In this article
EU law on noise at work sets three exact thresholds — 80, 85 and 87 dB(A) — and a busy kitchen running an extraction hood, a dishwasher and a full dining room is more often above them than below.
Nobody in the kitchen thinks in decibels. There's an extraction hood running the whole service, a dishwasher opening and closing every couple of minutes, plates landing on the counter and a pass where everyone shouts to keep up. It just feels "busy" — not like something with a number attached to it.
Yet that number exists, and the EU wrote it into law back in 2003. Directive 2003/10/EC requires every employer to assess staff noise exposure, and sets three exact thresholds at which concrete obligations kick in: inform, offer, require. Almost no restaurant has ever thought of this as a restaurant topic — it reads like a rule for a factory floor with machinery, not a kitchen with a fryer and a grill.
That's exactly the mistake. A commercial extraction hood running at full speed regularly hits 85 to 90 dB(A). A commercial dishwasher or glasswasher sits around 80 to 85 dB(A). A blender or ice crusher can peak at 90 dB(A) or higher. Put those three together for a few hours of a shift, and a kitchen crosses the legal threshold faster than most owners assume — without a meter ever having come near it.
This article explains the three thresholds, shows roughly where an average kitchen already sits, and hands you a calculator along the way to check your own kitchen against those same limits. Not legal advice — the exact national transposition differs by country — but the arithmetic every kitchen manager should be able to do.
Why this isn't a factory rule that happens to touch hospitality
Noise at work is almost never treated as a restaurant topic, which is exactly why it's so rarely measured. The law itself makes no distinction between a noisy production line and a kitchen during weekend rush: both are assessed against the exact same three thresholds, expressed in dB(A) averaged over an eight-hour working day.
The problem is that a kitchen rarely starts "quiet" and then occasionally spikes. The extraction hood runs the whole service, the dishwasher cycles continuously, and the background hum of service and shouted orders sits underneath it constantly. Where a factory often has one clear noise source you can shield, a kitchen adds several sources together into one average — and that average is exactly what the law measures.
And the stakes aren't abstract. Noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible and builds up quietly: nobody notices it after one busy shift, but they do after five years of them. It's one of the most commonly recognised occupational diseases in Europe, and hospitality is one of the few sectors where the exposure starts fresh every single evening without anyone ever having picked up a meter.
7 numbers behind the kitchen noise law
Each of these seven numbers builds on the last: from the first threshold that triggers action, through the one that makes it mandatory, to what a real kitchen actually reaches in practice.
1. 80 dB(A) — the number that means you have to act
The lower exposure action value in Directive 2003/10/EC sits at 80 dB(A), averaged over an eight-hour working day. As soon as staff exposure reaches or exceeds this level, three concrete obligations kick in for the employer: carry out a risk assessment, inform and train staff about the risks, and offer hearing protection to anyone who asks for it.
80 dB(A) isn't an extreme level. It's roughly the sound of a busy street, a vacuum cleaner two metres away, or — in a kitchen — the background hum of a full service before anything unusual is even running. Many kitchens already sit here during quiet hours, let alone during a peak shift.
2. 85 dB(A) — the number that makes earplugs mandatory
The upper exposure action value sits at 85 dB(A), again as an eight-hour average. From here, "offer" turns into "require": staff must wear hearing protection, the employer must draw up a concrete action plan to reduce exposure, and hearing checks must be offered to anyone working at this level.
The gap between 80 and 85 dB(A) sounds small — 5 dB — but decibels are a logarithmic scale, not a linear one. A 3 dB increase already doubles the sound energy involved; 5 dB is therefore a substantial jump in what actually reaches the ear, not a quarter more noise.
3. 87 dB(A) — the number that may never be crossed
The exposure limit value of 87 dB(A) is the absolute ceiling, calculated including the attenuating effect of the hearing protection actually worn. Unlike the two action values above, this isn't a level that triggers an obligation — it's a level that must simply never be exceeded. If it is, exposure must be reduced immediately and the cause removed.
That "including hearing protection" clause is the crux: a kitchen running at 92 dB(A) can stay under the 87 dB(A) limit with well-fitted earplugs attenuating 15 dB. Without protection, or with poorly fitted protection, that same kitchen sits well over it — which means the limit value is as much a statement about the quality of the protection as about the raw noise level itself.
4. 3 dB — the rule that halves your safe time, not adds to it
Sound energy adds up logarithmically, and that gives one practical rule of thumb that carries the whole calculation below: every extra 3 dB halves the time you can safely be exposed to that level for the same daily average. Eight hours at 85 dB(A) is equivalent to four hours at 88 dB(A), two hours at 91 dB(A), one hour at 94 dB(A).
That's a different kind of arithmetic than most people expect intuitively. "It's only twenty minutes louder" sounds harmless, but every 3 dB step means the same exposure time now represents a full doubling of the energy hitting the ear — not a quarter more, the way ordinary-number logic would suggest.
Eight hours at 85 dB(A) is the reference point. Every extra 3 dB halves how long you can safely be exposed for the same daily average.
This is the same rule from step 4, drawn out here: every extra 3 dB halves the safe exposure time. It's why a twenty-minute loud task counts for more than it feels like.
5. 8 hours — why "it's only loud for twenty minutes" isn't enough
All three thresholds above are averages over an eight-hour reference period (LEX,8h in the technical shorthand). That means the law doesn't ask whether you stay under 85 dB(A) at every single moment, but whether the combined exposure across the whole shift — twenty minutes next to the extraction hood, an hour at the dishwasher, the rest as background hum — averages out under the limit.
