No water at your food premises: when to close, how to keep trading safely and how to restart

It is 05:30, the bakers have arrived and the taps are dry. The municipality says the water will be back “later today”. If you have ever typed “water outage food business what to do” into your phone at that hour, this is the plan you needed: when you can keep trading, what has to stop, and how to restart safely.

Long outages are no longer rare. Nelson Mandela Bay has lived through extended cuts, and parts of Gauteng have gone days without supply. The decision belongs to the person in charge, and it needs to be made before the first customer walks in.

What R638 says about water at food premises

R638 expects food premises to have an adequate supply of potable water: water that is safe to drink, available for preparing food, washing hands, cleaning equipment and cleaning the premises. It does not include a “trade without water” option. If you cannot meet the hygiene requirements that depend on water, you should not be handling food that needs them.

Our guide to R638 explains the wider duties of the person in charge. For an outage, the practical question is narrower: which of your activities can be done safely with the water you can actually get?

Water outage at a food business: what to do first

Run through these questions in order. A “no” to any of the first three means you stop handling open food until it is fixed.

1. Can every food handler wash their hands properly, with safe running water, soap and paper towels, every time they need to?
2. Can staff use a toilet that can be flushed and cleaned, with handwashing after it?
3. Do you have enough safe water for the food itself, for cooking, drinks, ice and washing produce?
4. Can you wash and sanitise equipment and utensils, or switch to single-use items?
5. Can you clean spills and food contact surfaces during service?

If the answers are mostly yes but some are shaky, cut the menu rather than close. Typical decisions we help clients make:

• Carry on: a takeaway with a tank, a tap-fitted handwash station at every work area and disposable packaging.
• Cut the menu: stop salads, cut fruit and anything needing a lot of washing; keep cooked items served hot in disposables.
• Close: a school kitchen with no stored water and toilets that cannot be flushed. No amount of hand sanitiser makes that safe.

Hand sanitiser does not replace handwashing. It does not work well on dirty or greasy hands, and it does not remove soil.

Stored water, tanks and boreholes: making them safe for food use

Many sites now rely on a plastic water tank or a borehole. Both can carry you through an outage, but only if the water is safe.

Storage tanks

• Use a tank intended for drinking water, with a tight lid and a screened overflow.
• Fill it from the municipal supply or a reputable water carrier, not from unknown sources.
• Keep it out of direct sun where possible and turn the water over regularly so it does not stand for long.
• Clean and disinfect the tank on a schedule, and keep the tap and outlet clean.
• Record when it was filled, cleaned and checked.

Boreholes

Borehole water is not automatically safe. Before you use it for food, handwashing or equipment, have it tested by an accredited laboratory against SANS 241, the South African drinking water standard, and treat it if the results require. Repeat the testing on a regular schedule and after anything that could affect the water, such as flooding or work on the borehole.

Bought water

Sealed bottled water from a reliable supplier is the simplest option for drinks, ice and food preparation during a short outage. Keep the receipts and batch information in case you need to trace it.

Handwashing, dishwashing and toilets during an outage

Handwashing. Set up a temporary station: a clean container with a tap, filled with safe water (warm if you can), liquid soap, paper towels, a bin and a bucket to catch the waste water. Place one at every area where food is handled, not one for the whole building. Refill it before it runs dry and record who checks it.

Dishwashing. The simplest answer is to switch to disposable plates, cups and cutlery. For pots and utensils you must reuse, wash in a basin of safe hot water with detergent, rinse, sanitise and air dry. Change the water as soon as it is dirty.

Toilets. Toilets can be flushed with a bucket of stored water, but this uses a lot of water. Keep a filled bucket at each toilet and someone responsible for refilling it. If you cannot keep staff toilets usable and clean, you cannot keep a food business open.

Boil water notices and discoloured water

Sometimes the water comes back but is not safe. A boil water notice from the municipality means the supply may be contaminated, for example with E. coli. Until the notice is lifted:

• use boiled water (brought to a rolling boil and cooled) or bottled water for drinks, ice, food preparation and washing fruit and vegetables eaten raw;
• switch off ice machines, water dispensers and drinks systems connected to the mains, and throw away existing ice;
• follow the notice on handwashing: if it says tap water is not suitable, use boiled and cooled or bottled water at your handwash stations;
• check with your equipment supplier whether your dishwasher can safely be used during the notice, and use disposables until you know.

Discoloured water, often brown after a supply is restored, should not be used for food until it runs clear. Run the taps to flush it, and do not let it go through coffee machines or ice makers.

Restarting after the water comes back

Do not simply open the taps and carry on. Follow a flush, clean and check routine first:

1. Run every tap, hot and cold, until the water runs clear.
2. Flush and clean ice machines, beverage systems, coffee machines and dishwashers, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Replace filters where they say so.
3. Check that hot water reaches every handwash basin.
4. Clean and sanitise all food contact surfaces, sinks and handwash basins.
5. Clean the toilets and change rooms properly.
6. Review food made or held during the outage. If you are not sure it was handled safely, throw it away.
7. Record the outage, what you did and when you reopened.

A worked example. During a multi-day cut in Nelson Mandela Bay, a bakery in Gqeberha kept baking bread but stopped its cream cake and sandwich lines. It set up three tap-fitted handwash stations from its tank, moved to disposable packaging for the counter and arranged a water delivery for the toilets. When supply returned brown, the owner kept the stations in use for another day, flushed the lines and cleaned the mixers before restarting the cream products. Because everything was written down, the bakery had the evidence ready when an EHP asked how it had traded through the cut.

Writing a water outage plan before the next cut

The best time to decide is before the taps run dry. A one page plan should cover:

• who makes the call to trade, cut the menu or close;
• how much stored water you have and how long it lasts at your normal use;
• where temporary handwash stations go and who fills them;
• a reduced menu that works with limited water;
• suppliers for bottled water, water delivery and disposables;
• the restart checklist above.

Our emergency preparedness and response risk assessment template gives you a structure for water, power and other emergencies, and our food hygiene audits can test the plan on site. The person in charge makes these decisions on the day, so make sure they are trained for it: our R638 course for persons in charge of food premises covers these duties.

What to do this week

• Work out how many litres of water your business uses in a normal trading day.
• Check your tank or borehole records: when was it last cleaned or tested?
• Buy or build one tap-fitted handwash station and test it.
• Agree your reduced outage menu with the kitchen.
• Write the one page water outage plan and brief every shift lead.