If you are considering opening a restaurant, you may be wondering if you need a hood exhaust system. It is crucial, after deciding on your menu, to consult your local fire, building, and health inspectors before opening your establishment.
The following guidelines are the result of specific research for the U.S. but as well applicable to any other country, alway taking into account that specific information from the local authorities are a must and should never be underestimated.
If the food you cook produces smoke or grease vapors, you must have a hood in your restaurant. Although some states allow exemptions for bakeries, hoods help eliminate unwanted fumes in the kitchen and reduce high kitchen temperatures.
Opening a new restaurant can be an exciting time in your life, but sometimes the expenses involved may seem overwhelming. Permits, building codes, and inspections add to an already dizzying amount of data you must analyze before preparing your first meal. Before you spend a large chunk of your budget on a hood exhaust system for your restaurant, it is necessary to decide what type of menu you are serving and what kind of restaurant you want.
Types of Restaurants That Need Hoods
Around the country, restaurants come in all shapes and forms. From the small hot dog stand to the large steak house, Americans love to eat out. Federal, state, and county codes relevant to eating establishments ensure that customers will have a safe and pleasant dining experience.
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All the states follow federal codes and guidelines, but each state and country have varying rules for different types of restaurants. For instance, some states allow exemptions to their laws, depending on the kind of establishment.
States, like South Carolina, allow some bakeries to operate without a hood exhaust system. Other states, like New York, have stricter codes that require any restaurant using gas ovens, fryers, stovetops, or smokers to have a hood.
In cities like Manhattan, where deadly building fires led to more vigorous code enforcement, nearly every brick and mortar restaurant that cooks food has a hood.
Before ordering equipment, contact your health, building, and fire inspectors for rules regarding hood systems.
Whether you are opening a small diner or large barbecue restaurant, you’ll probably need a hood. Here is a list of restaurant types that generally operate with hoods:
Restaurants Requiring Hoods
- Barbecue
- Diners
- Fast food
- Fine dining
- Casual dining
- Seafood
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Thai
- Italian
- Greek
- Cafeterias
- Pizzerias
If your restaurant concept is on the list, you will likely need a hood system. Bread bakeries, pastry shops, and cake/cookie shops aren’t on either list since state codes vary so widely.
States sometimes exclude bakeries from hood requirements if only electric ovens and appliances are in use. The size of the bakery can also make a difference in how the fire/health codes apply.
Small operators with one or two electric ovens sometimes avoid hood requirements under the state codes. However, most states require bakeries using gas ovens to install hoods.
Benefits of a Hood
As a restaurant owner or future owner, it is necessary to understand how a hood system, even if it is not mandated by code, benefits your property, employees, and customers.
If you’ve ever caught a whiff of fried fish outside of a seafood restaurant, you’ve witnessed a working hood system in action. Hot air along with strong odors and fumes are expelled from the kitchen by the hood’s exhaust system and released through an exhaust fan on the roof.
By bringing in the fresh air and releasing hot air, the hood cools the kitchen. Kitchens with ovens, deep-fat fryers, sauté stations, and grills require ventilation not only to reduce smoke and fumes but also to make life bearable for the cooks.
A hot, smokey kitchen is dangerous for your staff and irritating for your customers. If you want to watch a brief video of a crew replacing a faulty hood system with a superior system that significantly lowered the kitchen’s temperature, click here
Restaurants Without Hoods
You may want to avoid the cost of a hood system altogether. If that’s the case, the following are types of restaurants that don’t require hoods.
Ice Cream Parlors
If you strictly serve ice cream and pre-packaged treats, a hood system isn’t necessary. Ice cream shops must follow refrigeration requirements of the health code, but unless you cook food in the kitchen, no hoods are needed. Shops that make their cones and baked goods may require ventilation.
Yogurt Shops
Restaurants selling yogurt, like ice cream parlors, don’t require extensive ventilation. However, if you heat any ingredients on a stovetop or oven, hoods are needed.
