Mobile Catering Equipment Checklist UK: What You Need and What It Costs (2026)

Last updated: October 2026

In 30 seconds:

• A working UK mobile catering setup needs eight things: cooking kit, hot holding, refrigeration, hot water, hand washing, power, propane supply, and fresh/waste water.
• Budget roughly £4,000–£7,000 for a lean single-menu van, £8,000–£14,000 for a busy two-cook trailer, and £15,000–£25,000 for a coffee or hog-roast build.
• Everything that heats should run on propane at 37 mbar. Everything that spins or lights should run off a generator or battery.
• Your generator has to be sized to the appliances, not the other way round. This is where most people overspend or under-buy.
• Two items are checked at almost every event and hygiene inspection: hot running water at the hand wash basin, and an in-date CP44 commercial gas certificate.

Not sure how much power you need? Use our LPG generator sizing guide. It takes about two minutes and it stops you buying a generator that either can’t cope or costs twice what it needed to.

Mobile catering equipment is the set of propane appliances, refrigeration, water and power kit a UK food van or trailer needs to trade legally and reliably off-grid. The accepted starting point for a first unit is a griddle or fryer, a bain marie, an under-counter fridge, a hot water boiler, a hand wash station, a generator and two propane cylinders — a package that lands between £4,000 and £7,000 depending on brand and how much you buy used.

Why a checklist and not a shopping list?

Because the right kit depends on your menu, your pitch and your unit size. A burger van and a crepe stand share maybe a third of their equipment. What they do share is the eight categories below.

Why propane and not mains?

Most pitches have no power. Propane vaporises reliably down to around −42°C, so it works in a February market. Butane stops vaporising at about 2°C, which is why it belongs on a patio and not in a food van.

The honest summary.

The most expensive mistake we see isn’t buying cheap kit. It’s buying kit in the wrong order — appliances first, generator last. People pick a 6 kW electric fryer because it was £200. Then they discover the generator to run it costs £1,200 more than a propane fryer would have. Work out your heat sources first, keep them on propane, and let the generator handle only lights, fridge, card machine and pumps.

What a Full Setup Costs — Three Realistic Bands

These are equipment-only figures. They don’t include the van or trailer itself. For the full startup picture see our food trailer cost breakdown.

1. Cooking Equipment — Pick Two, Not Five

Quick specs

• Griddle: a 3-burner 800 mm Parry LPG griddle runs 8.25 kW · 29 kg · from £769
• Countertop fryer: Parry AGFP 5.8 kW, 7.5 L oil, 21 kg, from £1,029 · Lincat DF4/P 10.5 kW, 8 L oil, from £1,399
• Propane pressure: all of it runs at 37 mbar

Best for

A griddle plus one fryer covers about 80% of UK street food menus. Add a hob only if you’re doing sauces, curries or pasta to order.

What to buy

• One LPG griddle — sized to your busiest hour, not your average one
• One LPG fryer — twin basket if chips are a main seller
• An LPG hob only if your menu genuinely needs pans

Don’t buy yet

• A chargrill, unless steak or kebabs are your headline item
• A second fryer “for busy days” — you’ll queue on the griddle first
• Anything electric that heats. It’s the single biggest driver of generator cost.

Trade-off. A bigger griddle costs more propane per hour but cuts your service time. If you regularly hit a 15-minute queue, go up a size rather than adding a second appliance.

2. Hot Holding — The Bain Marie

Quick specs

• Typical unit: 4-pot wet-heat, GN 1/4 pans, from £653 for the Parry LPG version
• Job: holding cooked food at temperature — not cooking it
• Target: hot food held above 63°C

Best for

Anyone serving chilli, curry, pulled pork, beans or mushy peas. It’s also what lets one person run a stall — you batch-cook between rushes instead of cooking to order.

Wet heat (a water bath) holds moisture better and is the safer default. Dry heat is faster to bring up but dries food out. Browse the bain marie range to compare pot layouts.

Don’t use it for

• Reheating from cold — it isn’t powerful enough and it fails a temperature check
• Holding food for more than two hours at a stretch

3. Refrigeration — Two Separate Spaces

Environmental health officers look for separation between raw and ready-to-eat. In a small unit that usually means one under-counter fridge for raw proteins and a second, or a well-organised cool box, for prepped items.

What you need

• An under-counter commercial fridge running at 0–5°C
• A probe thermometer and a written temperature log
• Enough capacity for a full trading day — restocking mid-service is where mistakes happen

Domestic fridges struggle in a hot trailer and pull more power than a commercial unit. Compare options in the refrigeration range.

