What Colour Chopping Board Do I Need?

Those who work with food must ensure that it's prepared safely as a top priority. A kitchen environment can present many different types of hazards to food safety. It's the kitchen staff's duty to control these hazards to prevent them from harming the consumers.

In businesses where food is prepared, a common way of reducing food safety hazards is using colour-coded chopping boards.

The importance of coloured chopping boards

They help kitchen staff to easily identify what type of food has been in contact with each chopping board. For example, raw meat & poultry would be cut on a red chopping board, but no other type of food should come into contact with raw meat, as it could lead to the consumer getting food poisoning. So, kitchen staff know not to cut their vegetables on the red chopping board.

Kitchen staff must understand which colour chopping board should be used for each item of food and ensure that they are never mixed up.

So, here is what chopping board kitchen staff should be using for each food type:

Red chopping board

As previously mentioned, a red chopping board should be used for raw meat & poultry.

This board must be used whenever somebody needs to work with raw meat. This is essential for preventing any cross-contamination between raw meat and ready-to-eat foods.

Blue chopping board

This colour chopping board should be used only for raw fish and shellfish.

Seeing as shellfish are one of the 14 main allergens, it can be potentially dangerous to cross-contaminate food on this chopping board.

Yellow chopping board

A yellow chopping board should only be used with cooked meats and poultry. 

Staff should refrain from using cooked fish on this chopping board, but for food safety purposes, you should never use this chopping board for raw fish.

Green chopping board

A green chopping board should be used to cut washed vegetables.

Some examples of cut-washed vegetables would be peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

White chopping board

This should only be used for dairy and bakery items.

Kitchen staff must always remember to wash chopping boards between each use to prevent cross-contamination with other allergens.

Brown chopping board

A brown chopping board should be used when you are handling unwashed root vegetables. 

As root vegetables often still have soil on them, you should only use a brown chopping board for its intended food groups so dirt doesn’t come into contact with any other food.

Purple chopping board

You should use a purple board for preparing free-from products.

This would include gluten-free ingredients and dairy-free ingredients. Again, using the right coloured chopping board in this situation could be potentially life-saving!

Food Safety & Hygiene Training

We offer IOSH Approved Online Food Safety & Hygiene Training courses that cover both Level 1 and Level 2.

The courses are designed for all employees who work with food and offer information on best practices surrounding best food safety & hygiene practices.

Claim your no-obligation free trial to either of the courses today!