Delis/Sandwich Shops
Restaurants selling sandwiches and prepacked chips rather than fries don’t require hoods. If you want to bake your bread, some states allow the use of small electric ovens for small operations, but large volume baking with gas ovens require hoods.
Sushi Shops
Small restaurants serving uncooked seafood, vegetables, and pre-cooked rice operate without hoods. If a sushi shop cooks its rice on a gas burner or sears tuna, it must have hoods.
Coffee Shops
Restaurants with fresh-brewed coffee and baked goods sourced from other restaurants or bakeries don’t require hoods.
Fresh/raw food shops
Fresh food shops, a growing trend in the restaurant industry, serve customers uncooked vegetables, fruit, and sometimes dairy products. These unique shops prepare fresh cuisine without the use of cooking appliances or hood systems.
Cereal Shops
Although they’re more common in large cities that can support unusual concepts, cereal shops benefit from avoiding expensive ventilation systems. All you need is plenty of refrigeration for different types of milk and amble storage for cereal boxes.
What is the Difference between Type I and Type II hoods?
When you consider whether to install hoods in your restaurant, look at the two types of systems in detail. Type II hoods are cheaper than Type I hoods and may fit your restaurant depending on the types of food you serve.
Type I Hoods
These hoods are necessary if you are interested in frying, sautéing, grilling, or substantial baking. Any style of cooking that produces smoke or grease warrants installing a type I hood. Type I models remove hot air, smoke, grease particles, and vent the unwanted fumes through an exhaust fan on the roof.
Type II Hoods
Although they’re not as pricey as Type I models, Type II hoods only remove fumes, odors, and hot air. Smoke and grease particles should only be removed with a type I hood. Depending on your state’s codes, Type II hoods may be ok for some types of ovens. Dishwashers using hot water to sanitize dishes require a Type II hood.
Here are lists of the hood types and the types of equipment they cover:
Appliances for Type I Hoods
- Deep fryers
- Broilers
- Grills
- Stovetop
- Pizza conveyors
- Woks
- Flat-top grills
- Griddles
- Gas ovens
Appliances for Type I Hoods
- Dishwashing machines
- Small conveyors (not pizza conveyors)
- Steam cookers
- Small convection ovens
- Electric bread/cake ovens
The lists are only examples of what types of hoods most states allow in restaurants. Each municipality has different rules and guidelines for hood installations, and you must contact your local inspectors for the most accurate information.
Do Food Trucks Need Hoods?
Only food trucks that fall into the categories above (restaurants without hoods) can operate without hoods. Like restaurants, the codes for food trucks vary by state, but most operators use hoods if they cook their food. Vehicles that operate without ventilation serve sandwiches, wraps, pre-packaged snacks, or frozen food (ice cream).
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If you are curious how much a hood system costs for a food truck, click here. An exhaust fan mounted to the roof of the truck, like this one, is also necessary to channel smoke and fumes out of the truck.
What Food Can You Serve Without a Hood?
If you are wary of purchasing a hood system, you have options. However, you will have to limit what you serve on your menu. Here are suggestions of menu items you can serve without a hood:
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Breakfast |
Lunch |
Dinner |
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When you start a restaurant without installing a hood system, the laws and codes of the area dictate your menu options. However, you may want to install a hood in the future after your business takes off. As previously mentioned, you have many choices with a hoodless layout, but you may decide to add fried, sautéed, or slow-cooked items. If so, it is essential to call your heating/air installer to coordinate your hood’s ventilation settings with the kitchen’s HVAC units.
Your hood system should remove the unwanted fumes and smoke but not the air cooling the kitchen. Well, you have many important decisions to make before the opening of your dream restaurant.
Speaking with the fire, health, and building inspectors is your first task, and it is easier to get information about codes and guidelines when you talk to a person. You can view your state’s laws (displayed as pdf files) online, but unless you are comfortable reading contract writing, the language can be confusing.
Although some of the tasks of the opening may seem frustrating, it is not as complicated as it looks. With careful planning and research, you’ll be serving a full house of happy customers.
