Dark kitchen and cuisine centrale checklist: destination, hygiene, extraction and delivery to verify before you sign

Even with no dining room and no customers received on site, premises intended for a production kitchen must be compatible, under the plan local d'urbanisme (PLU, local urban plan) or the equivalent document, with an « artisanat » (craft) or « industrie » (industrial) destination — and not solely « commerce » (retail) or « bureau » (office). Premises originally assigned to an office, a retail shop or housing do not automatically become compatible with a production-kitchen activity: a changement de destination (change of planning use) may be required, with the agreement of the mairie and, depending on the case, a déclaration préalable (prior declaration) or a permis de construire (building permit).

In large conurbations in a zone tendue (high-demand housing area — Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and other communes covered by a changement d'usage scheme), converting residential premises into a professional kitchen additionally requires a changement d'usage (change of use) authorisation, distinct from the changement de destination — a step frequently underestimated by dark-kitchen founders, who sometimes set up in former residential premises or low-value ground floors.

Any activity preparing foodstuffs — with or without a dining room — must be the subject of an activity declaration (déclaration d'activité) to the departmental directorate in charge of protecting the public (DDPP or DDETSPP), and must comply with the paquet hygiène (EU hygiene package): plan de maîtrise sanitaire (food-safety management plan), HACCP, marche en avant (forward flow), and traceability of raw materials and preparations.

The absence of a dining room removes none of these obligations — it often reinforces them, because there is no longer a customer's visual check on the final result: process compliance alone carries the trust. A specific point to verify is the nature of the supply to the customer: remise directe (direct supply — sale to the final consumer, including via delivery) follows a lighter regime, whereas remise indirecte (indirect supply — sale to an intermediary who resells or serves it in turn: partner restaurant, public body, another point of sale) can trigger the requirement for a European agrément sanitaire, depending on the share of the activity concerned and the volumes involved.

As soon as there is cooking, the extraction of steam, grease and fumes remains mandatory — dining room or not. What changes is the context: in a restaurant with a dining room, extraction is often already anticipated by the landlord or the previous operator. In premises taken over for a kitchen with no dining room, this subject is frequently discovered after signing, for want of having been verified as a central point.

The extraction duct must generally exit at roof level, which requires the agreement of the copropriété (co-ownership) if the building has one, as well as a technical feasibility study. Odour and noise nuisances are often more sensitive for a dark kitchen: this type of concept frequently sets up in low-rent premises located in a residential area or at the foot of a residential building, where neighbours tolerate an extraction duct or continuous production poorly.

A kitchen preparing foodstuffs at a volume higher than that of an ordinary restaurant may fall under the regulations on installations classées pour la protection de l'environnement (ICPE, classified environmental installations), which are added to — without replacing — the hygiene and planning obligations already verified. The ICPE nomenclature contains a family of headings dedicated to the preparation or preservation of foodstuffs of plant, animal or mixed origin by industrial-type processes (cooking, canning, deep-freezing in particular), with thresholds for déclaration, enregistrement or autorisation (declaration, registration or authorisation) that depend on the volume produced or the power of the installations.

The exact number of the applicable heading and the precise thresholds (daily or annual tonnage, power of the cooking or refrigeration installations) depend on the exact nature of the activity and change over time: this point must never be estimated from memory, by analogy with an ordinary restaurant, or from a figure read elsewhere. It must be confirmed, for each project, with the DREAL (regional directorate for the environment, planning and housing) or the préfecture of the department where you set up, before signing a bail or undertaking works.

A kitchen with no dining room concentrates most of its activity on inbound flows (raw materials, supply) and outbound flows (delivery to customers or partner points of sale). Parking for delivery vehicles, the presence of powered two-wheelers waiting, and loading/unloading hours may require a voirie (roadway) authorisation or be governed by a municipal order (arrêté municipal), particularly in dense urban areas.

