Kitchen hygiene rules: personal hygiene for chefs and kitchen staff

Download the staff poster (PDF, one A4 page): Kitchen hygiene rules. The same nine rules in a few words each, for the staff room or the wall by the basin. It works in every UK nation, so there is one version. Free to print and use in your kitchen, no sign-up.

Law in all four nations Three things. Everyone who works where food is handled keeps "a high degree of personal cleanliness". They wear "suitable, clean and, where necessary, protective clothing". And the business must not let anyone near food, "in any capacity", if they have, or carry, an illness that could pass on through food, or something like an infected cut, a skin infection or diarrhoea, where food could be contaminated. Staff in that position have to tell the business at once.

Law in all four nations The law also asks for somewhere to change where that is needed, and for food handlers to be supervised and trained in hygiene to suit the job they do.

You will not find hats, rings, nails or plaster colours anywhere in the law. They come from the official guidance packs (the FSA pack in England and Wales, Safe Catering in Northern Ireland, CookSafe in Scotland), from GOV.UK and from councils. Think of them as how you prove the "high degree of personal cleanliness" the law asks for.

Guidance GOV.UK's list of when to wash comes down to this: before you touch food, and every time your hands have been somewhere dirty. That means raw meat, the bins, cleaning, your nose, face or hair, and anything the whole team touches, like the phone, the till, door handles and light switches. And always after the toilet. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe also wants a wash when you start the shift, when you come back from a break and after you have eaten or had a drink.

Guidance in Scotland CookSafe is clear that a pair of gloves never takes the place of a hand wash. Hands get washed before gloves go on, and a torn glove goes in the bin. Our advice Wash again when the gloves come off, and change them at every point where you would otherwise wash your hands.

The technique is in the hand washing section of our cross-contamination guide, gloves are in its gloves section, and what a basin needs is in our guide on how many sinks a commercial kitchen needs.

Law in all four nations Clothing has to be suitable, clean and protective where the job needs it. GOV.UK puts the duty on the business: it is your job to make sure staff are dressed for it.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack's ideal is that staff arrive in their own clothes, get changed at work and keep their whites inside the food areas. It prefers light colours without pockets on the outside. Aprons should be clean or throwaway, and a new one goes on after raw prep. A separate spot to change and leave coats and bags is recommended.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe wants whites washed often and hot, a change before you touch ready-to-eat food if you have got raw food on them, plastic throwaway aprons for raw work, and a hand wash after you take off anything dirty.

Coming in on the bus in your whites is not against the law, but the FSA advises against wearing them outside the food areas. Our advice Change on site, keep coats and bags out of the kitchen, and keep spare whites in the building for the day a jacket gets splashed. On the stove, where raw goes on and cooked comes off all service, a throwaway apron for the raw work is the simple answer. Change it the moment raw food gets on it.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack calls tied-back hair and a hat good practice.
• Guidance GOV.UK says hair back, and a hat, hair net or other head covering.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe asks for hair tied back, and covered if possible.

So no law makes you wear a hat, but every official pack expects hair to be under control. None of the sources we read says anything about beards. Our advice A beard snood where open food is prepped is common and cheap. Keep your hands off your hair during service, and wash them if you do touch it.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack says watches and jewellery come off for work, with one exception, a plain wedding band, because stones and fittings can end up in the food. GOV.UK gives the same advice.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe is gentler: as little jewellery as possible.
• Guidance from some councils Bromley council notes that some businesses allow a plain wedding band and small studs in the ears. That call is yours.

Jewellery is not against the law, and none of the official sources we read deals with sleepers, other piercings, religious items such as the Kara, or medical alert bracelets. Our advice Decide your own rule by asking two questions: could it drop into food, and could it hold dirt? Covering an item, taping it or keeping it under a sleeve are common answers. Not sure? Ask your council's food team. Religious items, such as a Kara or a head covering, need more care: banning them across the board can be unlawful discrimination unless you can show the rule is a proportionate way of keeping food safe. Talk it through with a human resources (HR) adviser before you set the rule.

The law is silent on nails, and so is the FSA and Food Standards Scotland guidance we read. Guidance from some councils Bromley council wants nails short and clean, and rules out varnish and every kind of false nail.

Our advice That is the house rule in most UK kitchens, and for good reason: varnish chips off into food, and dirt hides under long or false nails. A glove over the top does not solve it. Gloves split, and they never replace a hand wash.

• Law in all four nations Someone with an infected wound, a skin infection or a sore stays away from food if it could contaminate it.
• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack says tell your manager, and cover the whole cut with a bright, waterproof plaster or dressing. If one ends up in food, that food goes in the bin.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe asks for a waterproof dressing, ideally one that is easy to see.

