Colour coding exists because a new starter under pressure will not read a label. Handing them a red board for raw meat removes the decision entirely, and that is the whole mechanism.

The standard convention

Red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, yellow for raw poultry, green for produce, brown for cooked meat and white for dairy and bakery. Conventions vary slightly by region and by operator.

Pick one, print it on a wall chart, and print the category on the board itself. A board that says RAW MEAT on it is followed far more reliably than a red board that a new starter has to map from memory.

Wood has no place in raw prep

Porous surfaces cannot be reliably sanitised after raw protein. That is the entire reason commercial kitchens use polyethylene, and it is not a matter of preference.

Keep hardwood for bread, produce, cheese and presentation. Use NSF-certified HDPE for everything raw, and be able to say so if asked.

Thickness and replacement, not repair

HDPE is a consumable. When scoring is deep enough that it cannot be cleaned to the bottom of the grooves, the board is finished, and no amount of scrubbing changes that.

Half-inch boards are fine for light work; three-quarter inch lasts longer under heavy chopping and can be resurfaced once. Budget replacement sets annually rather than nursing scored boards through an inspection.

Fit the bench, not the catalogue

Stock board sizes rarely match a specific prep bench or a drop-in well, and an overhanging board slides. Cut to size costs very little and it is the difference between a system used as designed and boards stacked in a corner.

Non-slip feet or a damp cloth underneath — but feet mean the board only works one way up, which halves its life. For most kitchens, no feet and a cloth is the better answer.

Mark them for accountability

Laser marking the site number, station or kitchen name onto each board stops sets migrating between rooms, which is the quiet way colour-coding systems decay in multi-site operations.

It costs almost nothing at order time and cannot be done afterwards.

What to send us

Your bench dimensions, the colour convention you use, the category wording you want printed, and any site or station numbering. We will quote matched sets cut to size with everything marked.