Honest note. Refrigeration is the one item that runs all day off your generator or battery. Check its running watts before you size your power. A fridge drawing 100 W continuously is a very different job from one drawing 250 W.

4. Hot Water — Where LPG Actually Matters

Quick specs — Fracino Atlantis Mini Gas

• Fuel: propane, 1,800 W propane rating plus a 50 W electric element
• Capacity: 7 litres · around 30 litres per hour · roughly 150 hot drinks a day
• Temperature: pre-set 90°C, adjustable 80–95°C
• Size: 530 mm H × 310 mm W × 430 mm D
• Price: from £1,280 — view the Atlantis Mini Gas

Why this one gets its own section

The Fracino Atlantis Mini Gas is the only LPG water boiler on the UK market. Every other brand — Burco, Buffalo, Parry — is electric only. If you want hot water without a generator running, this is the one unit that does it.

An electric boiler at 3 kW needs a generator sized for it alone. That’s a real cost difference, not a small one. If you’re mains-connected or already running a bigger generator, the electric water boiler range is cheaper up front.

5. Hand Washing — The One They Always Check

A dedicated hand wash basin with hot running water, soap and paper towels is checked at almost every hygiene inspection and by most event organisers. It has to be separate from the sink you wash equipment in.

What you need

• A hand wash basin with hot and cold water
• Liquid soap in a dispenser — not a bar
• Paper towels, not a cloth
• A separate wash-up sink for equipment

Portable units start from £174.99 for a basic tap-and-dispenser unit, with plumbed-in mobile stations running to around £1,181. See the sinks and hand wash range.

Honest note. This is the cheapest item on the list to get right and the most common reason a trader gets marked down. Buy the proper unit.

6. Power — Size It Last, Buy It First

Quick specs — Greengear GE-3000UK

• Power: 2.8 kW continuous · 3.1 kW peak
• Engine: GG3GN, 212 cc, single-cylinder OHV
• Fuel: propane only, dedicated LPG (not a petrol engine with a conversion kit)
• Price: from £662 · the 7 kW model runs from £1,249

What a 3 kW runs at once

• Under-counter fridge
• LED lighting
• Card terminal and phone charging
• Water pump
• Extraction fan

Total continuous draw usually lands around 1.5–2.2 kW. That leaves headroom for the fridge compressor kicking in, which briefly pulls more than its running figure.

Don’t use it for

• Electric fryers, griddles or water boilers — put those on propane instead
• Two heating appliances at the same time

Compare the range on the LPG generators page. Dedicated LPG generators start more reliably in cold weather than petrol units with an LPG kit bolted on. There’s also no second fuel to store on site.

7. Propane Supply — Cylinders, Regulator, Hose

This is the part people underbuy. Every heating appliance on the list feeds off it.

What you need

• Two propane cylinders — one in use, one as a changeover spare
• A 37 mbar fixed-outlet propane regulator
• A current-standard LPG hose with crimped end fittings, replaced every five years from its date stamp
• Secure, ventilated, upright cylinder storage outside the serving area
• A leak-detection spray and a bubble-test routine

Cylinder size drives how often you’re swapping bottles mid-service. Our LPG cylinder sizes guide matches bottle size to appliance load, and the hose and regulator guide covers the standards and replacement intervals in detail.

Never mix in butane. Butane runs at 28 mbar and stops vaporising around 2°C. Propane runs at 37 mbar and keeps working through a UK winter. The regulators are not interchangeable.

8. Water System — Fresh In, Waste Out

What you need

• Fresh water tank: 30–50 litres for a small unit, 80–120 litres for a busy trailer
• Waste tank of matching capacity — most organisers expect roughly 1:1
• A 12 V pump and food-grade hose
• A jerry can for top-ups

Run out of fresh water and you stop trading. Overfill the waste tank and you stop trading. Both tanks want to be reachable without unloading the unit. Our off-grid setup guide covers how power, water and propane fit together in one build.

9. Consumables and Cleaning — Small Money, Daily Problem

• Serving: trays, boxes, napkins, cutlery, sauce dispensers
• Cleaning: food-safe sanitiser, blue roll, degreaser for the griddle, colour-coded cloths
• Waste: bin bags, a lidded bin, a separate oil container for used fryer oil
• Spares: a fuse kit, a spare regulator, spare hose clips, spare pump

Budget £150–£300 to stock up before your first event, then £40–£80 a week once you’re trading.

