Chopping Board Colour Coding Explained

Understanding best practices for food safety, like chopping board colour coding, is key when you work in the food industry. As providers of quality online food hygiene training courses, we use our expertise to help explain common queries simply. 

So let’s get started with this simple guide to how using a colour coding system can make your commercial kitchen a safer place.

Why Are There Different Chopping Board Colours?

Working safely with food that’s sold to consumers is all about controlling potential hazards. Chopping different foods on the same surface presents a hazard for cross contamination. Luckily, it’s one that’s easily controlled with processes like using different chopping board colours for key food types.

Colour coded chopping boards are used to control food allergens and other dietary-controlled substances (such as meats) from interacting with other foods. In a busy kitchen setting the bright, easily-identifiable colours make it simple to keep key food groups prepared separately. 

What Do the Different Colour Coded Chopping Boards Mean?

Each chopping board colour is designated for a specific type of food to prevent cross-contamination and ensure proper food safety practices.

Red Chopping Board Meaning

Red chopping boards are used for the preparation of raw meat and poultry. This could involve any part of preparing raw meat to be cooked including deboning, slicing and marinating. It’s crucial that you use this chopping board for the preparation of any raw meat to avoid transferring harmful bacteria that can exist on raw meat (like salmonella) to other prepared foods.

Yellow Chopping Board Meaning

Yellow chopping boards intended for cooked meat and poultry. The vital difference in chopping board colours for cooked and raw meat and poultry helps prevent the two from ever touching the same surface. 

The reason for this extra chopping board colour is the need for extra preparation after cooking meat in some instances, such as slicing and portioning. The extra precaution of an entirely separate colour for cooked meat relates to the serious dangers involved in raw and cooked meat being cross-contaminated. 

Blue Chopping Board Meaning

While red and yellow chopping board colours are reserved for raw and cooked meat, blue chopping boards are to be used specifically for raw fish and other shellfish. Prepare fish and crustaceans (like prawns) on a blue chopping board before cooking. 

Green Chopping Board Meaning

Use green coloured chopping boards for the preparation of clean fruits, vegetables, herbs and salad. This is one of the easiest to remember, with the green being easily linked to representing fresh produce. Ensure your fruits and vegetables are freshly washed before touching the board.

Brown Chopping Board Meaning

This is another one with a visual link that’s useful for remembering its purpose. 

Brown chopping boards are to be used with unwashed root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes and swede. The reason is that as root vegetables are grown in soil there are often still soil traces on the vegetables that can spread to the chopping board, leaving harmful microbes behind. 

White Chopping Board Meaning

White chopping boards have two distinct uses: preparation of baked goods and dairy products. This covers dairy food items like cheese and butter as well as baked items like pastries and bread.

Important note: The chopping board must be washed between uses to prevent any allergen cross contamination.

E.g. If you grate cheese and don’t wash the board before slicing bread you risk cheese particulates being transferred to the bread. This would make it highly unsafe for a person with a dairy allergy.

Purple Chopping Board Meaning

Use purple colour coded chopping boards to prepare free-from ingredients which are gluten-free. Having a distinct colour chopping board to prepare food free from gluten helps to isolate food for allergy-sufferers away from any gluten contaminants. 

What Material Should Colour Coded Chopping Boards Be Made From?

Most establishments that need to use colour coded chopping boards opt for plastic. There are a few key reasons for this:

• Durability - Kitchens which are cooking for customers tend to do so in large quantities and need a chopping board that will stand up to daily use. 
• Non-absorbent - Plastics used for chopping boards like HDPE (high-density polyethylene) aren’t absorbent. This halts bacteria growth and cross contamination.
• Ideal surface texture - The smooth surface makes it ideal for cleaning down and sanitising while not being too hard that it would quickly dull knives during chopping. 

An additional factor is that plastic can easily be dyed different colours, meaning that bright colour coding is possible for the entire board. 

When Do Plastic Chopping Boards Need to Be Replaced?

Replace your chopping boards when they develop deep grooves, cuts or scratches that make them difficult to clean thoroughly, as these can harbour bacteria.

When Are Different Chopping Board Colours Needed?

While there are food safety laws in the UK that prohibit cross contamination, colour coded chopping boards aren’t specifically mandated. However, they are widely used in regulated kitchens as part of good food safety culture i.e. kitchens for establishments that sell to the public. 

While they are a common and convenient method they are not a legal requirement. 

In addition, many food and beverage businesses use colouring coding for their chopping boards as part of their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans, which are required for food businesses.

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