The volume of biodéchets (bio-waste) produced by a production kitchen is often higher than that of an ordinary restaurant for the same floor area. Since 1 January 2024, every producer of biodéchets, whatever the quantity produced, must ensure tri à la source (sorting at source) and suitable recovery — a point to build into the operating plan from the design stage of the premises.

Independently of biodéchets, a production kitchen at volume most often needs a bac à graisse (grease trap / separator) correctly sized for its discharge flow, with a regular maintenance and emptying contract. This is an obligation distinct from biodéchets collection, and a point frequently under-sized in premises converted from a use that was not designed for food production.

Working through one or more delivery platforms (listing, commission, possible exclusivity) is a commercial contract to read carefully before signing: commission rate, commitment period, termination conditions, and clauses on visibility or promotion within the app.

Independently of the contract with the platform, the legal labelling obligations — origin of meats, statement of allergens, nutritional information where required — apply to distance selling just as to on-site selling. A kitchen with no dining room that displays this information only on its own site, without carrying it over onto every product listing of the platforms used, remains in breach.

Premises that receive no physical clientele are, in principle, not classified as an établissement recevant du public (ERP, venue open to the public): no commission de sécurité to schedule, no accessibility obligation designed for customers, no commission report (procès-verbal) to obtain before opening.

This hors-ERP status rests on a precise assumption: no clientele enters the premises. As soon as a collection counter, a click-and-collect point, or any space where the public waits or is physically received is added to the plan — even occasionally or secondarily — the question of ERP classification becomes one to verify again: the presence, even minimal, of a public reception can be enough to tip the premises into an ERP regime, with its own accessibility and safety obligations. This point is decided case by case with the mairie or a professional, depending on the exact plan of the premises — it is never presumed ruled out as a matter of principle.

Outside that scenario, the premises remain a workplace (lieu de travail) within the meaning of the labour code: fire safety and staff evacuation, sizing of exits according to headcount, compliance of the electrical installations, safety register (registre de sécurité) and, depending on headcount, evacuation drills. This is a different regime from that of an ERP — not an absent one.

With no clientele received on site, the licence de débit de boissons (drinks-outlet licence) — the one for restaurants and bars with a dining room — normally has no reason to be applied for. The only exception: if the business model provides for delivering alcohol to accompany meals, a declaratory regime distinct from takeaway sale then applies, to be confirmed at the mairie case by case — without confusing the two regimes.

A règlement de copropriété (co-ownership rules) can restrict or prohibit a kitchen activity — extraction noise, odours, delivery hours — even in the absence of any dining room and any clientele received on site. The absence of the public does not set aside the building's destination clauses or the clauses relating to nuisances.

The bail commercial (commercial lease) itself must be read with the same care as for a restaurant with a dining room: a generic « commerce » lease can explicitly exclude food service or a kitchen activity, or authorise only office or warehouse use. The lease's destination must correspond precisely to a production-kitchen activity — dark kitchen, cuisine centrale, laboratoire — and not be inferred by extension from a general « commerce » clause.

The sizing of a kitchen with no dining room — production area, number of stations, cold-storage capacity, cooking capacity — must be checked against the order volume actually achievable in the targeted delivery zone, and not set against a generic standard for a restaurant with a dining room, which does not have the same flow logic.

The « multi-brand » model (several concepts run from a single kitchen) can improve the profitability of premises, but it presupposes a production organisation that absorbs several menus without degrading either lead times or the hygienic marche en avant. This sizing cannot be automated: it is the remit of a kitchen-equipment professional, not of an address pré-diagnostic.

Running several virtual brands from a single kitchen remains, most of the time, a marketing choice (several names, several visual identities) that changes nothing in the legal structure: the same SIRET, the same premises. But depending on the activities actually carried out under each brand, a distinct NAF declaration or a specific mention to the DDPP/DDETSPP may prove necessary — a point to have confirmed case by case, rather than assumed settled by the sole choice of several trade names.