70 °C for sixty minutes.

A controlled temperature hold. MAEKO's DCTS system controls this stage of the LIGHT and HARDSTOCK composting cycle.

Line drawing: a cutaway of the composting bed inside its chamber, a dense stipple of heat lifting off the bed surface and thinning as it rises, two Speedos half-buried in the material, and a thermometer standing in the bed itself with its bulb sunk among the pieces and its unnumbered scale rising clear of the surface. — 04 · it gets warm

The hold: one hour inside the day.

What actually happens

The machine holds the waste at 70 °C for 60 minutes. The temperature-control system manages this hold automatically. The heat is what reduces pathogens and harmful bacteria.

We call the control system DCTS — a temperature-controlled system — and it runs the hold by itself. There is no dial for it and no operator step. The hold is part of the LIGHT and HARDSTOCK process; PANTRY and OUTFLOW have different operating cycles.

The rest of the cycle runs cooler. The hold is one stage inside a cycle of 12 to 24 hours.

The line for the food-safety officer

The machine holds the waste at 70 °C for 60 minutes. Ask for the DCTS specification and operating instructions for your model.

Line drawing of an empty back-of-house service room after service: a wheeled rack of stacked empty kitchen trays with two buckets under it on the left, a plain closed composting cabinet in the middle with a fine stipple of warmth rising from its shut lid and Speedo resting on top of it, a wall clock with tick marks and hands but no numbers on the right, a coiled hose on a hook and a mop standing in a bucket. Nobody is in the room. — The room the hold happens in. The lid is shut, the kitchen has gone home, and the hour runs with nobody in front of the machine.

70 °C

the hold

60 min

how long it is held

12–24 h

the whole cycle

For the kitchen

What it means on your floor.

This is the strongest thing on the machine

It is a machine-controlled hold on LIGHT and HARDSTOCK models, so it does not depend on an operator remembering to do it.

Follow the discharge procedure

Follow the machine's cooling and discharge instructions before handling or bagging compost; see step 07.

It is one hour, not the whole cycle at 70 °C

The cycle is 12 to 24 hours; the pasteurisation hold is one hour of it. Anyone quoting the whole cycle at 70 °C has it wrong.

Scope and operation

For your site specification.

This belongs to the composters, not to every MAEKO machine. The OUTFLOW digesters are a different machine with a lower-temperature process: they turn food waste into a liquid for discharge through an approved site connection. The 70 °C hold does not apply to them.
Temperature alone is not a compliance certificate. Installation and waste-management requirements depend on your location and waste stream. Confirm the applicable requirements with the relevant local authority.
It is a statement about the machine, not a certificate for your site. The hold is what the machine performs. Testing of the finished compost is separate laboratory work, and it belongs to step 07. Ask us for the DCTS page of the specification sheet for the model you are quoted, and for the compost test reports. They are two different documents.
Heat is where the power goes. Power draw, kWh and noise are on the specification sheet for each model. It is the first thing your engineer will ask for, so ask early.

Two people, one sheet

The hold is the machine’s job; the paperwork is ours.

Ask for the DCTS and installation specifications for your chosen LIGHT or HARDSTOCK model. You can request the sheet on WhatsApp; use our weighing guide if you are still choosing.

Ask for the model specification →

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