Section 1 - Scope of the Guide

1. General

1.1 The aim of this document is to provide guidance to managers
operating insulated buildings in the cold storage and food processing industry.

The recommendations given in this guide apply to fire safety in:

a) Buildings used for the preparation of food including cooking.
b) Factories for the processing and packaging of food.
c) Cold stores used for the storage of loose or packaged frozen or chilled foods.
d) Regional Distribution Centres (RDC's) of the retail food industry.
e) Large retail outlet cold rooms (in excess of 250m³ volume).

Fire safety is generally achieved by good well targeted management and, whilst the provision of effective equipment and buildings is essential, the benefits that accrue from these can be lost by bad management. This document focuses on good practice and the management role.

By conforming with the recommendations given in this document operators will demonstrate compliance with many of the 'duty of care' responsibilities required in current and future hazard based fire regulations. This guidance will also help to identify and control the fire hazards associated with the processing, storage and distribution of frozen and chilled products as may be required by any self-administered hazard based safety policy. Areas within a building that comply with the recommendations in this document should be down rated in respect of their hazard category when considering frequency of audits or insurance premiums etc.

The guidance provided may help in the identification of fire hazards and the subsequent control of risk and will help and encourage operators to perform their self regulatory responsibilities, as is anticipated to be in the imminent Workplace (Fire Precautions) Regulations.

The general fire prevention recommendations in this guide are aimed at reducing both the possibility of a fire occurring and the consequential damage and losses, and will sometimes exceed the statutory minimum. This document is written for the use of designers/constructors, managers, maintenance staff, health and safety managers and other staff responsible for fire safety in the temperature controlled food industry.

The structural fire protection recommendations (see Section 4) are not intended to be implemented in existing buildings, but should be taken into account when planning new facilities or when undertaking future major refurbishment.

Much of the guidance within this document is applicable to structures formed from insulated panels, but which are used in buildings outside the refrigerated food industry.