About This Sector
Restaurants, cafes, pubs, and catering businesses operate in one of the highest-risk environments for health and safety incidents. Kitchen burns, slips on wet floors, manual handling of heavy stock, exposure to cleaning chemicals, and fire risks from cooking equipment are daily realities. Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) inspect food and safety compliance together. A failure in one area often triggers scrutiny of the other. Arinite provides Chartered health and safety consultants who understand the specific risks of food service and hospitality operations.
Sector-Specific Regulations
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 applies to all hospitality employers. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires fire risk assessments for all restaurant and catering premises, with cooking equipment presenting a specific fire hazard. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) apply to cleaning chemicals, sanitisers, and any substances used in food preparation areas. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 apply to cellar work, stock deliveries, and kitchen operations. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set requirements for ventilation, temperature, and welfare facilities. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 apply to commercial kitchen gas equipment.
Common Compliance Failures We Find
These are the health and safety failures Arinite's consultants find most frequently in this sector:
Fire risk assessments that do not specifically address cooking equipment, extraction systems, and grease buildup.
COSHH assessments missing for kitchen cleaning chemicals, sanitisers, and oven cleaners.
No documented safe systems of work for cellar operations, including changing gas cylinders and handling heavy barrels.
Slip and trip risk assessments that do not address kitchen floor conditions during service.
No gas safety records or maintenance schedules for commercial cooking equipment.
Burns and scalds risk assessments that are generic rather than task-specific.
Our Services for This Sector
Arinite's restaurant and hospitality health and safety services include comprehensive risk assessments covering kitchen operations, front-of-house, and cellar work, fire risk assessments addressing cooking, extraction, and customer evacuation, COSHH assessments for all cleaning chemicals and hazardous substances, manual handling assessments for stock movement and cellar operations, health and safety audits including preparation for EHO inspections, staff training for fire marshals, first aiders, and kitchen safety, and health and safety documentation management through our compliance software.
Book a Free Restaurants Gap Analysis Call
Book a free gap analysis call with one of our Chartered health and safety consultants. In 30 minutes, we will assess your current restaurants and hospitality health and safety arrangements and identify the compliance gaps that matter most.
