---
title: "Pizzeria Make Line & Portioning Checklist"
canonical: "https://peakscaleops.com/checklists/pizza-make-line-checklist/"
---

> Source: https://peakscaleops.com/checklists/pizza-make-line-checklist/

[Checklists](/checklists/) / [Pizza Parlor & Pizzeria](/checklists/pizza/) / Making Pizzas, Portioning & Baking

# Pizza Parlor & Pizzeria Make Line, Portioning & Bake Checklist

The make line is where **food cost and food safety are both decided, in the same three seconds, under the same peak-hour pressure**. These 9 checks cover the cold rail at 0–5°C (32–41°F), the cabinet that keeps food hot (hot holding) at 57°C (135°F) or above, weighed cheese portioning, and bakes timed against spec. They exist because Pizza Parlor & Pizzeria fail on exactly these two things: 907 of 1,607 restaurants in NYC inspection data cited for hot food below 140°F (60°C), and 826 for cold food above 41°F (5°C).

[Run this checklist - free](/run/pizza/?list=make-line) [Download PDF](/checklists/pdf/peakscale-pizza-checklists.pdf)[Download Excel](/checklists/excel/peakscale-pizza-checklists.xlsx)

The checklist · 9 checks

### Cold stays cold, hot stays hot

**1\. Write down the topping rail and under-counter temperatures four times a day. Keep them at 0–5°C (32–41°F).** 826 out of 1,607 pizza shops have been cited for cold food above 41°F (5°C). The rail is where this fails. Only a log catches it before an inspector does.

**2\. Write down the slice case and hot-holding cabinet temperature. Keep it at or above 57°C (135°F).** Hot food that can spoil, held below the line is the most common temperature failure at pizza shops - 907 out of 1,607 NYC shops, with 1,583 citations. A lukewarm slice case sells only one slice, never two.

**3\. Start a 4-hour timer on anything you deliberately hold outside a safe temperature.** The US FDA Food Code sets a limit of four hours from the moment food leaves a safe temperature, starting at 5°C (41°F) or below, or 57°C (135°F) or above. Check your own local code. After the limit, throw the food out instead of selling it.

### Portion to spec, cheese first

**4\. Weigh cheese for each pizza size against the build card at the start of every shift.** Cheese is the single largest food cost. At chain scale, a $0.25 per pound price change is worth about $2.5 million a year. Using too much cheese per pizza causes the same damage, even if the price does not change.

**5\. Keep a scale, portion cups, and ladles on the line. Never portion cheese or sauce by hand.** Hand portions get bigger under pressure and never come back down. Using a tool on the bench is what controls this.

**6\. Check five random pizzas each shift against the build card, weight, and size.** No one publishes how much portion sizes vary at pizza shops. Checking five pizzas a shift builds your own number. This is usually the fastest way to cut food cost.

### Bake it right the first time

**7\. Time each bake against spec. In a deck oven at the right temperature, this is 60–90 seconds. On a conveyor belt, it is about 4.25 minutes.** A bake outside spec means a remade order. You pay twice for dough, cheese, oven time, and a late order.

**8\. Cool cooked sauces, meats, and roasted toppings in pans no deeper than 7.6 cm (3 in). Leave them uncovered, and log a temperature check.** 35% of restaurant cooling checks failed the guidance. Food that nobody watched was more than twice as likely to cool too slowly. This check fixes that.

**9\. Log every remade order and why it happened (burnt, wrong build, dropped, or cold on arrival).** No published remake rate exists for pizza shops. Your own number tells you whether the loss comes from the oven, the line, or the delivery.

## Frequently asked questions

**What temperature should a pizza prep table be?**

0–5°C (32–41°F), logged at least four times a day - open, pre-peak, post-peak and close. This is one of the most frequently cited failures in the segment: 826 of 1,607 pizza restaurants in NYC health department data have been written up under code 02G for cold food held above 41°F (5°C), 1,238 citations in total. Nationally, the FDA found cold holding out of compliance in 62.23% of fast-food and 79.77% of full-service restaurants in its 2017–18 cycle. Product held above 8°C (46°F) should not be sold.

**How long can a pizza sit out before it has to be discarded?**

Four hours, under Time as a Public Health Control in the FDA Food Code - food must be cooked and served, served, or discarded within four hours of removal from temperature control. The clock only starts validly if the starting internal temperature was 41°F (5°C) or below coming out of cold holding, or 135°F (57°C) or above coming out of hot holding. That ceiling applies to docked shells, topped-not-baked pies, a slice case running without heat, and toppings pulled to a bench during a rush.

