Street Food Equipment Hire: Health, Safety and Power

Summer brings food festivals, outdoor markets and pop-up events across England. The capital required to buy commercial cooking equipment can be substantial, which is why many street food operators look at street food equipment hire.

We have worked with many new street food ventures and wanted to share what we have learned to help newcomers avoid the most costly mistakes.

Health and Safety

Health and safety requirements for food festivals have grown as events have got larger. For anyone running a street food stall, this can mean a range of obligations, some of which also apply to us.

Some festival organisers require that all equipment is insured. We have made our Public Liability Insurance certificate available for download on our website, which can be shown to a festival organiser to meet any insurance requirements.

Gas and electrical equipment also requires separate certification.

Our LPG catering equipment hire is routinely tested by a Gas Safe engineer, who issues certificates confirming the equipment is up to standard. Once equipment has been allocated to an order, we can share the relevant certificate by email.

LPG equipment must be used in a well-ventilated temporary structure. Our drivers cannot assist with attaching equipment to gas bottles. If you are unsure how to do this, contact a Gas Safe engineer.

Electrical equipment is routinely PAT tested. We do not issue separate certificates but put a sticker on the plug confirming the last PAT test date. We can photograph this and send it to you once equipment has been allocated.

Know Your Power Sources

One of the most common problems we encounter is electrical equipment working incorrectly due to unreliable power sources. This is why we always recommend LPG for external events: it is safer and more reliable.

If electricity is required, the most important consideration is your power point. From experience, it is unwise to rely on any outlet that is not fixed and in a wall.

We have seen a new street food vendor arrive to find none of their equipment worked. The power supply for all the stalls turned out to be a series of extension cords daisy-chained from a single wall outlet, and a faulty piece of equipment on another stall had tripped every socket on the chain.

In another case, a customer found that five turbofan ovens did not all work when switched on. They were the only pieces of equipment on the generator, but a 12KW generator cannot deliver the 15KW that five 3KW ovens demand. With no replacement generators available, the customer had to manage with fewer ovens for the whole event.

Any high-powered equipment requires a constant, stable supply of electricity, which extension leads and underpowered generators do not always deliver. LPG equipment avoids this problem entirely.

Know Your Catering Equipment Hire

Commercial catering equipment behaves differently from domestic appliances. If you have never used a commercial range before, there can be a real learning curve. We can supply manuals and technical specifications, but the responsibility to use equipment correctly sits with the hirer.

We can answer questions about equipment before it is hired, but we cannot tell you whether it will be straightforward for you to use without knowing your experience level. If you are not confident with a piece of equipment, the best advice is not to hire it.