UKAS slip testing for
restaurants.

Why restaurants commission UKAS accredited slip testing

Restaurant floors see the most aggressive contamination mix in hospitality — water, cooking oils, food debris, cleaning chemistry. Kitchen pendulum testing with water only substantially overstates the safety margin. Employer's liability claims from kitchen staff slips are a frequent occurrence and a regular insurer concern.

Specific issues we see in restaurants

• Kitchen grease contamination. Cooking oil on quarry tile or resin kitchen flooring can drop wet PTV into single digits. Testing with representative grease contamination gives realistic risk data.
• Front-of-house spills. Dropped drinks on restaurant floors cause a disproportionate share of customer claims. Testing representative surfaces establishes whether the floor compounds the hazard.
• Dishwash and pot-wash zones. Continuous wet operation. These zones need specific wet-PTV testing.
• External dining / pub gardens. Paving, decking, ramps down to terraces — seasonal weather exposure combined with customer footfall.

Which standards apply

BS EN 16165 Annex C pendulum testing. For kitchens and wet process zones, testing with representative contaminants (cooking oil, soapy water) alongside water-only gives operational risk data. UKSRG Guidelines Issue 6 applied throughout.

What you get

• UKAS accredited pendulum test report (Lab 7933)
• PTV results for every test location, dry and wet
• Interpretation against BS EN 16165 and UKSRG benchmarks
• Photographic record of test locations
• Measurement uncertainty statements (required for admissibility)
• 5 working day turnaround from site visit to report

Common questions

Can you test a running kitchen?

Typically no — we test during cleaning windows or closed periods when the surface can be safely wetted for the test. Most restaurant surveys run after service or on a closed day.

We just had a kitchen staff injury — is this time-sensitive?

Yes. Call 020 8246 5562 — post-incident investigations should ideally happen within days to capture the surface condition at the time of the event.

What contamination should we test with?

Water at minimum. If your operation has characteristic contamination — cooking oil, soapy wash-water, particular cleaning chemistry — we can replicate it. More accurate risk data, slightly higher test cost.

Do you test restaurants as part of insurance audits?

Yes. Hospitality-sector commercial insurers commission proactive slip audits across restaurant estates as part of their risk management.