Are There Rules for Central Kitchen Floor Area?

Central kitchens purchase ingredients centrally, process them into semi-finished or finished goods, and deliver by hot, cold, or mixed chains. Governments encourage them—but are there area rules? CHINENG explains.

How large should a central kitchen be?

They need substantial space—rarely under about 70 m² and often thousands of square meters—for raw storage, cold rooms, and production plant. Processing and storage area is generally not less than 300 m² and must match meal volume. Sites should be dry with water and power, away from pollution sources such as manure pits, sewage pools, and open dumps (typically over 25 m), and outside dust, toxic gas, or radioactive influence zones.

Layout and area requirements

1. Provide indoor, separated rooms for rough prep, cutting, cooking, pastry, cooling, packaging, holding for delivery, utensil wash/disinfection, stores, changing rooms, and cleaning-tool storage sized to menu and volume.

2. Cold dishes, cooling/packaging, and holding for delivery need dedicated rooms.

3. Flow raw-in to cooked-out in one direction to prevent cross-contamination.

4. Clearly mark and separate tools/containers for raw, semi-finished, finished, animal, and plant foods.

5. Processing/storage ≥ about 300 m² and matched to output.

6. Cut-and-cook area ≥ about 40% of the food-handling zone (less if only finishing semi-finished goods).

7. Cold kitchen ≥ about 10% of the food-handling zone.

8. Packaging room ≥ about 30 m².

9. Yard roads in washable concrete/asphalt with good drainage.

10. No live poultry/livestock slaughter inside processing areas (or keep ≥25 m away).

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