Kitchen Archives - Standards Michigan

Kitchens 300

United States Air Force Military Academy

Commercial kitchens in school cafeterias and college dormitories are designed to meet strict health and safety standards, accommodate high-volume food production, and provide nutritious meals to students in an efficient and organized manner. Some common features:

Industrial-grade cooking equipment: This may include commercial ovens, grills, ranges, fryers, steamers, and other specialized cooking equipment designed for high-volume cooking.
Food preparation areas: These may include spacious prep tables, cutting boards, sinks, and other food preparation stations for washing, chopping, and assembling ingredients.
Walk-in refrigerators and freezers: These are used for storing large quantities of perishable food items at appropriate temperatures to maintain freshness and safety.
Food storage facilities: These may include shelves, racks, and cabinets for storing dry goods, canned goods, and other non-perishable food items.
Dishwashing area: This may include commercial dishwashers capable of handling a large number of dishes and utensils efficiently.
Serving stations: These may include counters, warming stations, and other facilities for serving food to students.
Ventilation and exhaust systems: These are essential for maintaining a clean and safe kitchen environment by properly removing smoke, steam, and odors generated during cooking.
Safety features: These may include fire suppression systems, emergency exits, and other safety measures to ensure compliance with local health and safety regulations.

Owing to the complexity of the domain, starting 2023 we will break down the standards for education community safety and sustainability into two separate colloquia:

Kitchens 100 will deal primarily safety — fire, shock hazard, sanitation, floors, etc.

Kitchens 300 will deal with sustainability criteria in large commercial kitchens common in school cafeterias, dormitories, sports venues and hospitals.

Williams P. Clements Jr. University Hospital

Owing to the complexity of the domain, starting 2023 we will break down the standards for education community safety and sustainability into two separate colloquia:

Kitchens 100 will deal primarily safety — fire, shock hazard, sanitation, floors, etc.

Kitchens 300 will deal with sustainability criteria in large commercial kitchens common in school cafeterias, dormitories, sports venues and hospitals.

Relevant catalogs:

3-A Sanitary Standards

American Gas Association

AGA Response to The Atlantic Article about Natural Gas Cooking

ASHRAE International

Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations

ASTM International

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

Noteworthy Research:

Design Application of Smart Kitchen for Aging Based on Interactive Behavior Analysis

A Futuristic Kitchen Assistant – Powered by Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Environmental analyses of waste cooking oil recycling and complete use practices in Bogor, Indonesia

IAPMO International

Prefabricated Gravity Grease Interceptors

International Code Council

International Building Code Sections 303 Commercial Kitchens

National Fire Protection Association

National Electrical Code

Standard for the Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems

NSF International

The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies

We will also review federal and state-level regulatory action. Open to everyone. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Food 500

Kitchen Exhaust

God walks among the pots and pans.

— Saint Teresa of Ávila c.1582

One of the concentrated risk aggregations in any school district, college, university and technical school, athletic venues and university-affiliated healthcare systems, rests in the food preparation units. On a typical large research university there are hundreds of kitchens in dormitories, student unions, athletic venues, hospitals and — to a surprising degree — kitchen facilities are showing up in classroom buildings. Kitchens that used to be located on the periphery of campus and run by private industry are now moving into instructional spaces and operated by private food service vendors.

Food preparation facilities present safety challenges that are on the same scale as district energy plants, athletic concession units, media production facilities and hospital operating rooms. There are 20 accredited standards setting organizations administering leading practice discovery in this space. Some of them concerned with fire safety; others concerned with energy conservation in kitchens, still others concerned with sanitation. The International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association is one of the first names in this space and maintains an accessible standards development home page; linked below:

IKCEA Standards

The IKECA catalog of titles establish a standard of care for cleaning activity that fills gaps in related ASHRAE, ASME, ICC and NFPA titles. For example:

IKECA I10 Standard for the Methodology for Inspection of Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems

IKECA C10 Standard for the Methodology for Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems

