Planning a new school kitchen design or changing an existing one is rarely straightforward. Many schools are working with limited budgets, ageing infrastructure, and rising demand due to the expansion of free school meals.
Balancing all these needs, alongside day-to-day demands like efficient workflows, energy use, and staffing, can be challenging.
This guide brings together current government guidance, industry standards, and practical advice to help school leaders, catering teams, and facilities managers make informed decisions and navigate the challenges of planning a commercial kitchen for any educational institution. We want to offer clear, actionable steps to create kitchens that are compliant, efficient, and built to support the long-term needs of your school community.
Understanding School Kitchen Design Regulatory Framework
Ensuring a commercial kitchen is fully functional, hygienic, and regulatory compliant is essential for any institution committed to consistently serving high-quality, nutritious meals at scale. We all know that what students eat directly affects their health, concentration, and, for younger children, their physical development.
But designing a kitchen for a school or college means working within a complex set of rules. In the UK, these are shaped by:
- The Department for Education (DfE)
- The Food Standards Agency (FSA)
- A range of health and safety regulations.
Meeting these standards isn’t just a legal requirement; it’s essential for creating safe, hygienic, and functional catering environments that work day-to-day.
Department for Education Design Guidance
The Department for Education provides foundational guidance for school design, including standards and tools, to help with the design and procurement of school and college buildings across England. The goal is to create flexible, accessible spaces that support a wide range of student needs and can adapt over time as school populations change.
The Building Bulletin 103 and Why Expert Input Matters
Documents like Building Bulletin 103 (BB103) provide area guidelines for mainstream schools. While these are not mandatory, they offer useful benchmarks for designers and school leaders. However, kitchen areas are usually excluded from ‘net area’ calculations. This can be a challenge when trying to plan for growing pupil numbers or changes in meal demand.
The UK’s regulatory approach asks schools to ensure all facilities are “suitable.” That means schools need to think carefully about who they’re catering for. It also means schools carry the responsibility for making informed design choices.
This is why it’s usually best to involve experienced kitchen specialists early in the planning process. At Indigo, we’ve supported schools like Wimbledon High School, where the design and layout were tailored to high volumes of food production and specific equipment needs. Without expert input, it’s easy to overlook essential details, like zoning for hygiene, capacity for future growth, or integrating services like extraction and fire suppression systems.
Food Standards Agency Hygiene Requirements
The FSA sets out clear rules to make sure school kitchens are clean, pest-free, and easy to maintain.
Layout and Facilities
Kitchens must be designed to keep pests out and dirt from building up. This includes insect-proof screens on windows and smooth, easy-to-clean finishes on walls, ceilings, and floors.
There must be separate sinks for handwashing, food preparation, and equipment cleaning, with clear signage for staff to avoid mistakes.
Hygiene in Practice
Good hygiene depends on simple, consistent actions and quality catering equipment. This includes:
- Strict handwashing protocols, facilitated by dedicated handwashing sinks with hot and cold running water and hygienic drying facilities.
- Cleaning dishes and surfaces between tasks, made effective by modern commercial dishwashers.
- Cooking food thoroughly and storing chilled food correctly. For chilled food, FSA requirements dictate storage between 0∘C and 5∘C, a standard maintained by reliable refrigerators and freezers with integrated or external thermometers for continuous monitoring.
Design Implications
These safety and hygiene rules directly influence kitchen layout, from ventilation systems to plumbing, material choice, and workflow. For example, stainless steel is often used because it’s tough, easy to clean, and hygienic.
Poor design can make hygiene harder to maintain, increasing the risk of errors or food safety issues. That’s why hygiene must be considered at every stage of the design process, not as an afterthought, but as a core part of the kitchen’s layout and functionality.
Commercial Kitchen Regulations
Running a commercial kitchen in a school or college setting means meeting high standards and following strict health and safety regulations for commercial kitchens. These regulations are in place to protect both the students consuming the food and the staff preparing it, while also ensuring the smooth running of the kitchen itself.
