Cold holding is the part of service where chilled food is out of the storage refrigerator but not yet eaten: salads in a saladette, chutneys and raita on a buffet, sandwiches in a display case, toppings on a pizza table. Common food safety guidance aims to keep this food at around 5 °C or below throughout.
Holding equipment is designed to keep cold food cold, not to cool it down. Food should go in already chilled. Pans should be shallow and not overfilled above the cold zone, lids and covers used whenever possible, and stock replenished by swapping in a fresh cold pan rather than topping up a warm one. Temperatures should be checked with a probe during service, not just read from the unit's display.
A hotel breakfast buffet in Goa might hold cut fruit, yoghurt and cold cuts in a refrigerated well. Every hour, staff probe a pan from each section, note the reading and replace any pan that has crept above the limit.