HACCP Board Colours: Which Board for What

A cook cuts raw chicken on a red board, puts the knife down on the counter and picks up tomatoes. The board is red, so everything looks fine. The problem is that the knife and the counter have no colour. HACCP board colours are the simplest way to make the whole shift understand in the same way what may be used with what. They work only when the colour is backed by a rule, washing and replacement of worn equipment. Below: which board for what, whether colours are mandatory, how to wash them and when to throw them away, and how to enter the whole system in the documentation.

In brief

• The regulations do not prescribe board colours. Regulation 852/2004 requires food to be protected against contamination at every stage (Annex II, Chapter IX, point 3). You choose the method yourself.

• Colours are industry practice, not a legal provision. The most common scheme: red for raw meat, blue for fish, green for vegetables, white for ready-to-eat products and dairy.

• One scheme for the whole venue. If yellow means poultry for you, it means the same in the kitchen, at the dishwashing station and in the instructions.

• Colour does not replace washing. Equipment in contact with food must be effectively cleaned and, where necessary, disinfected (Chapter V, point 1).

• You replace a damaged board. A board that is cut up, warped or cannot be cleaned is a risk that the regulations require you to minimise.

Are HACCP board colours mandatory

Not directly. We found no provision in Regulation 852/2004 or in the Polish Act on Food and Nutrition Safety that would specify the colour of a board for a given product. It is similar in most foreign guides: colour coding is good practice that venues adopt to demonstrate control over cross-contamination.

What is mandatory is the goal. The regulation requires, among other things:

• protection of food against contamination at all stages of production, processing and distribution (Annex II, Chapter IX, point 3)
• effective cleaning and, where necessary, disinfection of equipment in contact with food, at a frequency that prevents the risk of contamination (Chapter V, point 1(a))
• keeping equipment in such a condition and made of such materials as to minimise the risk of contamination and to allow thorough cleaning (Chapter V, point 1(b) and (c))
• not using equipment that has been used for an allergen for food without that allergen, unless it has been cleaned and checked at least for the absence of visible fragments (Chapter IX, point 9, added by Regulation 2021/382)

A set of coloured boards is therefore a tool for meeting these requirements, not the requirement itself. The inspector will ask how you protect ready-to-eat food from raw food. The answer "we have colours, described in the instructions, you can see them in the back room" is specific. You will find the full provisions in the consolidated Regulation 852/2004 on EUR-Lex.

Table: board colour and what it is used for

You will meet the scheme below in British and Australian guides and with the producers of HACCP sets. In Poland it is used with minor variants. It is a proposal, not a standard.

Colour	Purpose	Notes for a small kitchen
Red	raw meat (pork, beef)	highest risk, never for ready products
Blue	raw fish and seafood	a separate board, because of a different flora and an allergen (fish, crustaceans)
Yellow	cooked meat (British scheme) or raw poultry (a common variant in Poland)	choose one variant and describe it in the instructions
Green	washed vegetables, fruit, salads	products eaten without heat treatment
Brown	unwashed root vegetables	soil on potatoes and carrots, before washing
White	dairy, bread, cakes, ready-to-eat products	the board of the "clean zone"
Purple	allergen-free products (e.g. gluten-free)	in British practice it means "free-from" food

Different sources assign colours slightly differently, for example the NSW Food Authority in Australia lists blue for raw fish, red for raw meat and poultry, green for fruit and vegetables and white for bread. That is why the table is a starting point. What matters most is consistency within your venue. Our post on zones in the kitchen and cross-contamination describes the same scheme in the context of the whole kitchen.

Additional colours: orange, grey, black

Producers offer more colours than the standard seven. We found no generally accepted assignment for the additional colours. If you want a separate board, for example, for allergens other than gluten, assign it a colour that you do not use in the main scheme and write it in the instructions. The rule is: one colour, one function.

How many boards you need in a small kitchen

A full set of seven colours makes sense in a kitchen where you simultaneously prepare meat, fish, salads and gluten-free orders. In a small venue, start with what you actually prepare.

1. Three boards to start: red (raw meat and poultry), green (vegetables and fruit), white (ready products, dairy, bread).
2. A fourth, when you cook fish: blue.
3. A fifth, when you sell gluten-free or dairy-free dishes to order: purple. On this topic, see the post on allergen cross-contact.
4. Brown and yellow: when the scale of work with root vegetables or poultry justifies separate tools.

Colours concern not only boards. Knives, GN containers, tongs and cloths are subject to the same logic. A coloured board with a grey knife lying on it breaks the system. The simplest is to buy knives with coloured handles or mark them with durable bands. The band must be washable and not peel off, because equipment must be kept in a condition that allows cleaning (Chapter V, point 1).