Below is a summarising table of the most important regulations in the UK and their impact on kitchen layout and design:
| Regulation | Overview/Purpose | Key Design Implications |
| The Food Safety Act 1990 | Establishes food hygiene and safety standards, mandating a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) based on HACCP principles. | Design must facilitate HACCP principles and the “4 Cs” (Cleaning, Cooking, Chilling, Cross-contamination) through appropriate zoning, material selection, and equipment placement. |
| The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 | Addresses broader workplace health, safety, and welfare. | Requires effective ventilation, reasonable temperature, sufficient lighting, easy-to-clean surfaces, adequate space, and safe floors/traffic routes. |
| The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 | Governs safe installation, maintenance, and use of gas appliances. | Requires effective extraction systems or flue interlocking systems that prevent gas use if ventilation fails. |
| The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | Sets fire safety duties, including risk assessments and measures. | Design must include clear escape routes, adequate fire detection/alarm systems, firefighting equipment, and robust ventilation for grease extraction. |
| The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 | Ensures all work equipment is safe for its intended purpose, properly maintained, and correctly installed. | Design must facilitate safe integration and use of equipment, including protective devices, controls (e.g., emergency stops), and means of isolation. |
Best Practices For Strategic School Kitchen Layout and Design
Beyond ticking the compliance boxes, creating a new kitchen or upgrading an existing one, is also about planning an efficient layout, which plays a major role in how well a school kitchen functions day to day.
A well-planned kitchen layout improves efficiency, supports hygiene, and helps create a positive working environment where staff can operate safely and comfortably.
When planning a new kitchen layout, consider the following key aspects, which are essential for any commercial kitchen:
Optimise Workflow and Zoning
An efficient design minimises unnecessary movement and keeps everything running like clockwork. This means having wide walkways, logical positioning of catering equipment, and clearly defined zoning for prepping, cooking, washing, and serving. Ensuring an optimised flow prevents staff from tripping over each other, and mistakes and delays are far less likely to happen.
Zoning also improves hygiene by separating raw and cooked food areas. In larger kitchens, a zone-style layout works well. In smaller spaces, a galley layout can make the most of limited room. Refrigeration near prep areas and easy access to cooking zones, for example, are small details that make a big difference.
Ergonomics Matter in Kitchen Design
A good layout should reduce the risk of accidents while improving overall efficiency. Adjustable-height workstations prevent excessive bending or stretching and minimise heavy lifting. Non-slip flooring helps prevent injuries. This translates to better performance, fewer sick days, and fewer accidents.
Plan with Scalability and Adaptability in Mind
What works for a small primary school today might not work in five years. That’s why designing for growth from the start is so important. Rigid kitchen layouts can quickly become outdated, leading to expensive overhauls later on.
Smart kitchen designs build adaptability in from the start. That might mean using modular equipment that can be moved or upgraded, creating zones that can easily switch functions, and leaving enough room to expand if the school or college grows. In colleges, this might mean investing in dual-purpose appliances or flexible serving stations.
Tailoring Kitchen Design to Different Educational Settings
Designing a kitchen for a small primary school or bustling college campus isn’t one-size-fits-all. The layout, equipment, and workflow need to reflect the age of the students, the number of meals served, and how varied the menu is.
Primary School Kitchens: Safety and Hygiene First
The focus here is on safety and food hygiene. In primary schools, the priority is creating a kitchen space that supports high-volume meal preparation in a safe and manageable way.
Serving counters should be at accessible heights for young children, with features like heat guards to prevent contact with hot surfaces. The layout must also support fast, safe food handling with minimal risk of cross-contamination.
At Crosfields School, for example, we worked closely with the school and contractor to deliver a kitchen tailored to this type of service. The installation included new catering equipment, a coldroom for better fresh storage, and a custom Corian countertop to enhance the servery.
