Central Production Unit (CPU)
A central kitchen that prepares, cooks or portions food for several sites in a group, which then finish and serve it. Registered as its own food business with its own HACCP plan.
A central production unit, usually called a central kitchen or CPU, is a site that prepares food for other sites in the same group rather than for customers walking in. Sauces, stocks, marinades, prepped vegetables, portioned proteins, desserts and sometimes whole dishes are made once, chilled or frozen, and distributed to the restaurants or pubs, which finish and serve them. Groups build one when the same dish is made in ten kitchens with ten results, when skilled labour is scarce at site level, or when a site kitchen is too small for the menu. A CPU changes the compliance picture: it is a food business in its own right, it needs a HACCP plan built around production and distribution rather than service, and the food that leaves it is prepacked, which brings labelling and traceability rules the sites did not have before.
Key Points
- A CPU is its own registered food business, inspected separately from the sites it supplies
- It needs a full HACCP plan built around cooking, cooling, storage, packing and transport
- Food leaving a CPU is prepacked and needs a full label; the receiving site records it as a delivery
- Recipes and allergens must be held once for the group so the site matrix matches the unit
- A fault at the unit reaches every site, so batch records and traceability matter more than at a single kitchen
Registration and inspection
A CPU is registered with its local authority as a food business at least 28 days before it starts, separately from the sites it supplies, and it is inspected on its own cycle. Because it produces food for sale elsewhere it is usually treated as a higher-risk premises than a restaurant, so inspections are more frequent and the officer expects a full HACCP plan rather than an SFBB pack. If the unit supplies businesses outside the group, or products of animal origin at scale, it may need approval under the food hygiene regulations rather than simple registration; check with the local authority before the first delivery.
HACCP for production and distribution
The hazards at a CPU are cooking, cooling, chilled and frozen storage, packing, labelling and transport, not service. The HACCP plan sets critical limits for each: core temperature at cooking, cooling to 8°C within the time your validation supports, storage at or below the limit, vehicle temperature on the way out, and date coding that the receiving site can read. Records are kept per batch so that a problem at one site can be traced to a production run and every other site that received it.
Labelling and the receiving sites
Food leaving a CPU for another premises is prepacked food, so it needs a label with the name, ingredients with allergens emphasised, the date and storage instructions, and it falls outside the PPDS rules that apply to food packed and sold on the same site. The receiving kitchen treats it as a delivery: check the vehicle temperature, check the label, record it, and hold it as the label says. The site's own allergen matrix has to match the CPU's recipe, which is why groups hold recipes and allergens once for the business rather than per kitchen.
What a group gains and gives up
A CPU gives consistency, buying power and a smaller skilled team, and lets a site kitchen run on a smaller footprint. It also concentrates risk: a fault at the unit reaches every site at once, and the distribution leg is a cold-chain problem the group did not have before. The compliance system has to cover both the unit and the kitchens it feeds, with the unit's records and the sites' records kept separately and visible together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a central production unit need its own food hygiene rating?
Yes. It is registered and inspected as its own premises and receives its own rating, though as a business not open to the public it may be exempt from displaying it.
Can a CPU use an SFBB pack instead of HACCP?
SFBB is written for catering to the public. A unit producing food for other premises should have a HACCP plan specific to production and distribution; most local authorities will expect one.
How does Paddl handle a CPU?
The unit is set up as its own location with its own HACCP plan, routines and records, and the kitchens it supplies are separate locations in the same account, so the group sees the unit and the sites together while each keeps its own evidence.
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