Food Truck Kitchen Agreements In New Zealand

Do you actually need a written agreement to use a shared prep kitchen for your food truck? Yes - if you're relying on that kitchen to prep, store, clean or pack food for your business, you should have the arrangement in writing.

The good news is that a food truck kitchen agreement in NZ doesn't need to be overcomplicated. It just needs to be clear about who can use the kitchen, when they can use it, what food safety rules apply, who cleans what, and what happens if something goes wrong.

Shared kitchens work best when everyone knows the rules from day one. A friendly handshake can feel fine at the start, but without written terms you may struggle to deal with unpaid fees, damaged equipment, lost stock, contamination issues or last-minute lockouts.

What Is A Food Truck Commissary Kitchen Agreement?

A food truck commissary kitchen agreement is a contract that sets out how your food truck business can use a shared or commercial prep kitchen.

Depending on the setup, the kitchen might be used for:

• Preparing ingredients before service
• Cooking or cooling food safely
• Storing chilled, frozen or dry goods
• Washing utensils, containers and equipment
• Packaging food for delivery, markets or events
• Keeping records for food safety checks

You might hear people call this a commercial kitchen hire agreement, shared kitchen agreement, commissary agreement or prep kitchen agreement. The name matters less than the substance, but the document should still work as a practical hire agreement.

For example, Hana runs a taco truck in Wellington. She has a home base truck, but she needs a registered kitchen to marinate meat, chop vegetables, store sauces and wash large containers. The kitchen owner lets three food businesses use the same prep space on different days. A written agreement helps Hana know her access hours, storage space, cleaning duties and what happens if the fridge fails overnight.

If the arrangement gives someone exclusive possession of premises or starts looking like a long-term property arrangement, it may raise lease or property issues. That's a different category of advice, and you should speak with a property lawyer if your deal goes beyond shared use of kitchen facilities.

Do Food Trucks Need A Registered Kitchen In New Zealand?

Usually, yes, if you're preparing, storing or handling food away from the truck, the kitchen setup needs to fit within your Food Act registration and food safety system.

Food businesses in New Zealand are generally regulated under the Food Act 2014 and related Food Regulations. Depending on your activities and risk level, your business may need to operate under a food control plan or a national programme. Registration is usually handled through your local council or the Ministry for Primary Industries, depending on the nature and scale of your business.

Your food truck legal requirements may include:

• Registering your food business under the correct food safety regime and keeping your food business compliance documents current
• Having your food control plan or national programme verified
• Making sure your food preparation areas are suitable and hygienic
• Keeping temperature, cleaning, pest control and allergen records
• Meeting local council mobile trading or street trading rules, if you trade from public places
• Following the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code where it applies, including allergen and labelling rules

If you use someone else's kitchen, don't assume their registration automatically covers your business. Your own registration, scope of activities and verifier requirements need to match what you're actually doing.

Your agreement should say who is responsible for holding and maintaining any required registrations, permits and food safety documents. If the kitchen owner promises the kitchen is suitable for registered food use, that promise should be written clearly.

What Should A Shared Kitchen Agreement Cover?

A shared kitchen agreement should cover the practical rules of using the kitchen, not just the price.

At a minimum, your agreement should identify the parties correctly. If you're contracting through a company, use the company name, Companies Office number if relevant, and NZBN if you have one. If you're a kitchen owner, make sure the food truck operator signing the agreement is the legal person or company you expect to pay you.

Access And Booking Rules

Your agreement should make it very clear when and how the food truck operator can access the kitchen.

Cover points such as:

• Permitted days and hours of use
• Whether access is exclusive during booked times or shared with others
• How bookings are made, changed or cancelled
• Whether there are minimum booking periods
• Who gets keys, swipe cards, alarm codes or app access
• Whether staff, contractors or delivery drivers can enter
• Any no-go areas, such as offices, private storage or other operators' shelves

This matters because food trucks often work outside standard business hours. If you need to prep at 5am before a market, or return at 11pm to clean equipment, your access rights need to be more specific than casual use of kitchen.

Fees, Invoices And Payment

The agreement should set out exactly what the kitchen user pays and when.

You may want to cover:

• Hourly, daily, weekly or monthly hire fees
• Bond or security deposit requirements
• Extra charges for cold storage, dry storage, utilities or waste
• GST, if applicable
• Late payment consequences
• Cancellation fees for missed bookings
• Whether fees can be reviewed and how much notice is required

Without clear payment terms, small unpaid amounts can quickly become a headache. If you're the kitchen owner, clear fees help you manage cash flow. If you're the food truck operator, they help you price your menu and events properly.

Who Is Responsible For Food Safety And Cleaning?

Both sides usually have responsibilities, and your agreement should divide them clearly.

Food safety isn't something you want to leave to assumptions. In a shared kitchen, one operator's poor process can affect everyone else using the space.

Food Safety Responsibilities

Your agreement should say who is responsible for:

• Keeping required food safety registrations current
• Maintaining a food control plan or national programme records
• Temperature checks for fridges, freezers, cooling and hot holding
• Allergen controls and cross-contamination procedures
• Labelling stored food with dates and owner details
• Training staff who use the kitchen
• Cooperating with council, MPI or verifier inspections
• Reporting food safety incidents, equipment faults or contamination risks

If you're the kitchen owner, you may want a right to inspect records or suspend access if a user creates a food safety risk. If you're the food truck operator, you may want the kitchen owner to promise that shared equipment, pest control, water supply and cleaning systems are maintained to a suitable standard.

