What the colour bands mean (and who decides them)
Every temperature reading in Rated5 shows a colour — safe, warning or danger. The colour is calculated on the server each time, from the appliance type and your premises' UK nation.
The band is calculated on the server
The colour shown on a device — on the appliance tile, in the entry screen, on the history page — is advisory only. The figure that counts is calculated on Rated5’s server the moment a reading is saved, using the appliance and the nation your premises is set to. This applies even for a reading taken while offline and synced later.
A tighter custom safe range can be set for an individual appliance. A custom range can’t be set looser than the legal limit.
The standard thresholds
These are the standard bands Rated5 checks every reading against, before any custom per-appliance override is applied.
| Reading type | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Chill (fridge) | Target 5°C, maximum 8°C, too cold below 0°C |
| Freezer | Maximum −18°C, danger above −15°C |
| Hot-hold | Minimum 63°C |
| Cook | 75°C core (or 70°C held for 2 minutes) |
| Reheat | 75°C core — except Scotland |
The one nation-specific difference
Every threshold in that table is identical across all four UK nations — England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — with one exception. England, Wales and Northern Ireland use the same 75°C reheat threshold as cooking. Scotland’s reheat threshold is 82°C core. Rated5 applies the correct figure for your premises’ nation automatically, based on the nation set in Settings. No other reading type varies by nation.
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