Do you need to provide staff with a fridge?

Welfare facility

A new member of staff has informed you that because you don’t have a staff canteen, you must provide a fridge. The reason is so that any food, milk etc. staff bring into the workplace can be chilled, thus preventing bacteria from forming. Although you’re not completely against the idea, you’d like to avoid doing so, as you’ve heard that it must be cleaned regularly and have formal temperature checks. Plus, there’s the space it will take up. So must you get one, or can you turn down the request?

What does the law say?

We’re not sure where your employee would have got their information about provision being a legal requirement. There’s no specific legal duty to provide a fridge in the workplace - certainly not for general use, e.g. for staff to keep their sandwiches fresh.

Note. The only mention of employers providing a fridge is included in the Approved Code of Practice which supports the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.This states that an employer has aduty to provide “clean and secure refrigeration” for storing breast milk produced by new mothers who have returned to work.

Tip. You would only have to provide a fridge in this case if the employee were to ask for one. You don’t need to provide one as a matter of course.

If you do have one

Although there’s no legal requirement to have one, many employers do provide a fridge for their staff. Fortunately, if its only purpose is to store food which has been brought in by staff for their own consumption, i.e. it’s not being made commercially available, it doesn’t have to be treated as if it were in a commercial kitchen. This means that you don’t need to create food management plans or carry out recorded temperature checks.

Tip 1. Although you don’t need to record every temperature check, you should regularly look to see that the fridge is working properly. If it isn’t and food were to go off, not only could this cause food poisoning (which you could be liable for), but you could face staff asking you to compensate them for any lost food.

Tip 2. The fridge section should operate at no more than 5°C in its warmest part. If there’s a freezer section, it should be kept between -18ºC and -22ºC. The easiest way of ensuring this is to keep a thermometer in the fridge.

Tip 3. Defrosting the fridge every six months or so should keep it working efficiently.

Cleaning regime

Another problem associated with fridges in workplaces is cleaning and waste food. For example, milk gets spilt, fruit goes off etc.

Tip 1. Your fridge should be added to your cleaning rota. Ideally, it should be cleaned out and emptied once a week, for instance, after staff have left on a Friday evening.

Tip 2. To prevent staff from getting upset about food being thrown out, put a sign on the fridge which makes it clear when it will be cleaned and that any food left in it will be binned.