Step 1. How has the blend been stored?
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Freshly made | Give within two hours of preparation. No reheating needed. |
| Refrigerated | Ingredients cooked thoroughly, blend cooled and in the fridge (0 to 5°C) within two hours, used within 48 hours. Safe to give chilled or lightly warmed for comfort. No reheating needed for safety. |
| Frozen | Frozen at below minus 18°C, defrosted fully in the fridge, used within 24 hours of defrosting. Then as for refrigerated. |
| Contains rice | Cool within one hour, keep in the fridge, use within 24 hours. Then give chilled or reheat once until steaming hot. Reheating does not make a slowly cooled or over-kept blend safe. |
| Out of the fridge for more than two hours in total | Do not give. The two hours are cumulative and include travel and the time taken to give the blend. A blend that has already been reheated once should not be reheated again. |
Step 2. Who is it for?
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| More vulnerable to foodborne illness | Infants and young children, people who are pregnant, older adults, and people with cancer, organ transplants, uncontrolled HIV or diabetes, chronic liver or kidney disease, or on oral steroids or immunosuppressive treatment. Where the blend contains chilled ready-to-eat foods, reheat until steaming hot. Consider a sanitising step after cleaning reusable feeding equipment. |
| Everyone else | No reheating needed for safety. |
Step 3. Where is it being given?
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| At home | No reheating needed for safety. Warm for comfort if wanted. |
| A commercial kitchen in England, Wales or Northern Ireland | There is no legal requirement to reheat. If the setting does reheat, heat until steaming hot throughout, which is equivalent to 70°C for two minutes, and reheat once only. Follow the setting’s own procedure. |
| A commercial kitchen in Scotland | There is no legal requirement to reheat. If the setting does reheat, food heated in the course of a commercial operation and reheated before service must by law reach at least 82°C, and should be reheated once only. This applies to a hospital or school kitchen reheating a blend it prepared. |
Reheating as a safety step
Reheating is a safety step in two situations: where a blend containing chilled ready-to-eat foods is for someone more vulnerable to foodborne illness, and where a setting’s own procedure requires it. Heat until steaming hot throughout, which is equivalent to 70°C for two minutes. Stir during and after heating, particularly in a microwave, where hot spots leave parts of the blend cool. Reheat once only. Cool to a temperature that would be comfortable eaten orally before giving. Reheating does not correct poor preparation or storage: where there is doubt about cooling, storage time or temperature control, discard the blend.
Warming is not reheating
Warming for comfort needs no set temperature and does nothing to bacteria. Stand a sealed container in warm water, or warm briefly in a microwave and stir thoroughly, and give straight away. A blend can be left at room temperature, provided the total time out of the fridge stays under two hours.
Based on Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland consumer guidance as at October 2026.
Check food.gov.uk and foodstandards.gov.scot for the current position.