Secondary School Kitchens: Managing Higher Volumes and Variety
By secondary school, kitchens must accommodate a greater variety of dishes and much larger meal counts. Student preferences begin to broaden, and that means more diverse menu options.
The Building Bulletin 103 helps schools plan for this increased demand, offering benchmarks for space requirements based on student numbers. Whether serving 600 or 1,800 pupils, the design must strike a balance between high throughput and flexibility.
Colleges and Universities: Versatility and Flexibility are Key
At the college level, kitchen design has to go beyond the basics. With diverse student populations, a wider range of dietary preferences, and the added pressure of catering to events, flexibility and scalability become a top priority.
This could involve incorporating mobile food stations, self-serve counters, or layouts that can easily transition between day-to-day dining and large-scale catering. The more adaptable the setup, the better it can meet the changing needs of campus life.
Appliance selection and kitchen equipment are also important considerations here. From salad bars and induction hobs to specialised equipment for international cuisine, kitchens need the tools to meet a wide variety of tastes and rising expectations. Investing in flexible, modular catering equipment is a smart move if you want to keep pace with changing food trends and student needs.
Wimbledon High School
This is what we did for Wimbledon High School. We delivered a fully functioning commercial kitchen and servery, including extraction and fire suppression systems, to support a high standard of meal production.
The installation of a Hobart flight dishwasher ensured both efficiency and reliability in handling peak service volumes. This comprehensive project reflected the kind of flexibility and quality needed in a forward-thinking catering environment.
School Kitchen Equipment Selection, Installation, and Maintenance
While getting the kitchen design right is important, choosing quality school kitchen equipment and maintaining it properly is equally essential for delivering a reliable and efficient catering service.
Selecting the Right Equipment
Here are some tips to choose the best type of equipment:
Match equipment size to meat volume
- Smaller schools may only need compact combi ovens
- Larger schools, on the other hand, could benefit from full-size models to handle higher output
Use combi ovens for flexibility and efficiency
- Space-saving and energy-efficient
- Suitable for a wide range of cooking methods (including convection, steam, or a combination)
Choose induction hobs for safer, cleaner cooking
- They’re up to 50% more efficient than gas or electric alternatives
- Require less ventilation and reduce ambient heat in the kitchen
Prioritise durable, hygienic materials
- Grade 304 stainless steel is ideal for prep areas, sinks, and surfaces
- Resistant to corrosion, heat, and chemicals, and easy to disinfect
Choose energy-efficient equipment
- Look for high Energy Star-rated appliances, which help reduce running costs and make sure sizes are appropriate to prevent overuse or underperformance.
- Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes energy use, maintenance, downtime risk, and expected lifespan.
Last but not least, ensure to tailor equipment to the educational setting. Every school is different.
Project Management For School Kitchens
Designing or refurbishing a school kitchen can be a complex job. Many projects involve working around old buildings, increasing meal numbers, all while keeping the school running smoothly.
The success of a kitchen project often comes down to four things:
- Early planning
- Clear communication with stakeholders
- Involve the kitchen staff who use the space every day in the planning process. They know where bottlenecks and pain points are and can help design a layout that works in practice, not just on paper.
- Collaborating with commercial kitchen specialists with proven experience in school kitchen projects, who can offer dedicated project managers
Professional kitchen contractors can help schools stay on budget, meet regulations, and create a kitchen that will serve the school well for years to come.
Final thoughts
Designing and running school kitchens requires a careful balance of regulatory compliance, efficiency, and staff wellbeing. From following DfE guidance and FSA hygiene standards to meeting health and safety laws, every decision needs to be thought through with both the present and the future in mind.
When design, compliance, and daily operations are aligned, the kitchen becomes more than a place to prepare meals. It supports healthy eating habits, creates a positive dining experience, and plays a real role in student wellbeing and learning.
Planning a kitchen upgrade? Our team is here to guide you through every step of the process.
