Kitchen Legislation
Kitchen Hygiene Requirements and UK Laws and Legislation
Kitchen Hygiene : Important Information for Business Owners
Layout | Hand Washing | Toilets | Insect Screens | Fly Killers | Waste Management | Ventilation | Odour Control
From 1 January 2006, a number of new food hygiene regulations apply in the UK.
The regulations that are most important for your business are:
Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs :
The Food Hygiene Regulations 2005 (Northern Ireland)
Below is extracts from the legislation along with our own specific advice
The layout, design, construction, site and size of your premises must:
• allow adequate maintenance, cleaning and/or disinfection
• avoid or minimise air-borne contamination (i.e. contamination carried in the air)
• provide enough working space for you to carry out all tasks hygienically
• protect against the build-up of dirt, contact with toxic materials, shedding of particles into food and forming of condensation or
mould on surfaces
• allow good food hygiene practices, including protection against contamination and, in particular, pest control
• provide, where necessary, suitable conditions for handling and storing food while keeping it at appropriate temperatures,
designed to allow those temperatures to be monitored and, where necessary, recorded
Handwashing facilities and toilets
• Washbasins for cleaning hands must have hot and cold running water, and materials for cleaning hands and for hygienic drying.
Preferably washhand basins should be lever, elbow, knee or automatically operated to avoid contamination.
• Water should be stored at or above 60 degrees celcius to avoid legionella contamination
• Water should at the point of use at a kitchen sink should be limited to no more than 46-48 degrees celcius to ensure proper
removal of grease but there may a risk of scalding at these temperatures if hands are immersed for even a short period of time,
say within 30 seconds on skin with reduced thickness. A safe hand washing temperature as recommended by the NHS is 41
degrees celcius.
• A wash hand basin should be fitted at a recommended height to top of basin of between 770 and 840mm
• Where necessary, you should have a separate sink for washing food.
• Adequate drying provisions should be provided, such as a hand dryers (preferably a new generation hand dryer which does not
circulate the dirty air, such as the Dyson Airblade).
• Hand Towels, Hand Towel roll, or cotton roller towels can be used.
• Windows opening directly into food preparation areas must be fitted with screens capable of resisting common flying insects
• Insect screens must be removable to allow for cleaning
• Kitchen doors which open to the outside air and which are opened for lengthy periods must also be suitably screened using a
close-fitting insect-proof screen door
• Doors can be fitted with PVC Screen curtains, mesh curtains, chain screens or preferably neatly fitting screen doors
• Flying insects can be destroyed using an electronic fly-killing device.
• Flykiller units need to be positioned in an area where they will have the greatest range around the kitchen.
• They should not be placed in an area where they will be subject to draughts which could dislodge debris from the killing grid or
catch tray.
• They should also not be placed above or close to areas where food is stored or prepared incase of blow-out from the fly killer.
• Glueboard fly killers are preferable in areas of high risk. They catch the flies on the glue board and hold them permanently. •
Manufacturers will give advice on the location, cleaning and maintenance of this type of equipment.
Waste Management
• You must put food waste and other rubbish in containers that can be closed, unless you can satisfy your local authority that
other types of containers or systems of disposing of waste are appropriate. These containers must be of appropriate
construction, kept in sound condition, be easy to clean and, where necessary, to disinfect.
• You must have adequate facilities for storing and disposing of food waste and other rubbish. Stores for waste must be
designed and managed in a way that enables them to be kept clean and, where necessary, free of animals and pests.
• You must get rid of all waste in a hygienic and environmentally friendly way, in accordance with EC legislation. (There are rules
about the way certain types of food waste must be collected and disposed of - contact your local authority for details.)
• The waste must not be a direct or indirect source of contamination (e.g. touching surfaces that food is prepared on, or
attracting pests).
Kitchen Cleaning
Use colour coded mops and utensils.
Best practice for design and operation of commercial kitchen ventilation systems:
performance requirements : Minimum ventilation rates
• An internal ambient air temperature of 28oC maximum.
• Maximum humidity levels of 70%.
• Internal noise level should be between NR40 - NR50.
• Dedicated make up air system to be approximately 85% of the extract flow rate.
• Minimum air change rate of 40 per hour (bases on canopy and general room extraction).
Minimum Requirements For Canopy: Velocity requirements
- Light loading - 0.25 m/s (applies to steaming ovens, boiling pans, bains marie and stock-pot stoves).
- Medium loading - 0.35 m/s (applies to deep fat fryers, bratt pans solid and open top ranges and griddles).
- Heavy loading - 0.5 m/s (applies to chargrills, mesquite and specialist broiler units).
Material of construction
- A material that would comply with the food hygiene requirement is stainless steel.
Grease filtration
- Have a minimum performance the same as a baffle filter.
- Be easy to clean
Minimum Requirements For Duct Work
- All ductwork should be Low Pressure Class ‘A’ and constructed in accordance with HVCA Specification DW/144[1] with a
minimum thickness of 0.8mm.
Minimum Requirements For Odour Control Objectives
- for new premises or premises covered by planning conditions restricting the impact of odour the system shall be designed to
prevent harm to the amenity.
- for existing premises not covered by planning conditions restricting the impact of odour, the system shall be designed to avoid
statutory nuisance and shall comply with the principles of Best Practical Means.
To achieve these objective the odour control system shall include an adequate level of:
1. odour control; and
2. stack dispersion.
The overall performance of the odour abatement system will represent a balance of 1 and 2.
Oxizone Air Sterilisers can be used to eliminate odours from extraction system. Oxizone and Germazap air sterilisers
can be used in kitchen and other areas to eliminate odours from the immediate vicinity
...Links...
Food Standards Agency NI DEFRA Health & Safety Executive
FSA Food Safety Traing Video (Broadband) FSA Food Safety Training Video (Dial-up)
(Windows Media Player)
Food Standards Agency NI DEFRA Health & Safety Executive
FSA Food Safety Traing Video (Broadband) FSA Food Safety Training Video (Dial-up)
(Windows Media Player)
Although we have taken great care to ensure the integrity of the information provided on this page, it may not be complete or may even be innaccurate or may have changed before or since it was uploaded, we have added comments of our own to information taken from professional, government and trade information as well as other sources and it may not be wholly applicable in your situation, there may be other regulations covering your premises, products or services. Please seek advice from a professional when you are designing your kitchen or deciding on the the services and facilities you will require. Your local council authority will provide you with all the information you need. Supplementary information is available below.
Air Sterilisiing and purification for removal of airborne and surface resident bacteria
