Updated 25 October 2026 - for UK restaurants, pubs, hotels, caterers and cafes
No UK law sets a temperature for cooking a turkey. Our advice Probe the thickest part, between the leg and the breast, and make sure it reaches one of the time and temperature pairs, such as 75°C for 30 seconds or 70°C for 2 minutes. Defrost it fully, ideally in the fridge, cook stuffing separately, cool anything cooked ahead fast in portions, reheat it once until steaming hot (82°C in Scotland, where it is law), and keep the carvery hot. Give allergen information for every dish, and instruct and supervise your Christmas staff from their first shift.
How long? For home cooks, GOV.UK says to allow "around 10-12 hours per kg" in a fridge, and that a 6 to 7 kg bird "could take as much as 4 days". No guidance for kitchens gives a time per kg, so follow the packaging, plan the fridge space, and check it is fully defrosted.
Our advice Defrost it covered, on the bottom shelf, below ready-to-eat food, and write on it when it came out of the freezer. Do not wash raw turkey. The guidance for kitchens does not mention it, but GOV.UK and Food Standards Scotland both tell home cooks not to, because it spreads germs onto hands, worktops and utensils.
Law in all four nations No UK nation sets a cooking temperature in law.
Why websites give 63, 65, 70, 74 or 75°C. Cooking is a temperature held for a time. 63°C is the UK hot holding figure, not a cooking temperature for poultry. 65°C is safe only if held for at least 10 minutes, and 70°C only if held for at least 2 minutes. 74°C is the American figure for poultry. 75°C is Safe Catering's figure, CookSafe's example, and, held for at least 30 seconds, one of the FSA pack's pairs.
Resting, or taking it out early. Our advice Resting is not a cooking method in any UK guidance. If you rely on the rest, leave the probe in the thickest part and record that it held one of the pairs, such as 65°C for 10 minutes. If you cannot show that, cook it until it reaches the pair in the oven. The FSA pack's Prove it method says: "If you do a different check then you will need to prove it is safe." Your council can tell you what it expects.
More on the pairs: our cooking temperatures guide.
Our advice Do not cool a whole cooked bird. Take the meat off the bone, or carve it, with clean utensils and a board for cooked food only, spread it in shallow trays, cover it and chill it fast. Probe it and record the time it went in the fridge. The cooling time you work to is your own target: 90 minutes is a common target, not law, and it is not in the FSA pack. More in our cooling guide.
Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Once it is in the fridge, it must be kept at 8°C or below. Law in Scotland It must be kept in a fridge or a cool ventilated place; the law sets no temperature. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe: "It is recommended practice to operate refrigerators and chills at 5°C or below."
Cooking the day before is allowed: no law forbids it. Cook to a pair, cool it fast in portions, keep it chilled, label it, and reheat it once until steaming hot. In Scotland the law says 82°C.
More in our reheating guide.
Our advice Probe the joint, not the lamp: a heat lamp warms the surface. More in our hot holding guide.
More in our guide to how long food you make keeps.
Law in all four nations If any of the 14 allergens is in a dish you sell loose, you must make that information available.
Stuffing, gravy, Christmas pudding and mince pies are often made with ingredients that can contain several of the 14 allergens - bread or flour, stock, sausage meat, dried fruit, butter, suet, nuts or alcohol - so check every label and recipe.
Chestnuts are not one of the nuts named in the 14 allergens (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex II). That does not mean they are safe for someone with a nut allergy: ask the customer and tell them exactly what is in the dish.
Our advice A Christmas menu, a new supplier or a substitute product means a new allergen check that day. Our allergen matrix guide has a free matrix to print.
Law in all four nations Food handlers must be "supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity".
Our advice On day one, show them hand washing, how to use the probe, the allergen process and who to ask. A food hygiene certificate is not required by law: more in our food hygiene certificate guide.
Law in all four nations No one with diarrhoea, or another illness likely to be passed on through food, may handle food or enter a food area if there is any likelihood of contamination, and staff must report symptoms straight away.
Guidance After diarrhoea or vomiting, the FSA pack, Safe Catering and CookSafe all say to stay off work until there have been no symptoms for 48 hours. The UK Health Security Agency says norovirus is "commonly known as the winter vomiting bug", and that "Alcohol-based hand sanitisers don't kill norovirus", so wash hands with soap and water. More in our staff sickness guide.
Paper works. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for the daily records:
What it does not do today: there is no defrosting record, no cold buffet four-hour record, no allergen matrix, and no hold for 65°C for 10 minutes or 60°C for 45 minutes. Would you use a defrosting record? Tell us.
A turkey crown cooking record. Not hot enough yet: keep cooking, then probe the thickest part again.
