Commercial Kitchen Regulations – What Do I Need to Know?

Running a kitchen is a challenge. One must ensure that the kitchen is run safely, hygienically, and follows all the correct UK Kitchen Regulations. Without these crucial criteria, your kitchen will be shut down.

This is why Abraxas are here to outline the specifics on what goes into running a successful kitchen with the correct regulations in place. These can be broken down into several categories from:

• Food hygiene
• Waste disposal
• Gas safety
• Kitchen ventilation
• Fire safety
• Equipment maintenance
• Safety hazards

This may seem daunting but have no fear. We are going to help walk you through each one of these with precision, to enable you to run the commercial kitchen of your dreams.

Food Hygiene

Food hygiene and safety is an extremely important part of running a successful commercial kitchen. These regulations are one of the first things inspectors will look for when surveying your restaurant and commercial kitchen. It is highly important that your kitchen team understand what needs to go into creating a hygienic space for food.

These are the core areas you will need to focus on in a commercial kitchen for food hygiene:

• Personal Hygiene – when handling certain foods such as raw ingredients, one must always remember to wash their hands and surfaces properly, before moving onto surfaces that are suited for fresh ingredients such as vegetables. If staff have long hair and beards, you must ensure that they are wearing PPE including hair and beard nets.
• Cooking Temperatures – food needs to be cooked in order to avoid customers falling ill from food poisoning. It is generally stated that you do not serve food until it has a core temperature of 70°C.
• Cross Contamination – Cross contamination is easy to prevent. All you need is to be able to separate produce. Foods can be separated into raw, ready to eat, and cooked. It is absolutely necessary that you have designated areas where each of these is kept separate. Cross contamination can also happen when personal hygiene and cleaning standards are not met.
• Food Storage – Certain foods must be kept at the proper temperatures to prevent bacteria from occurring. Chilled products are to be kept between 1 – 5°C, frozen products to be kept in a freezer of -18°C or colder. Cooked products are to be kept at 63°C when being held.
• Transporting food into storage – When deliveries of products are arriving, you must take no longer than 90 minuets to transport products that need to be either frozen and chilled from the delivery vans, to your designated chillers, freezers and store rooms.

Waste Disposal

Wasting food properly is another important regulation you need to follow when running a successful commercial kitchen. When designing your commercial kitchen, which Abraxas can help you with, you must design an area that is dedicated to food waste. Without this, bacteria can build up creating cross contamination and can even lead to contaminating water sources which can lead to widespread disease.

In your food waste area, it is important to:

• Remove waste from food preparation areas as soon as possible, emphasising the clean as you go method.
• Food waste bins are to be kept closed.
• Food waste bins should be at a height suitable for pests not to be able to reach.
• Colour-coded bins and cleaning equipment can help prevent cross contamination.
• Waste bins are to be emptied immediately when full to prevent build-up of bacteria.

There are several options you can choose from when looking for waste and recycling bins for your commercial kitchen. Pedal bins for instance are a great option for disposing of food waste during preparation.

It is not just food you will be disposing of. It is key to know how to correctly dispose of oils, grease, and fats. You will need to make sure that proper training is conducted on how to properly dispose of these items. A good way is to collect excess oil and store it in separate containers and disposing of these in correct waste bins.

Gas Safety

Your equipment that uses gas must be certified in order for you to be able to use safely. Here at Abraxas we will ensure that all your gas equipment is registered and certified for use.

Kitchen Ventilation

Making sure that your commercial kitchen is properly fitted with efficiently running ventilation, will ensure that all the fumes, smoke and vapours will be filtered out creating a safe environment which meets the correct regulations. Since the Health and safety at Work Act 1974, employers are required by law, to provide a safe working environment for their staff.

Extraction systems work in two ways. Firstly, to expel the elements such as vapours, smoke, steam, and grease, leaving your kitchen and restaurant area free of all these harmful air-born elements. Secondly, the extraction fan must then be able to pump out clean, fresh air back into these environments.

With clean, cool air being filtered back into your commercial kitchen, the safe environment will create a pleasant area for your staff and customers. Properly installed ventilation systems also ensure fire risks are kept low, as well as providing cost-effective measures for your machinery.

Abraxas are experts at helping you install the very best ventilation systems for your commercial kitchen. We can visit your site and then design extraction and ventilation systems with mechanisms such as stainless-steel canopies which contain baffle filters to trap gasses and particles in the kitchen environment.

Fire Safety

Containing and preventing fires is vital for any business to run, especially commercial kitchens. Cooking involves fire, and there are many other resources that are susceptible to it. The correct regulations must be put in place to ensure the safety of employees and customers. With the right measures in place, a small unwanted fire can be contained quickly and safely, reducing the risk of human casualties as well as property damage.

Here are some of the key regulations to be implemented into your commercial kitchen design to follow fire safety regulations:

• Fire Exists – Your commercial kitchen design must have fire exists that employees and customers to safely exit the building if a fire starts.
• Fire extinguishers – Fire extinguishers are to be placed in designated areas with fire blankets available for use also. These should be regularly serviced to ensure they are always ready for use.
• Employee training – First aid and fire safety training can be implemented in training schemes for employees.
• Equipment fire regulations – Cooking appliances need to be fixed into place and attended by a member of staff whilst in use. Equipment including deep fat fryers must have metal lids.

Equipment Maintenance

‘Prevention is better than a cure’ is a motto we at Abraxas follow closely. It is a legal requirement for your valuable catering equipment to be maintained on a regular basis, to reduce risks of failure and to create a safer working environment. We have over 25 years of experience understanding the importance of servicing and maintaining commercial kitchen equipment, ensuring that your business can run efficiently without fault.

The fast paced environment of a kitchen can mean equipment can break down and faulter. It is greatly important that regular checks are carried out and training provided to spot any hindrances taking place.

Safety Hazards

A commercial kitchen is filled with many things that can be considered a hazard. From hot pots and pans, cooking equipment, spilled liquids, a high number of persons in each zone – the list could go on and on.

That is why understanding the different safety hazards, how to prevent them, and bring warning to them is essential, and following these regulations will help to ensure a safe commercial kitchen.

Hazards such as wet floors and oil spills sometimes can not be avoided. Equipment such as correct shoe-ware, and non-stick flooring can help prevent employees from injuring themselves. If there is any kind of spill, before it is delt with, the correct signage should be placed next to the spill to warn those that are unaware of what has occurred.

It is important to make sure any fire exists, or doorways are not blocked with produce, containers or any kind of equipment that could prevent people from exiting the building.

Abraxas Catering Equipment

Designing your commercial kitchen can be a difficult procedure. Abraxas can help you with your needs from the kitchen layout, design considerations including temperature control, storage, special planning, and health and safety regulations. We will take the time to go into detail with you on how to implement the correct health and safety regulations you need for a successful commercial kitchen.