Hazards posed by un-maintained exhaust systems are covered in the NFPA Report: Structure Fires in Eating and Drinking Establishments

Princeton University Teaching Kitchen

We encourage subject matter experts in food enterprises in the education industry to communicate directly with John Dixon at IKCEA (jdixon@fernley.com) or Elizabeth Franks, (215) 320-3876, information@ikeca.org, International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association, 100 North 20th Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

We are happy to get specific about how the IKECA suite contributes to lower education community cost during our Food teleconferences. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [18-24]

Category: Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Larry Spielvogel, Richard Robben

LEARN MORE:

Dormitories, Fraternities, Sororities and Barracks

Keele University “Look When You Cook”

Commercial Kitchen Ventilation

Traps, Interceptors and Separators

Workspace / IKCEA

Commercial Kitchens

2025 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES: Complete Monograph (2630 pages)

Quick View of Results

36 kitchen related proposals were reviewed during our precious sesssion

~~2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES: Complete Monograph (2658 pages)~~

Commercial kitchens offer several benefits, such as efficient food preparation and large-scale production, allowing businesses to meet high demand. They provide professional-grade equipment and ample space, enabling chefs to explore culinary creativity. Commercial kitchens also promote hygiene and food safety standards, with dedicated cleaning protocols and inspections. However, hazards can arise from the high-temperature cooking equipment, sharp tools, and potentially hazardous substances. There is also a risk of burns, slips, and falls, emphasizing the importance of proper training and safety measures. Adequate ventilation and fire safety systems are vital to prevent accidents and maintain a healthy working environment.

The International Code Council is re-configuring its code development process in nearly every dimension. While that situation stabilizes let us review the back-and-forth on this topic during the previous revision cycle (linked below):

2021 International Building Code Section 306 Factory Group F Moderate Hazard

2021 International Fire Code Section 606 Commercial Cooking Equipment and Systems

The International Code Council has recently re-configured its code development calendar:

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

~~Public hearings on the proposed changes happen in Orlando, April 7-16.~~

This is a summary of the actions taken on the 2024 Comments on Proposed Changes to the ICC International Codes at the October 23-28, 2024 Committee Action Hearings #2 held at the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California. Balloting of local building code officials is now underway.

Commercial kitchen electrical power wiring requirements are covered extensively in Article 210 through Article 215 of the National Electrical Code. Standards action in this domain is referred to IEEE Education & Healthcare Facility Committee.

ASHRAE International: Calculating Airflow Rates, Cooking Loads in Commercial Kitchens

AGA Response to The Atlantic Article about Natural Gas Cooking

Thomas Edison State University: Undergraduate Certificate in Gas Distribution

International Fire Code

Teaching Kitchen

Standards Ohio

Net Position: $393.3M (Page 13)

Behind the scenes of our Falcon Family holiday photo.. we’ve all been there 🎥👀 pic.twitter.com/5d2907GoPn

— Bowling Green State University (@bgsu) December 12, 2025

Home Economics Graduate Diploma

Braes High School Home

Queen Margaret University | East Lothian

Scotland

Food Safety

Overdoor, France, ca. 1825; | Smithsonian Design Museum

Education communities have significant food safety responsibilities. Risk gets pushed around global food service counterparties; a drama in itself and one that requires coverage in a separate blog post.*

Since 2013 we have been following the development of food safety standards; among them ANSI/NSF 2: Food Equipment one of a constellation of NSF food safety titles whose provisions cover bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, and pantry units and other food handling and processing equipment such as tables and components, counters, hoods, shelves, and sinks. The purpose of this Standard is to establish minimum food protection and sanitation requirements for the materials, design, fabrication, construction, and performance of food handling and processing equipment.

