How I Use the Cloths and Tea Towels Template with Customers in Pilla
Cloths are the control most kitchens think they've got right. I've lost count of the times I've walked into a kitchen during an audit and found a reusable cloth sitting on a prep surface, still damp from the last task, with no one sure how long it's been there. The colour-coding chart is on the wall. The clean cloth storage is labelled. But halfway through a busy service, someone grabs whatever is closest and keeps moving.
The risk is real and it's specific. A cloth used on a raw meat surface transfers bacteria to the next surface it touches. A cloth from the toilets that ends up in the kitchen carries whatever was on those surfaces straight into a food area. This article covers what your cloths and tea towels policy needs to include, gives you a template you can edit for your own operation, and explains the bits that trip businesses up in practice.
Key Takeaways
- What are cloths and tea towels in food safety? Cloths, wipes, and tea towels are one of the most common sources of cross-contamination in kitchens, spreading both bacteria and allergens between surfaces. Your policy should cover single-use wipes, reusable cloths, colour-coding, oven cloth rules, and laundering requirements
- Why do you need a cloths and tea towels policy? Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires food business operators to prevent cross-contamination, and cloths are one of the fastest routes for it. Your EHO will check how cloths are managed, stored, and laundered during inspection
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Cloths and tea towels sit under the cross-contamination section of your food safety management system. They're one of the most overlooked contamination routes in any kitchen, and they carry two distinct risks: microbiological and allergenic. A cloth picks up whatever is on the surface it touches. If that surface had raw chicken on it, the cloth now carries those bacteria to the next surface, the next task, the next pair of hands.
The allergenic risk is just as serious. A cloth used to wipe down a surface where flour was handled can transfer enough gluten residue to trigger a reaction in a coeliac customer. I've seen this happen in a kitchen that had good allergen controls everywhere else. The cloth was the weak link.
There are four categories of cloth you need to account for: single-use disposable wipes (blue centre-feed paper rolls), reusable cloths that are washed and rotated, colour-coded cloths assigned to specific areas, and oven cloths or chefs' cloths used for handling hot items. Each has different rules, and most policies I review either lump them together or miss one entirely.
The legal basis sits within Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which requires food business operators to prevent cross-contamination through adequate procedures and controls. Cloths aren't called out by name in the regulation, but they fall squarely within the requirement to manage contamination between surfaces, equipment, and food. Your EHO will look at how cloths are used, stored, and laundered. I've seen businesses lose marks because a dirty cloth was left on a prep surface during inspection. It's one of those things that takes seconds to get wrong and is immediately visible to anyone who walks in.
The principle is straightforward: single-use where the contamination risk is high, strict colour-coding for reusable cloths, one cloth per task, and laundering at 90 degrees C. Most of the problems I see come from shortcuts during busy service, not from a lack of knowledge.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a cloths and tea towels template in Pilla covering single-use wipes, reusable cloths, colour-coding systems, oven cloth rules, laundering requirements, and corrective actions. It gives you a structured starting point, but you should edit it to reflect how your kitchen actually works.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Food Safety Management System". Use the same tag across all of your food safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. If your colour-coding scheme uses different colours to the example, change it. If you don't use reusable cloths at all and rely entirely on single-use paper, remove the reusable cloth section and say so. The EHO wants to see that your policy reflects your operation, not that you've copied a generic document.
Cloths, Wipes and Towels Used in Catering
- All staff must follow the safety points as laid down below
- Staff must be made aware that cloths of any description can be a major source of cross contamination both microbiological and allergenic
Single Use Wipes/Cloths
- Any situation where using a cloth or wipe could potentially spread contamination, then preferably single use disposable blue centre-feed pull rolls should be used in all circumstances
- In some circumstances when a cloth is for the purpose of a single task only, then it may be possible to use a cloth for a longer period providing there is no risk of cross contamination, e.g. J-cloths
Re-usable Cloths
- In some circumstances a harder wearing cloth that will not disintegrate when wet is required
- These cloths must be used for either a single use or a single task only, then stored safely for laundering
Colour Coded Cloths
- A clear policy should be clearly communicated to all staff in all areas if a colour-coding scheme is to be used, e.g. - Front of house and bar - green - Kitchen - blue - Toilets/dirty areas - red
Cloth Laundering
- Cloths should be thoroughly washed and disinfected after each task; the wash cycle should achieve a temperature of 90°C
- Designated areas for the storage of dirty cloths must be used
Oven Cloths
- Separate chefs' cloths and tea towels must be used for drying or holding hot items
- Food handlers should not carry these cloths around with them as this discourages hand washing
- Cloths used for multiple purposes can potentially spread bacteria and allergens around the kitchen
Corrective Actions
- If dirty cloths are being used in the food area, they must be placed in the designated area or discarded
- Any surfaces/utensils or equipment that may have come into contact with a dirty cloth must be recleaned and disinfected thoroughly before being placed back into use
- If currently using material type cloths consider changing to single use disposable paper rolls
- If paper rolls are not available review the stock levels and the opening/closing checks to ensure constant supply
- Food handlers found to be not following safety procedures regarding cloth usage must receive retraining and/or extra supervision
Record Keeping
- Contraventions of the above safety points should be recorded in daily kitchen records
- Ensure training records are updated if retraining has occurred
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The single-use wipes section is the most important part. I'd want to see that your team understands when single-use is required, not optional. Any surface that's had raw meat, fish, or allergens on it should be wiped with single-use paper, disposed of immediately, and followed with a fresh piece for the sanitiser stage. The template makes this clear, but I'd want to see that you've reinforced it with your team rather than just filed it.
The colour-coding section needs to match what you actually use. The template gives a common example (green for front of house, blue for kitchen, red for toilets), but your scheme might be different. What matters is that it's clearly communicated, consistently followed, and that red cloths from toilet areas are treated as the serious contamination risk they are.
The oven cloths section is one most people skim past, but it's where I see problems in practice. The template says food handlers should not carry these cloths around with them because it discourages hand washing. That's the key point. A chef with an oven cloth tucked into their apron will wipe their hands on it instead of walking to the basin. It becomes a hand-washing substitute, and it picks up contamination from everything it brushes against.
Common mistakes I see:
The biggest gap is the corrective actions section. Most businesses fill in the cloth rules but leave the corrective actions vague or skip them entirely. The template covers what to do when dirty cloths are found in use, when surfaces need recleaning, when stock levels are low, and when a food handler needs retraining. If your corrective actions section is empty, your EHO will notice.
I regularly find businesses that have a colour-coding chart on the wall but no procedure for what happens when the wrong colour turns up in the wrong area. The template includes colour-coding as a distinct section. If you're using it, spell out what each colour means and what staff should do if they find a cloth in the wrong place. A red cloth in the kitchen is not a minor issue.
The laundering requirement catches people out. The template states cloths should be washed at 90 degrees C. I've audited kitchens where reusable cloths were being washed at 60 degrees C in a domestic machine. That doesn't kill the bacteria. If your laundry equipment can't reach 90 degrees C, the corrective actions section of the template suggests switching to single-use disposable paper rolls instead.
Record keeping is the section most people forget exists. The template says contraventions should be recorded in daily kitchen records and training records updated after retraining. If you're not recording cloth misuse incidents, you've got no evidence of corrective action when your EHO asks.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.