Washing boards: how and how often

Colour tells you what may be cut. Washing decides whether the board is safe for the next use. The regulation does not give a number of washes per day, it requires a frequency that prevents the risk of contamination. In practice the arrangement is adopted that we also describe in the post on an effective washing and disinfection procedure:

1. Removing residue from the board and knife.
2. Washing with water and detergent, with a brush that gets into the cuts.
3. Rinsing with clean water.
4. Disinfection with an agent whose contact time you know from the manufacturer's label.
5. Putting away dry in a vertical position, so that the board drains and dries.

You wash after each use and when changing the type of product, even if it is still the same board. After raw meat and after an allergen, write disinfection into the procedure as a fixed step, not an extra. Whether the board is suitable for a dishwasher, you will check in the manufacturer's data sheet. Do not assume it in advance, because materials differ in their resistance to temperature.

When to replace a board

The regulation requires equipment to be kept in good condition, and a board with deep scratches is hard to clean. The British training guide from High Speed Training indicates that a board should be replaced when it has numerous or deep cuts, does not lie flat on the counter, or the colours have been mixed up. These are good criteria that you can write into the procedure. Add your own practical ones to them:

• cuts in which dirt remains after brushing
• cracks, chips, warping
• permanent discolouration or a smell that does not go away after washing
• a board used in a colour that is not its own (after such an event consider replacement and describe it in the register)

Is wood acceptable? We found no ban on wood in the regulation. It requires a material that allows thorough cleaning and, where necessary, disinfection (Chapter V, point 1(c)). Plastic boards are most often chosen in professional kitchens for this reason. If you use wood, write the justification and the method of cleaning in the documentation.

How to enter colours in the instructions and register

A colour system will work at an inspection only if it is described and someone checks it. In a GHP instruction you can fit this on one page:

• a table of colour, product, storage place (hooks or a container in the zone)
• the rule "we do not change colour during work"
• the washing procedure and the contact time of the agent
• the criteria for replacing boards and the person who decides
• what we do when a board is used in the wrong colour

The second element is a simple review of the condition of the boards, for example once a month. Below is a template that you can adapt to your own venue:

Date	Colour / board number	Condition (good, worn)	Decision	Checked by
[dd.mm.yyyy]	red 1	good	no change	[name]
[dd.mm.yyyy]	green 2	deep cuts	replaced, new one bought	[name]
[dd.mm.yyyy]	blue 1	good	no change	[name]

You can combine the board review with the cleaning register from the post on the cleaning and disinfection register. You teach the team the scheme during initial training and repeat it after each change. A poster with the colour table above the sink does more here than two pages of procedure.

The most common mistakes with coloured boards

• The colours are there, the instructions are not. A new person guesses what yellow means.
• One knife for everything. The boards are separated, the tool is shared.
• No place for boards. They all lie in a pile and get mixed up.
• Worn boards stay in circulation. Cuts as deep as grooves, and the board is still "green".
• Borrowing colours at the peak. "Red is taken, I will take white". This is the moment when the system loses to haste.

If you run a cafe, a restaurant or catering, and you would prefer to have ready-made instructions, see the pages HACCP for restaurants and HACCP for catering. You will find an approach there adapted to the type of venue.

Frequently asked questions

Are HACCP board colours mandatory in foodservice?

We found no provision that would impose board colours. What is mandatory is the protection of food against contamination and effective cleaning of equipment (Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter IX, point 3 and Chapter V, point 1). Colours are a widely used way of meeting these requirements.

Which board for raw chicken?

In the British scheme red is for raw meat and poultry, and yellow for cooked meat. Some Polish kitchens use yellow for raw poultry. Choose one variant and write it in the instructions. What matters is that raw poultry does not share a board with products eaten without heat treatment.

What are the brown and purple boards for?

Brown is usually for unwashed root vegetables, because soil and dirt should not end up on the salad board. Purple in British practice means allergen-free food, for example gluten-free bread. This is a custom, not a provision.

How often should cutting boards be changed?

The regulations give no deadline. You replace a board when it is worn: it has deep cuts, cracks, does not lie flat or cannot be cleaned. Set the criteria in the procedure and check the condition every month.

Can HACCP boards be washed in a dishwasher?

It depends on the material. Check the product data sheet, because producers state whether the board withstands temperature and dishwasher agents. The regulation does not indicate a method, it requires effective cleaning and, where necessary, disinfection.

---

Legal status as of: 2 November 2026
Legal basis: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 in the consolidated version of 24 March 2021 (Annex II, Chapter V, point 1, Chapter IX, points 3 and 9, the latter added by Regulation (EU) 2021/382); the wording of the provisions checked in the Polish language version. We found no provision imposing board colours, their number, material or replacement deadline. The colour scheme, the replacement criteria and the register layout are industry practice or our proposal, not a legal requirement. The colours and replacement criteria are based on British (High Speed Training) and Australian (NSW Food Authority) guides; we did not check the guidelines of a specific sanitary-epidemiological station.
Last review: 2 November 2026