That makes the arithmetic harder than reading one meter, but also fairer: a short, loud task counts for less than a full shift at the same level, exactly as the 3 dB rule above prescribes. The calculator further down this article does that sum for your own kitchen.
6. What a real kitchen already reaches, without anyone knowing
Independent surveys in the hospitality sector — including from European and UK occupational safety bodies — give an indication of where typical kitchen equipment sits. These are reference ranges, not a guarantee for your specific machine: a commercial extraction hood at full speed typically measures 85 to 90 dB(A), a dishwasher or glasswasher 80 to 85 dB(A), and a blender or ice crusher can peak at 88 to 94 dB(A).
Put those side by side and the picture becomes clear: a kitchen running the extraction hood, the dishwasher and the hum of a full service together often already sits well above the lower action value of 80 dB(A) — sometimes above the upper one of 85 dB(A) — without anything unusual having happened. It isn't an incident. It's the normal state of a busy service.
Decibels are logarithmic: each bar below represents a level, not a proportion. The three legal thresholds are marked as bands.
- 80 dB(A) — must offer
- 85 dB(A) — must require
- 87 dB(A) — never allowed
The three marked thresholds are 80, 85 and 87 dB(A) — see steps 1 through 3 above. The equipment figures are reference ranges from sector research, not a guarantee for your specific machine.
7. 140 dB — the one number that isn't an average at all
Alongside the three averages above, the directive also sets a peak value: 140 dB(C), measured on the C-weighting that suits short, sharp bangs better than the A-weighting used for the rest of this article. A slammed oven door, a dropped stack of pans, a gas cylinder banging shut — sounds like that can hit that peak in a fraction of a second, even on a day that averaged out perfectly calm.
That's the trap of looking only at the daily average: a kitchen can post a fine LEX,8h and still break the law the moment one peak sound cracks through it. Peak protection isn't a theoretical footnote — it's the reason "our kitchen is usually quiet" is never the whole story.
Calculate your own kitchen's noise dose
The 3 dB rule and the eight-hour average from steps 4 and 5 above work for any combination of noise sources, not just the example. Enter how many hours your team spends at which noise level during an average shift — feel free to estimate using the reference ranges from step 6 — and the tool combines them correctly into one combined eight-hour average.
The result updates live as you type, checked straight against the three legal thresholds from this article.
Noise dose calculator
Three typical moments in a shift — adjust the levels and hours to match your own kitchen.
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This is an estimate based on the figures you enter, not a certified measurement. Use a calibrated sound level meter for an official assessment.
This is an estimate based on the levels and hours you enter, not a certified measurement — the only way to know for certain where your kitchen stands is to have a noise measurement done with calibrated equipment. But if this estimate already lands near 85 dB(A), that alone is reason enough to book that measurement.
Watch the third tile too: the 140 dB(C) peak value from step 7 is never captured by any eight-hour calculation. A kitchen can post a fine combined average and still produce a peak sound that on its own breaks the law.
Action plan: tackling kitchen noise in 4 steps
Four steps, in the order you'll need them the moment you suspect your kitchen sits near the thresholds.
Before you buy anything
- Borrow or hire a calibrated sound level meter — some occupational health services offer this free or for a small fee — and measure during a real peak shift, not a quiet afternoon.
- Measure separately at each source (extraction hood, dishwasher, blender) and in the middle of the kitchen, so you know which source carries the most weight in the combined average.
- Compare the result against the calculator above to see which of the three zones you're in, and what that means legally.
Between 80 and 85 dB(A)
- Inform staff about the risk and why it exists — not as a formality, but so people feel able to ask for protection themselves.
- Keep hearing protection ready and accessible, even before wearing it is mandatory — the barrier to asking should be low.
- Offer hearing checks to anyone working consistently at this level, even though it isn't legally required until 85 dB(A).
From 85 dB(A) up
- Make wearing hearing protection mandatory for anyone working consistently at or above this level, and check it's actually being worn — not just offered.
- Draw up a concrete action plan to bring the level down, with a timeline and someone responsible, not just a loose intention.
- Schedule periodic hearing checks for everyone working at this level, and keep the results on file.
Fixing the source, not just the ears
- Replace or service a loud extraction hood — a well-maintained motor and clean filters are often measurably quieter than a clogged, worn installation.
- Mount vibrating equipment (dishwashers, ice machines) on rubber dampers or a separate base instead of directly against a wall that carries the sound through.
- Rethink the layout: can the blender or ice station move further from where people stand the longest, so nobody spends a whole shift next to it?
The number worth measuring once
No hospitality owner starts the day thinking the kitchen carries a legal hearing-loss risk. It happens quietly, shift after shift, without any clear moment where it "happens" — exactly the way hearing damage itself builds up gradually rather than striking all at once.
The three thresholds in this article — 80, 85 and 87 dB(A) — aren't complicated. What's missing isn't knowledge of the law but the arithmetic: nobody has ever added up the extraction hood, the dishwasher and the hum of a full service to see exactly where that average lands.
One measurement with a calibrated sound level meter during a real peak shift gives an answer an estimate never can. If the calculator above already lands near 85 dB(A) for your own kitchen, that alone is reason enough to book that measurement — before someone on your team's hearing becomes the first real indication.