Professional catering and food service equipment

• Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 — Machinery
• Directive 2014/35/EU — Low Voltage
• Regulation (EU) 2016/426 — Gas Appliances for gas equipment
• Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 — food contact surfaces
• Regulation (EU) 2015/1095 — ecodesign for professional refrigeration

Who has to appoint one

Manufacturers outside the Union placing professional catering equipment on the EU market. This category stacks regimes: machinery for moving parts, electrical or gas for the energy source, food contact for the surfaces, and ecodesign and labelling for refrigeration and some cooking appliances.

Thresholds and exemptions

None. Professional equipment is not exempt because the user is a business; if anything the machinery and hygiene requirements are stricter.

What must appear on the label

CE marking with the notified body number where gas equipment is involved, manufacturer and EU representative details, type and serial number, year of construction, rated power and gas category, and the food contact indication for surfaces contacting food. Professional refrigeration carries an energy label with EPREL registration.

Marketplace fields

Sold mainly through distributors and installers, who require the declaration of conformity as a condition of purchase because their own liability depends on it. Online B2B marketplaces increasingly require it as an uploaded document.

Documentation you must hold

EU declaration of conformity covering every applicable regime, technical file with the risk assessment, food contact declaration of compliance and migration data for contact surfaces, EU type-examination certificate for gas appliances, EPREL registration for refrigeration, and WEEE and packaging registrations.

Standards and testing

EN 60335-2 series for the specific appliance type, hygiene design under EN 1672-2, food contact migration for surfaces, gas appliance testing under the applicable EN standard with notified body involvement, and energy performance measurement for labelled groups.

Language requirements

Installation, operating, cleaning and maintenance instructions in the language of each member state where the equipment is put into service.

When it applies

Before placing on the market. Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 applies from 20 January 2027.

How long records are kept

Ten years for technical documentation, fifteen for EPREL data.

What happens if you do not comply

Prohibition of use, withdrawal, and liability where an accident occurs in a commercial kitchen. Labour inspectorates encounter this equipment in use and can order it taken out of service immediately, which is commercially severe for the operator and reputationally severe for the supplier.

Who enforces it

Market surveillance authorities, labour inspectorates, notified bodies for gas equipment, food safety authorities for hygiene and contact surfaces, and energy agencies.

Where the boundary lies

Gas equipment always requires a notified body: there is no self-declaration route, unlike most electrical appliances. And hygienic design is a legal requirement rather than a quality preference, assessed by food safety inspectors in the kitchen rather than by market surveillance at the border.

Questions we are asked

Is professional equipment exempt from consumer rules?

It is outside GPSR, which covers consumer products, but the machinery, electrical, gas and food contact regimes apply in full and are stricter in several respects.

Do we need EPREL for a commercial fridge?

Professional refrigerated storage cabinets in scope of the ecodesign and labelling rules require registration and a label.