Dark kitchens make up around 15% of all food retailers on the major delivery platforms in England, according to publicly funded research led by Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield. That is one food outlet in seven, and fewer than one consumer in four has heard the term. Every one of those kitchens is a food business, and registration is a legal duty 28 days before trading.
A dark kitchen carries the same food law as a restaurant, and almost none of its visibility. Food business registration, the food safety management system and the allergen rules are UK-wide in substance, though each nation legislates separately. What differs sharply is the food hygiene rating: the scheme is statutory in Wales and Northern Ireland, voluntary in England, and Scotland runs a different scheme with different wording. For a business with no shopfront, that distinction does more work than it looks.
What is a dark kitchen business?
A dark kitchen is a commercial kitchen that prepares food for delivery only, with no dining area and no counter the public can order from, selling through delivery platforms or its own online channel. The research team behind the UK’s first widely agreed definition describes it as a technology enabled commercial kitchen operating primarily for delivery, fulfilling remote, on-demand consumer online orders of food for immediate consumption. Ghost kitchen, cloud kitchen and virtual kitchen are used for the same thing, and the terminology is not standardised.
The same research found that consumers are largely unable to identify which businesses are dark kitchens, and that most want to know explicitly when they are ordering from one. Local authority teams reported using different definitions from each other, which the authors link to inconsistent regulation across areas.
How to open a dark kitchen in the UK, step by step
The sequence differs from a restaurant opening in one important way: there is no fit-out of a customer area and no premises licence for alcohol on site, but the compliance load is identical and the route to customers runs through a third party.
What a delivery-only kitchen needs in place before it trades:
- Food business registration with the local authority, made at least 28 days before opening
- A written food safety management system based on the principles of hazard analysis
- Allergen information ready in writing for both the ordering stage and the delivery stage
- Confirmation of the planning position for the unit, in writing from the local planning authority where the use class is unclear
- Extraction, ventilation and waste arrangements that satisfy both the landlord and any planning condition
- Trained food handlers, and staff records to show it
Register the food business
Registration goes to the local authority covering the kitchen, is free, and is due 28 days before opening. The Food Standards Agency states that trading without it is an offence, and that the duty applies whether the business sells through social media, through an e-commerce site, from a physical premises or from a home kitchen. Registration is also what triggers the inspection that produces the rating, so an unregistered kitchen has no rating to show a platform.
Check the planning position early
There is no settled national answer on which use class a dark kitchen occupies in England, and that is the single biggest trap in taking a unit. Some councils treat it as falling within Class E(g)(iii), light industrial, which allows movement within Class E without permission. Others treat it as sui generis, a use of its own kind, which means a change of use needs planning permission.
The London Borough of Camden took enforcement action in June 2018 against a Deliveroo facility in Swiss Cottage, alleging an unauthorised change of use to a sui generis commercial kitchen and delivery centre, and the appeal that followed was reported at the time by The Planner. In a later appeal against Birmingham City Council, referenced in a 2025 scoping review in Town Planning Review, the inspector agreed the use was sui generis but allowed the appeal because the operation suited an industrial area. Councils continue to differ.
Take a unit that can be ventilated
Odour, noise and vehicle movements are the three issues that attract objections and planning conditions on this use, since riders arrive and leave continuously through the evening. Conditions imposed on dark kitchen consents have covered extraction and filtration, noise limits, delivery management and travel plans. A lease on a unit inside an industrial estate carries its own restrictions on hours and use, separate from anything planning requires.
Write the food safety management system
Food businesses are required to put in place and maintain procedures based on hazard analysis and critical control point principles. The FSA publishes Safer Food, Better Business as a free pack for small caterers, which is what most independent operators use as their documented system. Temperature records, cleaning schedules, supplier records and staff training records are the evidence an inspector asks for, and they are also what a platform requests at onboarding.
