- Cleanability is the standard, not stainless steel itself.
- Coved corners, welded joints and sealed wall junctions do most of the work.
- A materials schedule saves an argument with the certifier.
In Australia the Food Standards Code does not tell you to use stainless steel. It says food contact surfaces must be smooth, impervious, free from cracks and crevices, and able to be effectively cleaned and, where necessary, sanitised. Stainless is simply the cheapest material that can do all of that at once. Which means it is entirely possible to build a kitchen in Sydney or Melbourne out of 304 and still fail a council inspection.
The five things that get marked up
- Square internal corners. A 90-degree internal corner cannot be cleaned with a cloth or a hose. Every internal corner on a food or wet surface should be coved with a radius large enough to get into.
- Silicone doing structural work. Sealant is a maintenance item with a life of a few years. On a food contact surface, a joint that is sealed rather than welded will be lifting within eighteen months and harbouring soil behind it.
- Open channels and exposed threads. Hollow legs without caps, open C-sections facing upwards and exposed bolt threads all collect matter that cannot be reached.
- Gaps at the wall. A bench 15mm off the wall creates a slot that nothing can clean. Either seal it hard to the wall with a coved upstand or pull it out far enough to clean behind and underneath.
- Floor clearance. Equipment sitting 40mm off the floor is worse than equipment sitting on a sealed plinth. Either seal it down or lift it to 150mm so a mop fits.
Welded and dressed, not welded and left
A fully welded joint only satisfies the cleanability test if it is then ground and linished back flush. A proud weld bead with undercut on either side is a crevice with extra steps. We dress welds back into the surrounding grain direction so the joint disappears, which is also, not coincidentally, what makes a bench look like it was made in one piece.
The paperwork that avoids a re-inspection
NSW and interstate certifiers ask what the surfaces are made of and how they are joined. We issue a materials schedule with every kitchen package listing grade by area, sheet thickness, finish, joint type and coving radius. It takes us twenty minutes and it has resolved more inspections, from Surry Hills to Fortitude Valley, than any argument on site ever has.
- Grade and thickness for each fabricated item.
- Surface finish, usually No.4 brushed, with grain direction noted.
- Joint method: fully welded and dressed, or mechanically joined with a gasket.
- Coving radius on internal corners and upstands.
- Passivation confirmation before dispatch.
An inspector is not testing your steel. They are testing whether a tired chef at 11pm can get the surface clean in thirty seconds. Design for that and the inspection is a formality.
Before you order equipment
The single most useful thing you can do on an Australian fit-out is get the fabricator on site before the equipment is ordered, not after. That is as true for a Surry Hills restaurant as for a house in Paddington or a club in Wollongong. Canopy sizes, bench heights, penetration positions and the clearances your refrigeration mechanic needs all interact. We would rather redraw a servery three times on paper than cut one panel that has to be cut again.