the judgment
TemperatureWise records each box at least every 15 minutes and keeps the record indefinitely. The taker's rounds can be fewer, and the checker reads a full day of readings, not a few numbers.
The owner still decides what to monitor. The person in charge still decides what happens to the food when a box goes wrong, and still signs for it.