Cleaning And Waste

Your cleaning clause should be specific enough that someone can follow it at the end of a busy shift.

For example, cover:

• What must be cleaned after each booking
• Which cleaning products must be used
• Whether floors, benches, sinks, walls and equipment are included
• How rubbish, recycling, oil and food waste are handled
• Whether cleaning logs must be completed
• What happens if the next user finds the kitchen dirty
• Whether the kitchen owner can charge a cleaning fee

A vague clause saying keep the kitchen clean often isn't enough. A practical checklist attached to the agreement can save a lot of awkward conversations later.

How Should Equipment, Damage And Breakdowns Be Handled?

Your agreement should say who can use which equipment, who pays for damage, and what happens if equipment breaks down.

Shared kitchens often include expensive items like combi ovens, commercial mixers, chillers, blast freezers, dishwashers and extraction systems. If something breaks, the financial impact can be bigger than the cost of the booking.

Cover these points in your agreement:

• A list of equipment included in the kitchen hire
• Any equipment that's off-limits or requires training
• Whether users can bring their own equipment
• Rules for safe use, cleaning and reporting faults
• Who pays for accidental damage, misuse or negligence
• Whether there's an excess payable under insurance
• How quickly faults must be reported
• What happens if essential equipment is unavailable during a booking

From the kitchen owner's side, you may want the right to recover repair costs where a user causes damage. From the food truck operator's side, you may want fee credits or cancellation rights if a key piece of equipment is unavailable and you can't reasonably prep your food.

You should also think about health and safety. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, businesses have duties to manage risks to workers and others affected by the work. Your agreement can support this by requiring users to follow safety procedures, report hazards and only use equipment they're trained to use.

How Should Storage Work In A Shared Food Premises?

Storage should be clearly allocated, labelled and controlled, especially where chilled food, allergens or high-value stock are involved.

This is one of the most common pressure points in shared kitchens. Fridge space fills up, labels fall off, someone moves a container, or a product gets thrown out because nobody knows who owns it.

Your agreement should cover:

• Exactly which shelves, fridge space, freezer space or dry storage areas the user can use
• Whether storage is included in the fee or charged separately
• Labelling requirements, including business name, date and product details
• Allergen separation and cross-contamination controls
• Rules for storing chemicals away from food
• Maximum storage periods
• What happens to unlabelled, expired or abandoned items
• Whether the kitchen owner accepts responsibility for lost, spoiled or contaminated stock

If you're storing expensive meat, seafood, dairy or specialty ingredients, be careful with risk allocation. A fridge failure over a weekend can cause real loss. Your agreement should explain who monitors temperatures, who responds to alarms, and whether insurance is expected to cover stock loss.

What Business Terms Should Your Food Truck Also Have?

Your kitchen agreement is only one part of your food business terms in NZ.

If you sell to customers, cater events, take online orders or work with suppliers, you may need separate documents and policies for those relationships. A kitchen agreement won't cover everything that happens in your food truck business.

Depending on how you operate, and whether you run the truck alone or with business partners, consider whether you need:

• Customer terms and conditions for catering bookings, deposits, cancellations, menus, dietary requests and payment
• Supplier terms for delivery standards, product quality, recalls and payment
• Website terms if customers order online or buy vouchers
• A privacy policy if you collect personal information, such as customer names, phone numbers, addresses or dietary notes, under the Privacy Act 2020
• Employment agreements if you hire staff to prep, serve or drive, under the Employment Relations Act 2000
• Brand protection if your truck name, logo or product names are central to your business, including trade mark options through IPONZ

You should also be careful with advertising claims. The Fair Trading Act 1986 applies to representations you make about your food, pricing, ingredients, origin and promotions. If you sell to consumers, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 may also apply to the goods and services you provide.

Templates can be a useful starting point, but shared food premises have details that generic documents often miss. Your agreement works best when it matches how the kitchen is actually used day to day.

How Can You End A Food Truck Kitchen Agreement?

You can end the agreement in the way the contract allows, so the termination clause should be clear before anyone starts using the kitchen.

Food truck operators rely heavily on prep spaces. Kitchen owners also need flexibility if a user stops paying, damages equipment or creates a food safety problem. A fair termination process helps both sides plan.

Your agreement should cover:

• How much notice either side must give to end the arrangement
• Whether there's a minimum initial term
• When access can be suspended immediately, such as serious food safety risk, non-payment, unsafe conduct or unauthorised access
• What happens to prepaid fees or deposits
• How and when keys, access cards and alarm codes are returned
• When stored stock and equipment must be removed
• What happens if items are abandoned after the agreement ends
• Which clauses continue after termination, such as confidentiality, payment obligations and liability for damage

If you're the food truck operator, think about the notice period you would realistically need to find another kitchen. If you're the kitchen owner, think about how quickly you need to act if another user is put at risk.

Key Takeaways

• A food truck kitchen agreement should clearly cover access, bookings, fees, cleaning, storage, equipment and termination.
• Your food safety obligations under the Food Act 2014 should match how you actually prep, store and handle food.
• Shared kitchens need clear rules for allergens, temperature checks, waste, pest control and record keeping.
• Equipment damage and fridge or freezer failures can be costly, so your agreement should allocate risk upfront.
• If the arrangement starts looking like a property lease or exclusive premises arrangement, get separate property advice.
• Your kitchen agreement should sit alongside your wider food business terms, employment documents, privacy documents and brand protection.

If you'd like help with your shared kitchen agreement, food business terms, food safety responsibility clauses or trade mark protection, you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.