10. Safety and Paperwork

Equipment isn’t the whole checklist. These usually go in the same folder and get asked for together.

• CP44 commercial gas certificate — the mobile catering gas safety check, issued annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer with commercial mobile catering qualifications
• Fire extinguisher and fire blanket — a wet chemical extinguisher if you fry
• First aid kit with a blue detectable plaster pack
• Level 2 Food Safety certificate for everyone handling food
• Public liability insurance — organisers commonly ask for £5 million
• Food business registration with your local authority, typically at least 28 days before you start trading
• A written food safety management system (Safer Food, Better Business is the usual route)

Our food hygiene checklist covers the inspection side, and the start a mobile catering business guide covers registration and licensing.

Six Mistakes That Cost Real Money

1. Buying appliances before sizing the generator. Heat on propane, everything else on the generator. Decide that first.
2. One cylinder instead of two. You will run out mid-service. It’s a matter of when.
3. Domestic kit in a commercial unit. It fails inspection, and it fails in a hot trailer in August.
4. Skipping the dedicated hand wash basin. Cheap to fix, expensive to be marked down for.
5. Buying too big for the space. Measure the serving counter before, not after. Also check the appliance clears the hatch.
6. No spares box. A £4 fuse can end a £600 trading day.

Building Your Own Checklist

Write your menu down first. Next to each dish, list the appliance that cooks it and the appliance that holds it. You’ll usually find two or three appliances cover the lot — that’s your cooking list.

Then add the fixed items every unit needs regardless of menu: fridge, hot water, hand wash, generator, cylinders, regulator, hose, fresh and waste tanks, extinguisher, paperwork.

Finally, add up the running watts of everything that isn’t propane. That number, plus about 30% headroom, is your generator size. If you’re building a burger-focused unit specifically, our burger van equipment list works through the same exercise with a fixed menu.

Frequently Asked Questions

What equipment do I need to start a mobile catering business in the UK?

You need cooking equipment, hot holding, refrigeration, hot water, a dedicated hand wash basin, a generator, propane cylinders with a 37 mbar regulator and hose, and fresh and waste water tanks. A lean single-menu van comes in around £4,000–£7,000 for equipment alone. Cooking kit should run on propane so your generator only handles fridge, lights, pump and card terminal.

How much does mobile catering equipment cost?

Budget £4,000–£7,000 for a lean single-menu van, £8,000–£14,000 for a busy two-cook trailer, and £15,000–£25,000 for a coffee or hog roast build. Those figures cover appliances, power, water and safety kit but not the van or trailer. Buying the generator last, after you know your electrical load, is what keeps the number down.

Can I use butane instead of propane in a food van?

No. Propane is the only sensible fuel for UK mobile catering. Butane stops vaporising at around 2°C, so it fails on cold mornings and in winter markets. Propane keeps working down to about −42°C. The two also run at different pressures — propane at 37 mbar, butane at 28 mbar — so the regulators are not interchangeable.

What size generator do I need for a catering trailer?

Most units need 3 kW if all heating is on propane, or 5–7 kW if you’re running electric heating appliances. Add up the running watts of your fridge, lights, pump, extraction and card terminal, then add roughly 30% headroom for compressor start-up surges. A 2.8 kW continuous unit comfortably covers a typical propane-cooking setup.

Do I need a hand wash basin separate from the sink?

Yes. A dedicated hand wash basin with hot running water, liquid soap and paper towels is expected at hygiene inspections and by most event organisers. It should be separate from the sink used for washing equipment. Basic portable units start from £174.99, so it’s one of the cheapest items on the list to get right.

Is there an LPG water boiler for mobile catering?

Yes — the Fracino Atlantis Mini Gas is the only LPG water boiler available in the UK. It holds 7 litres, delivers around 30 litres per hour and covers roughly 150 hot drinks a day at a pre-set 90°C. Every other water boiler brand sold in the UK is electric only, which means running a generator all day.

What certificates do I need for catering equipment?

You’ll need an annual CP44 commercial gas safety certificate covering every propane appliance, issued by a Gas Safe registered engineer with commercial mobile catering qualifications. Alongside it you’ll typically want Level 2 Food Safety certificates for staff, public liability insurance (commonly £5 million), and food business registration with your local authority.

Should I buy new or second-hand catering equipment?

Buy propane appliances new. Second-hand propane kit with no service history is hard to certify, and a failed CP44 stops you trading. Refrigeration, prep tables, tanks and shelving are safer second-hand buys. The saving on a used fryer is rarely worth the engineer’s time trying to sign it off.