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What Safety Signs Do I Need for My Food Trailer?

by Azeem
(London)

Teal single-axle food trailer serving lunchtime customers at a busy London street market

Teal single-axle food trailer serving lunchtime customers at a busy London street market

Hi

What safety signs do I need for my food trailer?

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Oct 28, 2026
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by: MobCater

Azeem, it is worth sorting this before your first inspection, because signs are one of the small things an EHO, a gas engineer or an event organiser notices straight away. The good news is that a food trailer only needs a handful, and most cost a few pounds each.

The legal starting point is the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. They say you need a sign wherever a risk is left after you have done everything else to control it. In a trailer that mostly means your gas, your fire kit and your hand washing.

Gas comes first. If you run on LPG, put a warning sign on the outside of the cylinder locker or storage area saying it contains propane, is highly flammable, and that there is no smoking or naked flames nearby. The UKLPG Code of Practice 24 for mobile catering expects this, and your Gas Safe registered engineer may well look for it when they issue your gas safety certificate. I would also pin up a short gas emergency notice inside, telling anyone on board what to do if they smell gas: turn off at the cylinder, put out any flames, touch no switches, get out and call the National Gas Emergency number on 0800 111 999.

Next, fire. Put a fire point sign above each extinguisher and the fire blanket, so a stranger or a panicking new member of staff can find them in a second.

Then hygiene. A hand wash only sign above the wash hand basin is something nearly every EHO I have dealt with expects to see, because it stops the basin being used to rinse utensils or fill the kettle.

Smoking is the one people forget. The inside of your trailer is an enclosed workplace, so the smoke free law applies and you need a no smoking sign displayed. I put mine right by the door where nobody can miss it.

On the customer side, display a notice inviting people to ask staff about allergens, because the FSA wants written signposting if you give allergen information verbally. Once you have your food hygiene rating, put the sticker up too. In London displaying it is voluntary, but a 5 on the hatch sells food for you.

A caution hot surfaces sticker near the griddle or fryer and a first aid sign where you keep the kit finish the set. One tip from experience: buy proper rigid or vinyl signs rather than printing paper ones. Steam and grease ruin paper within a week, and a curled, faded sign looks worse to an EHO than no sign at all.

Best of luck

David

Disclaimer: This is based on my experience in UK mobile catering. Rules and costs can change, so always do your own research and check with the relevant authorities before committing.

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