Gas safety for food businesses

are your gas appliances safe?

In 2022 almost 12,500 fires were reported to be caused by cooking appliances (Home Office, 2022). These can happen in your home or food business, so it is important to make sure that all gas appliances are safe.

Common reasons for these incidents with gas appliances are:                                                                         

  • faulty equipment
  • unsupervised cooking
  • safety devices tampered with or removed 
  • incorrect usage
  • not installed and maintained by a registered gas engineer

Business owner responsibilties 

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 places duties on the employer at any place of work to ensure that any gas appliance, installation pipework or flue installed under their control is maintained in a safe condition to prevent risk of injury to any person. Find out more on the HSE page and the Gas Safety in Catering and Hospitality PDF.

Environmental Health Officers (EHO) may discuss gas safety with you and ask you to provide evidence of gas appliance installations and maintenance during Food Hygiene and Health and Safety inspections, so ask your gas safe registered engineer to provide you with the relevant paperwork. If the EHO does not receive evidence of ongoing maintenance or if there are safety concerns, they may serve a formal notice stating what actions must be taken to comply with the law and to ensure the equipment/installation is safe. 

How to be gas safe

  1. Smell gas or think there is a leak? Call the free national gas emergency number immediately on 0800 111 999, available 24 hours a day.
  2. Always buy equipment from reputable suppliers and look out for the CE marking to show that it has passed EU safety checks.
  3. Have a registered gas engineer install, commission, and maintain your equipment. View the Gas Safety Register here.
  4. Never attempt to work on a gas appliance yourself, always seek the help of a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer.
  5. Annual safety checks are a great way to maintain your equipment, only employ a suitably qualified Gas Safe registered engineer to carry it out.
  6. Always ask to see your engineer’s Gas Safe ID card. Make sure you check the back of the card, which will state which gas appliances they are qualified to work on.
  7. Make sure you leave vents unblocked as these are there to help your appliance work safely and efficiently.
  8. Look out for warning signs your appliance may be unsafe, such as a lazy yellow flame instead of a crisp blue flame, error messages or unexpected noises from your boiler or dark and sooty stains around your gas appliance.
  9. Know the symptoms of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning; headaches, nausea, breathlessness, dizziness, collapse and loss of consciousness.                                                                                   

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