Build allergen information into the order flow
Distance selling carries an allergen duty that a counter business does not have. The FSA states that where food is sold online or by phone, allergen information must be provided at two stages: before the purchase is completed, and again when the food is delivered. Its technical guidance for non-prepacked food says the information should be held in written form and available in writing to the consumer at both points, free of charge.
Good to know
There are 14 allergens that must be declared, and the obligation lands twice on every delivered order. The FSA’s best practice guidance adds that where a customer has customised a dish, the delivered information should say so, and that a business selling through a third party site should tell customers clearly, before they order, where the allergen information can be found. Responsibility for accuracy sits with the food business, not the platform.
Prepare for the inspection and the rating
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the local authority inspection produces a Food Hygiene Rating Scheme score from 0 to 5, published on the FSA’s website. Scotland operates the separate Food Hygiene Information Scheme, run by Food Standards Scotland, which records a result of Pass or Improvement Required rather than a number. Displaying the sticker at the premises is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland and voluntary in England.
Get listed on the platforms
Platform access is contractual, not regulatory, and each sets its own bar, a channel now used by many of the restaurant franchises recruiting in the UK alongside their own sites. Deliveroo’s published partner policies require a minimum rating of 2, state that a partner falling below it can be removed, and offer an onsite inspection by an independent auditor to businesses that score below the minimum. Other platforms set their own thresholds and their own onboarding documents.
Sort the tax, rates and staff position
Hot food sold to take away is standard-rated for VAT at 20%, and registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover passes £90,000. Business rates are charged on the unit in England as rateable value multiplied by the multiplier. Riders working through a platform are not normally the kitchen’s staff, but anyone the kitchen recruits directly sits under the usual employment rules.
Decide how the brands appear
One kitchen commonly lists several brands. The Sheffield Hallam researchers note that dark kitchens often operate across multiple brands or premises, which is part of why local authority teams find them hard to track. The same study found consumers wanted clearer information about where food is prepared, along with easier access to hygiene ratings and allergen details inside the ordering apps.
Types of dark kitchen business
The label covers several arrangements with different capital requirements and different landlords.
| Model | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Standalone delivery-only unit | The operator takes and fits out its own premises, and carries the full planning and lease position |
| Space in a managed kitchen site | A pod or unit inside a serviced facility, with utilities, extraction and rider collection provided |
| Spare capacity in an existing kitchen | A restaurant or takeaway cooks delivery-only brands alongside its own menu |
| Licensed virtual brand | The kitchen operator licenses someone else’s brand and menu rather than building one |
| Home kitchen | Registration still applies, and platform policies restrict listing |
The Sheffield Hallam researchers record dark kitchens operating from converted industrial units, shipping containers, kitchens rented by the hour and space inside hotels, pubs and stadiums, with some sites purpose-built for delivery platforms and others rented out to different brands in turn.
How much does it cost to open a dark kitchen in the UK?
No public or official UK source gives an average start-up cost for a dark kitchen, and the figures circulating in market reports are neither audited nor consultable. What can be established are the statutory lines, which apply whatever the kitchen costs to fit out.
| Cost line | Position, 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Food business registration | Free, due 28 days before opening |
| Company incorporation | £100 online, on the Companies House fee schedule from 1 February 2026 |
| Business rates, England | Rateable value × multiplier: 43.2p small business, 48.0p standard |
| Retail multipliers, England | 38.2p and 43.0p where the property qualifies as retail, hospitality or leisure |
| Small Business Rate Relief, England | 100% relief at rateable value of £12,000 or less, tapering to nil at £15,000 |
| Staff, from 1 April 2026 | National Living Wage £12.71 an hour, employer National Insurance 15% above £5,000 a year |
| VAT | Registration at £90,000 taxable turnover; hot takeaway food standard-rated at 20% |
| Platform commission | Not published: set in the contract with each platform |
| Rent, fit-out and equipment | No national figure published |
The lines that move a start-up budget most are:
- The unit and the lease terms, including the rent deposit and any service charge at a managed site
- Extraction, ventilation and grease management, which is where an industrial unit costs more than it looks
- Three-phase electricity or a gas supply, where the menu needs it
- Refrigeration, cooking equipment and packaging
- Planning fees and professional support where a change of use is required
- Platform commission on every order, and the marketing spend inside the apps
- Business rates, net of any relief that applies
Dark kitchen franchise opportunities in the UK
What is sold in this sector is mostly brand licensing into a kitchen the operator already has, priced monthly or on a share of orders, rather than a conventional franchise with an initial fee and a protected territory, the structure described in an in-depth guide to franchising in the United Kingdom. Of the UK operators checked for this article, neither publishes an initial franchise fee in the form a food-service franchise normally would.
