Health and Safety for Mobile Vendors: Your Legal Responsibilities

You're running events with hot equipment, gas, and crowds. Health and safety isn't optional—it's a legal requirement. Here's what you need to know to keep yourself, your staff, and your clients safe—and legally compliant.

Why Health and Safety Matters

Mobile catering involves genuine risks. Hot surfaces, open flames, gas equipment, sharp knives, slippery floors, and working in unpredictable environments—any of these can lead to injuries if not managed properly.

Beyond the moral responsibility to keep people safe, there are legal requirements. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 applies to all businesses, including sole traders. You must take reasonable steps to protect the health and safety of yourself, your employees, and anyone affected by your work—including clients and their guests.

Failure to meet these duties can result in prosecution, fines, and even imprisonment in serious cases. More commonly, it means accidents that harm people, damage your reputation, and invalidate your insurance.

Risk Assessments: The Foundation

A risk assessment is a systematic look at what could cause harm in your work and what you're doing to prevent it. For mobile vendors, you need to assess risks for your general operations and potentially for specific events.

How to Do a Risk Assessment

For each activity or hazard:

1. Identify the hazard: What could cause harm? (Hot oil, gas leak, trip hazards, etc.)
2. Who might be harmed: Staff, customers, guests, the public?
3. Evaluate the risk: How likely is harm to occur? How serious would it be?
4. Control measures: What are you doing to reduce the risk?
5. Review: Are your controls working? Do they need updating?

If you employ five or more people, you must record your risk assessments in writing. Even if you're smaller, written records are good practice—they demonstrate you've thought about safety and help you remember what controls you should have in place.

Common Hazards for Mobile Caterers

• Burns and scalds from hot surfaces, oil, and steam
• Cuts from knives and equipment
• Slips on wet or greasy floors
• Manual handling injuries from lifting heavy equipment
• Gas safety (LPG leaks, carbon monoxide)
• Electrical hazards
• Fire risks
• Food safety hazards
• Vehicle safety

Gas Safety

If you use LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) for cooking, gas safety is critical. LPG leaks can cause explosions, and incomplete combustion produces carbon monoxide—a silent killer.

Gas Safe Requirements

All gas work must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. This includes installation, servicing, and repairs of your cooking equipment. You should have your gas equipment inspected annually by a Gas Safe engineer, who will issue a certificate confirming it's safe.

Safe Use of LPG

• Check connections and hoses before each use
• Ensure adequate ventilation—never use gas equipment in enclosed spaces without proper ventilation
• Know the signs of a gas leak (smell, hissing sound)
• Have a procedure for gas emergencies
• Store spare cylinders properly (upright, secured, away from heat)
• Turn off gas at the cylinder when not in use

Fire Safety

Fire is a serious risk when you're working with heat sources, hot oil, and gas. Every mobile catering setup should have fire safety measures in place.

Essential Fire Equipment

• Fire extinguisher: A minimum of one appropriate for cooking fires (typically CO2 or dry powder, plus a fire blanket for fat fires)
• Fire blanket: Essential for smothering fat fires—never use water on burning oil
• Smoke/heat detector: Advisable in enclosed food trucks

Know how to use your fire equipment. Check extinguishers are serviced annually and within their expiry date. Replace fire blankets if they've been used.

Fire Prevention

• Keep cooking areas clean and free of grease buildup
• Never leave cooking unattended
• Keep flammable materials away from heat sources
• Ensure electrical equipment is in good condition
• Have an escape route from your vehicle or stall

First Aid

You should have first aid provision appropriate to your operation. At minimum, this means a properly stocked first aid kit suitable for your activities.

A basic first aid kit for mobile catering should include:

• Sterile dressings and bandages
• Burn dressings (particularly important for catering)
• Blue detectable plasters (required in food environments)
• Disposable gloves
• Eye wash
• Guidance card

Consider whether anyone in your team should have first aid training. For larger operations or higher-risk activities, having a trained first aider is advisable.

Electrical Safety

Electrical equipment should be in good condition and appropriate for the environment.

• PAT testing: Portable Appliance Testing isn't strictly a legal requirement, but it's strongly advisable and often required by venues. Have equipment tested annually
• Cables: Check for damage, don't overload sockets, use appropriate outdoor-rated cables and equipment for outdoor events
• RCD protection: Use residual current devices for protection against electric shock
• Generator safety: If using generators, ensure proper ventilation and fuel storage

Manual Handling

Mobile catering involves lifting and moving heavy equipment. Poor manual handling causes many workplace injuries.

• Use proper lifting technique (bend knees, keep back straight)
• Get help with heavy or awkward items
• Use trolleys and handling aids where possible
• Don't overload containers or boxes
• Plan your setup to minimise carrying distances

Staff Training

If you have employees, you must provide adequate health and safety training. This includes:

• Induction training on hazards and safety procedures
• Equipment training before using machinery
• Fire safety and emergency procedures
• Food hygiene training
• Refresher training when things change

Keep records of training provided. This protects you if there's an incident—you can demonstrate that staff were properly trained.

Event-Specific Considerations

Each event brings unique considerations. Before arriving, think about:

• Access and egress—can you set up and pack down safely?
• Ground conditions—uneven surfaces, wet ground?
• Power supply—safe electrical connection?
• Weather—wind affecting gazebos, rain creating slip hazards?
• Crowd management—keeping customers safe around your setup?
• Emergency procedures—what happens if something goes wrong?

Documentation to Keep

Maintain records of:

• Risk assessments
• Gas safety certificates
• PAT test results
• Fire extinguisher service records
• Staff training records
• Accident records
• Equipment maintenance logs

Final Thoughts

Health and safety isn't about bureaucracy—it's about preventing accidents that harm people and damage your business. Most requirements are common sense once you understand the risks involved in your work.

Take time to assess your risks, put sensible controls in place, and maintain your equipment properly. Train yourself and any staff on safe working practices. Keep documentation up to date and accessible.

The vendors who take safety seriously not only protect people—they also protect their businesses, their reputations, and their ability to get booked by professional venues that care about compliance.