Lockout/tagout for a restaurant kitchen: which equipment it covers, a written procedure and the yearly inspection

A porter is cleaning behind the exhaust fan on the roof. Someone in the kitchen sees the hood is off, flips the switch on the wall, and the fan starts. Or a cook reaches into a hard-wired floor mixer to scrape the bowl guard while a coworker, not knowing, presses start. Neither needs a broken machine, only a switch somebody else can reach.

OSHA's lockout/tagout standard exists for that moment. In a restaurant, most countertop equipment is handled by pulling the plug. The rest, anything hard-wired, gas-fed or full of stored heat or pressure, needs a lock, a written procedure and a yearly check. This post sorts your equipment, gives you a procedure to fill in for each machine, and the training and inspection records the standard asks for.

General information, not legal advice. The quotes below are from OSHA's standard, 29 CFR 1910.147. States with their own OSHA-approved plans can have rules of their own.

When the standard applies

In plain terms: if it plugs into a wall outlet and the person cleaning it unplugs it and keeps the plug with them, you're outside the standard. If it's wired into a disconnect or breaker, fed by gas or steam, or can move or burn after it's switched off, you're inside it. Opening a panel or touching wiring is for a licensed electrician.

Sorting your equipment

Go round the kitchen with this table. Check each machine's plug, its disconnect and its manual; don't assume.

Equipment energy list · [location]

Done by: [name] · Date: [date] · Next review: [date, and whenever equipment is added or replaced]

Anything a technician services with the panels off (refrigeration circuits, gas train repairs, electrical work) belongs to the technician's company and their procedure; see "Outside technicians" below.

What the program has to include

The standard calls for "a program consisting of energy control procedures, employee training and periodic inspections" (c)(1). For a small kitchen that's four pieces of paper and a box of locks.

1. Written procedures. Procedures must be "developed, documented and utilized" (c)(4)(i). Each one covers its intended use, the steps for shutting down, isolating, blocking and securing the machine, the steps for placing, removing and transferring locks or tags and who's responsible, and how to test that the lockout worked (c)(4)(ii). There's an exception: you don't have to write one for a machine when all eight conditions in the note to (c)(4)(i) are true, including that it has "a single energy source which can be readily identified and isolated", "no potential for stored or residual energy", a single lock achieves lockout, and you've had no accidents from unexpected start-up during servicing. A fryer full of hot oil or a dish machine with water and power usually fails that test.

2. Locks and tags. You provide them (c)(5)(i). They're used only for energy control, and they must be durable, standardized by "Color; shape; or size", substantial enough that a lock can't come off "without the use of excessive force or unusual techniques, such as with the use of bolt cutters", and they must "indicate the identity of the employee applying the device(s)" (c)(5)(ii). If a device can take a lock, use a lock; a tag alone is allowed only where it can't, or where you can show the tag gives the same protection (c)(2), (c)(3). A tag says something like "Do Not Start, Do Not Open, Do Not Close, Do Not Energize, Do Not Operate" (c)(5)(iii).

3. Training. Three groups (c)(7)(i):

• Authorized staff, the ones who lock out and service, learn to recognize the energy sources, their type and size, and how to isolate and control them.
• Affected staff, who use the machine or work near it, learn what the procedure is for.
• Everyone else in the area learns the procedure and the rule against trying "to restart or reenergize machines or equipment which are locked out or tagged out."

Retrain when a job, machine or procedure changes, or when an inspection shows gaps (c)(7)(iii). You must "certify that employee training has been accomplished and is being kept up to date", with each person's name and dates of training (c)(7)(iv).

4. A yearly inspection. "The employer shall conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedure at least annually" (c)(6)(i). It's done by an authorized employee other than the one using the procedure, and for lockout it includes a review of each authorized employee's responsibilities. You certify it with the machine, the date, the employees included and the inspector (c)(6)(ii).

Two more rules that come up in kitchens:

• Only the person who put the lock on takes it off (e)(3). If they've gone home, the standard's exception lets the employer remove it only under a specific written procedure: confirm they're not at the facility, make every reasonable effort to reach them, and make sure they know before they're back at work.
• Shift changes. Locks are handed over by a set procedure so protection continues between the off-going and oncoming person (f)(4). In practice: finish before the shift ends, or the oncoming person puts their lock on before the other takes theirs off.

Outside technicians

When an outside service company does work covered by the standard, "the on-site employer and the outside employer shall inform each other of their respective lockout or tagout procedures", and your staff must follow the restrictions of the contractor's program (f)(2). Ask the hood cleaner or refrigeration tech how they lock out, tell them yours, and tell your team not to touch anything with a contractor's lock on it.