- FoodVerse, London, states on its own site that its ghost kitchen franchise starts from £499 a month with no large upfront fee, covering six brand licences, training, concept kits and listing support on the three main platforms. A commercial kitchen in London is required
- Dish’d, which licenses virtual brands into existing kitchens, publishes no investment figure and instead sets entry conditions on its own site: commercial extraction and gas or three-phase electricity, a fully halal kitchen, no alcohol on site, and a minimum food hygiene rating of 3. Its brands cannot be prepared from home or from a light commercial kitchen
Both figures are taken from the companies’ own pages. There is no UK disclosure filing for franchising and no register, so a figure the brand does not publish itself cannot be verified.
Editor’s tip
The hygiene rating is the only shopfront a dark kitchen has, and the law points it at a door no customer uses. Display is mandatory at the premises in Wales and Northern Ireland, voluntary in England, and no UK law requires the rating to be shown on a delivery app. What fills the gap is contract: brand licensors and platforms set their own minimum ratings, so a score below theirs closes the sales channel whatever the local authority allows.
The practical difficulties operators report
- The use class is unsettled. One council treats the use as light industrial, the next as sui generis, and enforcement has followed where permission was not sought
- The customer relationship sits with the platform. Listing, ranking and the commission are governed by a contract the kitchen does not write
- Allergens are harder without a counter. The information has to be right twice, in writing, with no chance to answer a question across a till
- Recognition is low. A quarter of consumers surveyed had heard of the model, and most wanted to know when they were ordering from one
- Regulation is uneven. Local authority teams told researchers they work to different definitions, which makes experience in one area a poor guide to another
- Neighbours notice the riders. Noise, odour and vehicle movements are what objections and planning conditions concentrate on
The bottom line
Opening a dark kitchen in the UK removes the dining room and none of the food law. Registration is due 28 days before trading and it is an offence to skip it, the allergen duty lands twice on every delivered order, and the planning position depends on a view the local authority has not always settled. The rating that follows the inspection governs access to the platforms through their own contracts rather than through legislation. The brands sold into this sector are mostly licences priced by the month, not franchises with a territory.
Frequently asked questions about opening a dark kitchen in the UK
It depends on the council. In England, some local planning authorities treat a dark kitchen as falling within Class E(g)(iii), light industrial, in which case a change from another Class E use may not need permission. Others treat it as sui generis, which means permission is required. Camden took enforcement action on that basis in 2018, and a later appeal against Birmingham City Council also found the use to be sui generis. The position is confirmed with the local planning authority before a lease is signed.
Yes. Registration triggers a local authority inspection, and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that produces a Food Hygiene Rating Scheme score from 0 to 5, published on the FSA website. Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, with a result of Pass or Improvement Required. Displaying the sticker at the premises is required by law in Wales and Northern Ireland and is voluntary in England.
A home kitchen selling food commercially is still a food business and still has to register with the local authority 28 days before trading, which the FSA states applies to sales made through social media and e-commerce sites as well. The inspection and the rating follow. Delivery platforms and brand licensors then apply their own rules, and some exclude home kitchens or require a commercial specification.
