Restaurant Odour Assessment
Planning to open a restaurant, café, takeaway or food business? We provide EMAQ+ kitchen odour assessments written to the standard environmental health officers expect, to help your planning application go through without costly delays.
Malcolm Pounder CEnv MIAQM, Chartered Environmentalist. Kitchen odour assessments from £800 + VAT.
The Odour Assessment Specialists for Food Premises
Odour from commercial kitchens is one of the most common environmental objections to planning applications for restaurants, takeaways and food businesses. Whether you are opening a new café, converting a retail unit into a restaurant or expanding an existing kitchen operation, the local planning authority will almost certainly require a kitchen odour assessment, and getting it right the first time is essential.
At Air Dust Odour, Malcolm Pounder CEnv MIAQM prepares and signs off every kitchen odour assessment, for food premises across the UK from independent restaurants and takeaways to pub kitchens. We know what planning authorities expect, and every report follows the EMAQ+ guidance that environmental health officers refer to.
Our assessments don't just satisfy the planning requirement. They state clearly the level of odour control your kitchen needs, so your extract specialist can design and install a system that meets it before you fit out. That means no nasty surprises at fit-out, and less risk of conditions that require expensive retrospective works.
Our Restaurant Odour Services
From the initial assessment to planning support and responses to council queries, we cover what your food business needs to satisfy the council.
Kitchen Odour Assessment (EMAQ+)
A full EMAQ+ risk assessment for your kitchen, scoring dispersion from the discharge, proximity of receptors, kitchen size and cooking type, and stating the level of odour control the extract system needs to provide. The cornerstone of any planning application for a food premises.
Review of Proposed Odour Control
Where your extract specialist has already designed the system, we assess whether the discharge arrangement and odour control they propose provide the level of control your kitchen's risk score requires, and say clearly where they fall short. We do not design or specify extraction or odour control equipment: your extract specialist designs and installs the system.
Planning Support & Resubmission
If your application has been refused or the council has raised queries about odour, we can review the comments, prepare supplementary information or revised assessments, and liaise directly with the environmental health officer on your behalf. We know how councils think, and how to respond to their concerns effectively.
Types of Food Premises We Cover
We have prepared restaurant and kitchen odour assessments for a wide variety of food businesses. If your operation involves a commercial kitchen, we have the expertise to assess it.
Whether you run one site or several, you get the same quality of assessment. We cover food premises across the UK; for premises in the capital, see our odour assessment consultants in London page.
- Restaurants
- Takeaways
- Cafés and coffee shops
- Dark kitchens
- Food manufacturing
- Bakeries
- Fish and chip shops
- Fast food outlets
- Pub kitchens
- Hotel kitchens
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an odour assessment to open a restaurant?
In most cases, yes. If you are applying for planning permission to open a restaurant, café, takeaway, dark kitchen or any food business with a commercial kitchen, the local planning authority will almost certainly require an odour assessment as part of your application. This applies whether you are opening a new premises or changing the use of an existing building. The assessment demonstrates that cooking odours will be adequately controlled and will not cause a nuisance to nearby residents or businesses.
What is EMAQ+ and why does it matter?
EMAQ+ is the guidance on controlling odour and noise from commercial kitchen exhaust systems (2018), which updated the earlier Defra guidance. Its risk assessment method scores four factors: dispersion from the discharge, proximity of sensitive receptors, size of kitchen and cooking type. The total gives a risk rating of Low to Medium, High or Very High, and that rating sets the level of odour control the extract system needs to provide. Environmental health officers widely refer to EMAQ+, so using it means your report speaks the same language as the council's officers.
What does a kitchen odour assessment involve?
A kitchen odour assessment reviews the kitchen layout, cooking methods, the extract discharge point and the nearby residential or commercial receptors, from the drawings and details you supply, with a site visit where one is needed. We then apply the EMAQ+ risk assessment method to score the odour risk and state the level of odour control the extract system needs to provide, for your extract specialist to design and install. Where a design already exists, we assess whether it provides that level of control. The output is a clear report ready for submission to the planning authority.
How much does a restaurant odour assessment cost?
Restaurant odour assessments using the EMAQ+ method start from £800 + VAT for a straightforward single-unit premises. Larger restaurants, multiple kitchen types, sites next to homes or premises in sensitive locations may need more detailed work and cost more. We provide clear, fixed-fee quotes after a brief conversation about your project, with no hidden extras. Any site visit or travel is agreed in your fixed-fee quote. Our EMAQ+ assessment cost guide gives a full breakdown.
How long does a restaurant odour assessment take?
Most restaurant and takeaway odour assessments can be completed within 5 to 10 working days of receiving the relevant information and confirming instructions. If a site visit is required, we arrange this promptly and work to your programme. We understand that planning timescales can be tight and offer expedited turnaround for time-critical projects. Just let us know when you get in touch.