The lockout procedure, for one machine

OSHA's Appendix A to § 1910.147 is a non-mandatory sample lockout procedure. This version follows its sequence and the order in (d) and (e). Write one per machine that needs one, and post it by the machine.

Lockout procedure · [machine, make and model] · [location]

Use: servicing and cleaning of [machine] where it could start, move or release energy: [list the jobs, e.g. cleaning the bowl guard, clearing a jam].

Authorized to lock out: [names or role, trained on: date] · Affected staff: [roles who use it or work near it]

Energy sources: [electric: voltage, disconnect location] · [gas: valve location] · [water: valve location] · [stored: heat, springs, moving parts that coast]

To lock out

1. Tell the affected staff: [how, e.g. call it out on the line and in the group chat] that [machine] is being locked out and why.
2. Shut it down the normal way: [stop button, switch off].
3. Isolate every source: [open disconnect at ……], [close gas valve at ……], [close water valve at ……].
4. Put your own lock (and tag with your name) on each isolating device: [disconnect], [valve].
5. Release or block stored energy: [let it cool to …… / bleed pressure at …… / wait until the [blade, fan, drum] has stopped].
6. Check nobody's exposed, then try to start it with the normal controls. It must not start. Put the controls back to off.
7. The machine is locked out. Do the work.

To return it to service

1. Tools, parts and rags out of the machine; guards and covers back on.
2. Everyone clear of the machine.
3. Controls at off.
4. Remove your own lock and tag, and restore [power, gas, water].
5. Tell the affected staff it's back in service.

Never: cut or remove someone else's lock; work on it with only a tag on a device that can take a lock; touch wiring or panels (call [electrician, phone]).

Written by: [name] · Date: [date] · Reviewed at the yearly inspection: [date]

Training record

Yearly inspection certificate

One per procedure, at least once a year.

Periodic inspection of energy control procedure · [location]

Machine or equipment: [ ] · Procedure dated: [ ] · Inspection date: [ ]

Inspector (authorized, not the person using the procedure): [name]

Procedure still accurate? ☐ Yes ☐ No, updated on [date] · Retraining needed for: ……………………

Inspector signature: ………………………… · Date: ……………

Your lockout/tagout checklist

• [ ] Every machine on the energy list, with its isolation point
• [ ] Cord-and-plug equipment: unplug, plug stays with the person cleaning
• [ ] A written procedure posted for every machine that needs one
• [ ] Locks and tags bought, one set per authorized person, named, used for nothing else
• [ ] Authorized, affected and other staff trained, with a signed record
• [ ] Yearly inspection on the calendar, one certificate per procedure
• [ ] Contractors told your procedure, and asked for theirs
• [ ] New or replaced equipment added to the list before anyone services it

Minors are a separate question: federal child labor rules keep everyone under 18 off power-driven meat slicers and off dough and batter mixers other than small household-type countertop models, including cleaning them (29 CFR 570.62 for the mixers). Our meat slicer cleaning procedure has the slicer rule.

Where Mays fits

• Procedures where the team can read them. Upload each lockout procedure and the energy list to a Knowledge Base folder shared with the kitchen, so it opens in the app next to the machine. See Your knowledge base.
• Training with a record. On Pro, turn the procedure into a Learning module with a quiz, created as Compliance-critical so a pass issues a PDF certificate with the person's name and date, and assign it to the people who clean the equipment. It's your own training, a record that sits alongside the signed training record above. See Creating training modules, Assigning training and Training certificates.
• The inspection as a form. Build a Lockout inspection form under Tasks → Types with an Employee field, Yes / No for each step, a Text field for deviations and a Signature, and run it from a checklist template. See Building custom forms and Creating a checklist template.
• When a lock is left on. A Maintenance entry in the manager Logbook, flagged Needs follow-up, tells the next manager which machine is locked out and why. See The manager logbook.

What Mays doesn't do: there's no yearly checklist frequency (Quarterly is the longest), so the annual inspection is a Custom checklist you start by hand when it's due, with the date in your calendar. Learning certificates don't expire, so retraining means assigning a new module. Signatures on a form aren't shown in Task Data or its CSV; open the submission to see them. And nothing in Mays knows which machines are hard-wired: the energy list is yours.

Unplug what plugs in, lock what doesn't, and check it once a year

Most of a kitchen's lockout program is one habit: unplug it and keep the plug. For the mixer, the dish machine, the hood fan and anything on gas, write the steps down, give each authorized person their own lock, train everyone who works nearby, and have someone else watch the procedure once a year.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up your procedures and training with you.