Which plan. Cooking, cooling, hot holding and reheating records stay free after the 14-day trial for one login, the kitchen's billing Manager. Checklists, and the Inspection Pack that brings temperature records, checklists and incidents together, come with Standard and Pro and are open in the trial. Training records are part of Pro.
Get ChefsRecords on the App Store (iPhone) ›
14 days free. No card required.
This page explains the law and guidance in plain words, from the public sources below as published on 25 October 2026. It is not legal advice. Your council's food team can answer questions about your own kitchen. ChefsRecords is not part of, or endorsed by, the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland or your local council.
No UK law sets one. Probe the thickest part, between the leg and the breast. It needs to reach one of the time and temperature pairs in the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack, such as 75°C for 30 seconds or 70°C for 2 minutes. GOV.UK calls 70°C for 2 minutes the standard advice. Safe Catering in Northern Ireland gives 75°C as its figure, and CookSafe in Scotland as its example.
No. No UK nation sets a cooking temperature in law. 75°C is a common target, Safe Catering's figure and CookSafe's example. The only temperature law for heating food is Scotland's 82°C, and that is for reheating, not the first cook.
In the thickest part, between the leg and the breast, with the tip in the meat. GOV.UK's advice for home cooks says to avoid the bones, and we advise the same: bone can give a false reading. If you cook several birds, probe each one, as the FSA pack says to check a large batch in several places. Clean the probe before and after.
Not on its own. The FSA pack and Safe Catering ask for no pink or red meat and clear juices, and all the UK kitchen guidance uses a probe. Clear juices are a visual check. The probe reading is what shows your method works.
No UK guidance describes resting as a cooking method. 65°C counts only if it is held for at least 10 minutes. If you rely on the rest, leave the probe in the thickest part and record that it held one of the pairs. If you cannot show that, keep cooking. Write the method in your food safety plan, and your council can tell you what it expects.
GOV.UK's advice for home cooks is around 10 to 12 hours per kg, and a 6 to 7 kg bird can take up to 4 days. No guidance for kitchens gives a time per kg, so follow the packaging and plan the fridge space. Before cooking, check there are no ice crystals and the joints move freely.
No. GOV.UK's and Food Standards Scotland's advice for home cooks both say not to wash raw turkey, because it spreads germs onto hands, worktops and utensils. The guidance for kitchens does not mention it, and we advise the same. Cooking it properly is what kills the bacteria.
GOV.UK's advice for home cooks is to cook the stuffing in a separate tin, because a stuffed bird takes longer and may not cook through. The guidance for kitchens does not cover stuffing. If you do stuff a bird, probe the centre of the stuffing as well as the meat.
Yes, no law forbids it. The FSA pack says to avoid cooking large amounts in advance unless you need to, because big, solid food is slow to cool. Take the meat off the bone or carve it, cool it fast in shallow trays, keep it chilled, label it, and reheat it once until steaming hot. In Scotland the law says 82°C.
No law sets a number of days. In England and Wales, the FSA pack says high risk ready-to-eat food, such as cold turkey or ham, should be kept for a maximum of 3 days in total, the day it was cooked plus 2, unless you have evidence for longer. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, set your own days in your plan. The 3 to 4 days on many websites is American advice.
Yes. Freeze it as soon as it has cooled properly, and label it with the date. Defrost it in the fridge and use it quickly: Safe Catering says within one day, and GOV.UK's home advice says within 24 hours. Reheat it once only, until steaming hot. In Scotland the law says 82°C.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, hot food must be kept at 63°C or above. Less than two hours below that is a defence, once only, if you can show the time. The FSA pack says food not used within the two hours should be reheated until steaming hot and put back in hot holding, or chilled quickly to 8°C or below, and food out for more than two hours is thrown away. In Scotland, hot food must be kept above 63°C. There is no two-hour rule, but the law has its own exemptions, including food exposed for sale; your council can tell you how they apply to a carvery. Probe the food, not the lamp, and inspectors may ask how you know.
Chestnuts are not one of the nuts named in the UK's 14 allergens. The list names almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios and macadamia nuts. Someone can still be allergic to chestnuts, so if a customer asks, tell them exactly what is in the dish.
Your food safety plan should describe what your kitchen really does. The free food safety plan builder takes you through safe methods based on the FSA pack, so you can write them in your own words, then prints your plan or saves it as a PDF. For small restaurants, cafes, pubs and takeaways in England and Wales.
The cooking temperatures guide, the cooling guide, the reheating guide, the hot holding guide, the guide to how long food you make keeps, the allergen matrix guide, the staff sickness guide, the probe check guide and the danger zone guide.