Science1 publisher2 min readPublished
A quarter of UK adults have heard of the dark kitchens that make up 15% of delivery-app retailers in England
Researchers surveying 2,023 UK adults found 25% had heard of dark kitchens and 9% had knowingly bought from one. A second study found 16 of 36 food regulators knew of one in their area, so the people who inspect these kitchens also struggle to find them.
The Scientist · Science desk
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What happened
- Staff from the same authority did not always report the same number of local dark kitchens, which the researchers took as a sign of inconsistent definitions and poor information-sharing.
- Only six authorities in the regulator study had an official working definition of a dark kitchen.
- Dark kitchens fall under food safety law and, like any food business, must register with the local authority at least 28 days before opening and can be inspected unannounced.
- The Sun reported poor hygiene and suspected illegal employment at one multi-kitchen site, while acknowledging that many dark kitchens meet the required standards.
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Why it matters
- exposure Inspection depends on councils knowing a business exists, so problems at a kitchen an authority cannot confidently identify can stay outside the inspection cycle.
- constraint Councils that keep takeaways away from schools with exclusion zones cannot apply that rule to a dark kitchen sited just outside the zone and delivering into it, the researchers warn.
- decision Authorities without a working definition would have to agree one across planning, environmental health and public health before those departments can count and treat the same kitchens consistently.
- constraint For now, any health case for restricting dark kitchens in particular lacks evidence, because current data cannot show that they sell less healthy food than conventional takeaways.
About 15% of food retailers listed on three major delivery platforms in England are dark kitchens, according to the researchers who ran the studies [1]. They define the category as technology-enabled commercial kitchens that work mainly through delivery apps, cooking to order for immediate eating [2]. Going delivery-only can cut overheads and removes the need for a dining room or a fixed location [13]. The 15% counts storefronts on an app [1]. The share of meals these kitchens cook is a different quantity. "Dark" refers to the missing shopfront. It says nothing about hygiene or legality [3].
The consumer survey had a decent denominator: 2,023 UK adults, of whom 25% had heard of dark kitchens and 9% said they had knowingly bought from one [4]. That is roughly 506 and 182 people [1]. "Knowingly" is the key word. A self-report captures only the purchases a buyer recognised, so the other 91% [2] may include people who have eaten from a dark kitchen without realising it.
Part of the confusion is vocabulary. Dark, ghost, cloud and virtual kitchens are all common names for the same kind of business [5]. Not knowing the word is also different from objecting to the business: once given a definition, 55% of respondents said they would consider buying from one [6]. What participants wanted was clarity at the point of ordering about where their food came from and how it was prepared [7].
The regulator study is smaller, and its authors say so. Thirty-six professionals from 25 local authorities and national organisations took part [8], and 16 of them knew of at least one dark kitchen operating in their area [9]. That leaves 20, or 56%, who knew of none [3]. The 25 bodies mix councils with national organisations, so those figures cannot be read as a per-council rate. Participants described trouble applying planning and regulatory frameworks to a business model that changes faster than the rules do [10]. Councils also have limited time, staff and budgets to keep up [11].
The researchers did not report what the delivery platforms currently tell customers about a kitchen's location or format. Their evidence covers two sides of the gap: customers who mostly do not know the term, and regulators who cannot always count the kitchens near them [4] [9].
The regulator work concentrated on northern England. By the authors' own account, it cannot show how every authority handles dark kitchens or how many of these businesses fail legal standards [12].
What to watch
- Whether any delivery platform starts labelling delivery-only kitchens at the point of order, the disclosure survey participants asked for.
- A repeat of the regulator study outside northern England with a larger sample of councils, and with councils separated from national bodies.
- Inspection data comparing hygiene outcomes at dark kitchens with conventional takeaways, the question a single-site newspaper investigation cannot settle.