It is a relatively stable standard; developed to support conformance revenue for products. A new landing page seems to have emerged in recent months:

Food and Beverage

https://www.nsf.org/testing/food

Manufacturers are required to meet the NEC and CEC electrical codes to have their food equipment sold and used in the United States and Canada. Watch our video for more details. pic.twitter.com/d0vUf4zUl2

— NSF (@NSF_Intl) June 30, 2023

You may be enlightened by the concepts running through this standard as can be seen on a past, pre-pandemic agenda:

NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Packet – Final Draft

NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Summary – August 21-22 Ann Arbor NSF Headquarters

NSF 2 Food Equipment Fabrication Agenda – FEF – TG – 2021-01-12

Not trivial agendas with concepts that cut across several disciplines involving product manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance. We find a very strong influence of organizations such as Aramark and Sodexo. More on that in a separate post.

From https://t.co/CW9veo96yh: Food Equipment Standards https://t.co/ZwBF9Yr5s0

— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) September 19, 2025

Ranchview High School Cafeteria / Irving, Texas

This committee – along with several other joint committees –meets frequently online. If you wish to participate, and receive access to documents that explain the scope and scale of NSF food safety standards, please contact Allan Rose, (734) 827-3817, arose@nsf.org. NSF International welcomes guests/observers to nearly all of its standards-setting technical committees. We expect another online meeting hosted by this committee any day now.

Keep in mind that all NSF International titles are on the standing agenda of our Nourriture (Food) colloquia; open to everyone. See our CALENDAR for the next meeting.

University of Indiana

Issue: [13-113] [15-126]

Category: Facility Asset Management, Healthcare, Residence Hall, Athletics

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Tracey Artley, Keith Koster, Richard Robben

*See “Food Safety Risk Management: Evidence-Informed Policies and Decisions, Considering Multiple Factors, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations”

LEARN MORE:

ANSI Blog | Changes to NSF 2 Food Safety Equipment Standard

NSF International Food Safety 2018 Meeting Summary – 2018-08-22 – Final Draft

2017 Food Code | US Food & Drug Administration

Hygiene Requirements For The Design Of Meat And Poultry Processing Equipment

ARCHIVE: NSF 2 Food Safety

Kitchen Wiring

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Spring Salad

Standards Indiana

Do you want a fresh and healthy meal, but don’t have time to sit down? Look no further than North and South Dining Hall Grab and Gos!

Don’t forget to try one of the salads, they are our favorite! 🥗 pic.twitter.com/d833XeTnRq

— Campus Dining (@NDCampusDining) January 25, 2024

Kitchen Wiring

“Le Coin de Cuisine” | 1883 Edwin Deakin

Education communities are stewards of hundreds of commercial-class kitchens in which the proximate risk of electrical energy must be managed — water spills and grease, fires, worn electrical cords on countertop equipment, faulty wiring or equipment, damaged outlets or connectors, and improperly used or damaged extension cords among them. The safety and sustainability rules for this occupancy class is identified as Assembly Group A-2 in Section 303 of the International Building Code

We explore recent transcripts of expert committee activity in NEC Article 210 and provide links to video commentary.

Public comment on the Second Draft of the 2026 NEC will be received until April 18. We typically coordinate our effort with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee. The workspace set up for generating proposals can be found in the link below.

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

2023 National Electrical Code (Free Access)

Other access portals:

UpCodes: 2020 NEC

Texas Electrical Code

California Electrical Code

Michigan Electrical Code: Part 8 Rules

Transcripts of the 2023 NEC are linked below:

Public Input Report (Part 1)

Public Input Report (Part 2)

Public Comment Report

We examine transcripts to track technical specifics that apply to student accommodation kitchens (on and off campus), university-affiliated hospital kitchens and sport arenas.

Relevant Research:

Smart Kitchen: Real Time Monitoring of Kitchen through IoT

Design of Chinese Smart Kitchen Based on Users’ Behavior

Intelligent kitchen management system based on gas safety

A Futuristic Kitchen Assistant – Powered by Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

A Multi-radar Architecture for Human Activity Recognition in Indoor Kitchen Environments