Kitchens use blue because almost no food is blue, so a lost plaster stands out. Factories that run metal detectors go a step further with detectable plasters, which you will not need in a restaurant. Neither is a legal rule. Our advice Keep blue plasters in the first aid box, and put a glove over a plaster on your hand, changing it whenever you would wash your hands. An infected or weeping cut is a different matter: see cuts, sores and skin infections in our staff sickness guide. If a plaster does end up in food, our physical contamination guide covers what to do.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack rules out smoking, vaping, eating, drinking and gum while you are working with food.
• Guidance GOV.UK adds spitting and sneezing to that list.
• Smoking: smoke-free law already bans smoking inside workplaces in all four nations. Vaping is not caught by it yet. The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 lets each UK government add vape-free places in future, but for now no vaping in the kitchen is your own rule, with the food guidance behind you.
• Phones: GOV.UK counts the phone as one of the things to wash your hands after. Our advice Personal phones stay out of the prep area.

Our advice Give the team a place away from food to eat, drink and take a break. If you need to cough or sneeze, turn away from the food, use a tissue, bin it and wash your hands.

Law in all four nations Staff tell the business when they are ill, and anyone with an illness that can spread through food keeps away from it.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The fitness to work guidance wants to hear straight away about diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain, feeling sick, a temperature or yellowing skin, an infection of the skin, nose or throat, and anyone in their household being sick or having diarrhoea. After diarrhoea or vomiting, the usual rule is 48 hours clear of symptoms, without medicine to stop them, before coming back. Guidance in Scotland Food Standards Scotland uses the same 48 hours, and CookSafe's return-to-work questions also ask about anything coming from the eyes, ears or gums.

The 48 hours is guidance, and it is a starting point rather than a guarantee. A few infections, E. coli O157 and typhoid among them, need a doctor's clearance first, and the doctor, council or health protection team will say when they can come back. How to count the hours, what to ask on the first day back and what to write down are in our staff sickness and diarrhoea guide.

Law in all four nations The illness rule is not just for your own team. It covers anyone who comes into the kitchen for any reason: the fridge engineer, the delivery driver, an agency chef, the owner.

Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack suggests keeping clean whites or throwaway aprons ready for visitors.

Our advice Before anyone comes through the door, ask whether they have been ill, send them to the basin, and hand them an apron and a hat. Agency and temporary chefs get the same rules and the same first-day talk as everyone else. There is no legal need for a visitor book.

Law in all four nations Food handlers have to be supervised and trained in hygiene to match their job. Guidance GOV.UK is clear that no certificate is required, but you have to be able to show the training fits the role.

Our advice Before a new starter touches open food, walk them through your hygiene rules:

• Who to tell when they are ill, including a stomach bug at home, and how the 48 hours works
• Where to get changed, and where coats, bags and phones go
• Whites, apron, hat and your jewellery rule
• When to wash hands, and where the basins are
• What to do with a cut: tell someone, blue plaster, glove
• Where to eat, drink and take a break

Then watch them work, and note down what you covered and when. More in our food hygiene certificate guide.

Expect an inspector to watch the team at work: hands, whites, hair, jewellery and plasters. They may ask:

• How does someone tell you they are ill, and what happens next?
• When was this person last trained, and how do you know they follow it?
• Where do staff change, and where do their own things go?
• What is your jewellery rule, and is everyone sticking to it?

Have your house rules written into your food safety plan and your training records to hand. What else to have ready is in our EHO inspection guide.

Paper works: house rules on the wall, a tick on your opening checks, and training records in a folder. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for the daily records:

• Opening checks: the ready-made Opening Checks has "Staff fit for work, in clean workwear, cuts covered" and "No one at work within 48 hours of vomiting or diarrhoea". Each finished checklist is saved with who did it and when.
• Monthly review: the ready-made Monthly Review has "Walked the kitchen: staff following our food safety methods" and "New staff trained; refresher training booked if needed".
• When a rule is not followed: a Manager can log a Staff incident, type Hygiene ("Personal hygiene, cleaning standards, uniform"), name the person, and write what was done.
• Training records: on Pro, a Manager can add each person's certificates and training to their staff file, with a date to review, and the app reminds the manager before it.
• Back after illness: on Pro, a Manager can record a return-to-work interview, including whether the person confirmed they are fit to return.

What it does not do today: the app does not hold your house rules, and staff do not sign them in the app. There is no visitor log, no record of jewellery or uniform checks for each person, and the app does not work out the 48 hours. Keep your house rules in your food safety plan.

The Monthly Review, part done. The walk round the kitchen and the training check are ticked, each with who did it and when. The note under a line is this test kitchen's own wording. Any kitchen can edit, add or remove lines.

Which plan. Checklists come with Standard and Pro, and are open in the 14-day free trial. Incidents can be logged on every plan. Training records and return-to-work interviews are part of Pro, and return-to-work interviews are not in the trial.

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Related guides

The cross-contamination guide, the hand wash basins guide, the staff sickness guide, the food hygiene certificate guide, the opening and closing checks guide, the 4Cs of food hygiene guide and the EHO inspection guide.