Guide
Cold room regulations: F gas duties and food temperature control
Updated
Two separate rule sets land on a cold room: the F gas rules that govern the refrigerant and who may touch it, and food law that governs the temperature you hold product at. Neither is optional, and both affect what you should be buying.
Who is allowed to install and service it
If a company installs, repairs, maintains or decommissions stationary refrigeration containing F gas for someone else, that company must be certified by an approved body, and gov.uk is blunt about it: "It is against the law to work with F gas if you don't have the correct certification" (gov.uk, company certification). Certification is renewed every 3 years, and the certifying body may audit the company.
Individuals need their own qualification as well as the company holding a certificate. For stationary refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump systems, gov.uk sets out category 1 to category 4 certificates, with category 1 covering all activities and the lower categories limited by system charge or to leak checking without breaking into the refrigeration circuit (gov.uk, qualifications). One useful exception: a business servicing only its own equipment with its own employees does not need the company certificate, but the individuals still need their qualifications.
Ask for the company certificate number and the certifying body before work starts, and keep it. You will need it for your own records anyway, see below.
The leak checks that come with owning the room
Leak checking is the user's duty, not just the engineer's. How often depends on how much F gas the system holds, expressed as a carbon dioxide equivalent (gov.uk, checking for leaks):
| System charge (CO2 equivalent) | Minimum leak-check frequency |
|---|---|
| 5 to less than 50 tonnes | At least once every 12 months |
| 50 to less than 500 tonnes | At least once every 6 months |
| 500 tonnes or more | At least every 3 months, and automatic leak detection must be fitted |
- Fitting automatic leak detection lets you double the interval between checks.
- Where detection is fitted, the detection system itself must be checked every year (every 6 years for electrical switchgear).
- If a leak is found it must be repaired as soon as possible and the repair retested within a month.
- gov.uk states that not having the right leak checks in place, or not fixing leaks, breaks the law and can attract a civil penalty.
The records you have to keep
If your equipment holds F gas equivalent to 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide or more, you must keep records for 5 years covering the quantity and type of gas at installation, gas added during maintenance, the dates and results of every mandatory leak check, and what was done to recover and dispose of gas. Users and operators must also record the name, address and certificate number of any company used to install, service or decommission the equipment, and the Environment Agency may ask to see the register during an inspection (gov.uk, F gas records).
Food temperature control
Separately from F gas, food law sets what you must hold product at. In England, Schedule 4 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 makes it an offence to keep food that is likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins at food premises at a temperature above 8°C, subject to listed exemptions and defences, and it is an offence to hold cooked or reheated food for service below 63°C where that temperature is needed to control pathogens (legislation.gov.uk).
- 8°C is a legal ceiling, not a target. Operators routinely set chill rooms colder to leave margin for door openings, warm loads and defrost cycles, and because a manufacturer's own storage instruction on the label can be stricter than 8°C.
- The Schedule includes exemptions and time-limited defences, for example short display periods and unavoidable equipment defrost or breakdown. Read the Schedule rather than relying on a summary.
- The other UK nations have their own food hygiene regulations. If you are not in England, check the ones that apply to you.
- Nothing on this page is food safety advice. If you are specifying a room to hold a particular product, confirm the temperature with your own food safety adviser or your local environmental health team.
The practical effect on your quote: specify the temperature you must legally and commercially hold, and let the installer size the plant to hold it in your worst realistic conditions. See how the refrigeration system is chosen.