**How do you control cheese cost on a pizza line?**

Weigh it. Keep a scale, portion cups and ladles on the line, weigh cheese per pie size against the build card at the start of every shift, and audit five random pies a shift. Cheese is the largest single food cost in a pizzeria - Domino's filings put a hypothetical $0.25 per pound adverse move at roughly $2.5 million in added company-owned store food cost - and hand portions drift upward under pressure without ever drifting back. There is no published data on real portioning variance in pizzerias, so the five-pie audit is how you build your own.

## More Pizza Parlor & Pizzeria checklists

[Receiving Deliveries](/checklists/pizza-shop-receiving-checklist/)[Dough, Proofing & Cold Fermentation](/checklists/pizza-dough-prep-checklist/)[Opening & Turning On the Oven](/checklists/pizza-oven-opening-checklist/)[Delivery, Carryout & Keeping Food Hot](/checklists/pizza-delivery-checklist/)[Closing, Waste & Food Cost](/checklists/pizza-closing-checklist/)[Weekly Checks](/checklists/pizza-weekly-checklist/)

One free app has all of them: [open the Pizza Parlor & Pizzeria Checklists app](/run/pizza/) - offline, no account, add it to your home screen.

## Sources

Every statistic on this page comes from public inspection and food-safety data:

-   [NYC DOHMH Restaurant Inspection Results, dataset 43nn-pn8j](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/43nn-pn8j.json?$select=count\(distinct%20camis\)&$where=cuisine_description='Pizza'%20and%20violation_code='02G')
-   [FDA Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors, 2017–2018](https://www.fda.gov/media/169390/download)
-   [FDA Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors, 2013–2014](https://www.fda.gov/media/117509/download)
-   [Domino's Pizza, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1286681/000119312526062321/dpz-20251228.htm)
-   [Domino's Pizza, Inc. Form 10-K FY2013](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1286681/000119312514066092/d661353d10k.htm)
-   [USDA AMS National Dairy Products Sales Report](https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/dywdairyproductssales.pdf)
-   [WRAP, Overview of Waste in the UK Hospitality and Food Service Sector](https://bfff.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/WRAP-Waste-in-the-UK-Hospitality-and-Food-Service-Sector-2012-Report.pdf)
-   [ReFED, Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide](https://refed.org/downloads/Restaurant_Guide_Web.pdf)
-   [Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, Disciplinare AVPN 2022](https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/public/pdf/Disciplinare_AVPN_2022_en.pdf)
-   [Foods](https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/7/1407/htm)
-   [Pizza Today, State of the Pizzeria Industry full report 2022](https://pizzatoday.com/state-of-the-pizzeria-industry-full-report-2022/)
-   [CDC EHS-Net, Quantitative Data Analysis To Determine Best Food Cooling Practices in U.S. Restaurants](https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/47887)
-   [Intouch Insight, Pizza DELCO](https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/pizza-trends-series-third-party-delivery)
-   [FDA Food Code §3-501.19 as codified in Washington Administrative Code 246-215-03530](https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/Law/WAC/WAC%20246%20%20TITLE/WAC%20246%20-215%20%20CHAPTER/WAC%20246%20-215%20-03530.htm)
-   [Food Service Technology Center, Appliance Test Report - Edge EDGE-3240 Gas Conveyor Oven](https://caenergywise.com/report-library/conveyor-ovens/Edge_EDGE-3240_Gas_Conveyor_Oven.pdf)
-   [NC State Extension Food Safety, Home Delivered Foods & Meal Kits](https://foodsafety.ces.ncsu.edu/documents/849053/Home-Delivery-Meal-Kits-Feb-2022.pdf)
-   [USDA AMS Dairy Market News, CME Weekly Average Cash Cheddar 40-lb Blocks](https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/dywacheese_cmebl.pdf)
-   [PMQ Pizza, Pizza Power Report 2026](https://www.pmq.com/pizza-power-report-2026-pizzeria-failure-rate-is-not-what-you-think/)
-   [Pizza Today, 2025 Pizza Industry Trends Report](https://pizzatoday.com/news/2025-pizza-industry-trends-report/148305/)