In a restaurant the kitchen comes first: HACCP, cold chain and allergens, and then the checks on the premises

National rules and, for complaint forms, one regional example. The autonomous community and the local council may require more. Checked in the official gazettes on 19 Oct 2026.

What is specific to a restaurant: the kitchen

What sets a restaurant apart from any other premises is the kitchen, and it is overseen by the health authority. Its basis is HACCP (APPCC), which Spain's Royal Decree 1021/2022 lets restaurants simplify if there is a responsible person (Art. 20). The premises are also entered in your autonomous community's food health register, after a notification or responsible declaration (Royal Decree 191/2011, Art. 2(2)).

Hot and cold, in degrees

RD 1021/2022 sets the internal temperature of what you store (Art. 4): beef, pork or lamb at 7 °C or less; poultry and rabbit at 4 °C; minced meat at 2 °C; fresh fish between 0 and 4 °C; frozen food at –18 °C or less. Thawing is done in the cold room, or in the microwave or under cold water if the food is cooked straight away, and nothing is refrozen unless it has been processed (Art. 5).

Cooked food follows Article 30 of Royal Decree 1086/2020: held hot at 63 °C or more; chilled, at 4 °C if it is to last more than 24 hours and at 8 °C if less. A stew being cooled must drop at its core from 60 °C to 10 °C in under two hours, and reheated food reaches 74 °C for fifteen seconds; if nobody eats it, it is thrown away.

Retained sample meals, only for some services

À la carte service does not require them. A wedding banquet or any order for more than 40 people does, as does catering if events are your main activity and the set menu of a workplace or school canteen: one portion of 100 g per dish, labelled and dated, for at least seven days (Art. 30(8) and 30(10)).

Allergens

Since 2021, anything that has touched an allergen —the board for the sesame bread, the fryer for battered food— is cleaned before being used for a dish without it, checking at least that no residue can be seen (Regulation (EC) 852/2004, annex II, chapter IX, point 9). How diners are informed is explained in the guide to allergens in the dining hall.

Pests

No compulsory contract and no monthly visits set by law: the rule asks for premises that allow pests to be controlled and "procedimientos adecuados" (adequate procedures) to fight them (annex II, chapters I and IX). Whoever applies biocides for specialised professional use must be qualified (Royal Decree 830/2010). More in pest control.

What customers take home

Since Ley 1/2025 (Spain's food loss and waste act), you must make it easy for customers to take home what they have not eaten at no extra cost, except at all-you-can-eat buffets, and say so clearly and visibly, ideally on the menu (Art. 8). The container must be suitable for food, reusable or easily recyclable, and a container brought by the customer, who is responsible for its hygiene, is accepted unless it is not clean (RD 1021/2022, Art. 18). The food waste plan of Article 6, enforceable from April 2026 by our calculation, does not apply to a micro-enterprise or to premises of 1,300 m² or less, adding together those under the same tax identification code. More in the guide to the food waste act.

Dogs in the dining room and on the terrace

You may let pets into the dining room, the terrace or the customer side of the bar, never where food is prepared or stored, on a lead or in a carrier and with cleaning equipment used only for them; or keep them out, except assistance dogs and police dogs. Either way, a notice at the entrance says so (RD 1021/2022, Art. 14).

Complaint forms

Spain's national consumer law does not mention forms: it requires written proof of each complaint and a reply within fifteen days at most (TRLGDCU, Art. 21). The complaint form and its notice are regional: in Madrid, the notice reads «Existen hojas de reclamaciones a disposición del consumidor» (complaint forms are available to consumers) (Decreto 1/2010, Art. 32); in Andalusia, Decreto 82/2022 requires a notice of at least A4 size at the entrance and a reply within ten working days.

And in Andalusia, the Order of 24 April 2026 requires businesses to register in the Hoj@ electronic complaints system: six months for those with more than 250 workers or more than 20 establishments, among others, and one year for everyone else, counted from its entry into force 20 days after publication. By our calculation, the deadlines fall around 20 November 2026 and 20 May 2027.

Smoking and the terrace

Smoking is banned in an enclosed bar or restaurant and wherever food is prepared or sold (Ley 28/2005, the Spanish tobacco act, Art. 7). The national act does not ban it on a terrace that counts as an open-air space: no roof, or surrounded by two walls at most (Art. 2(2)). A notice at the entrance announces the ban. The national list of places where e-cigarettes are banned does not include bars; check your region's list.

Gas in the kitchen

With gas hobs, the holder arranges the checks every five years: with mains gas, a qualified installation company or the distributor, as you choose; with an LPG tank, an installation company. Up to 70 kW the checks include the appliances; above that, their maintenance is up to you (Royal Decree 919/2006, Art. 7; ITC-ICG 07).

Licences: the national 750 m² rule does not reach you

Ley 12/2012, which removes the prior licence up to 750 m², does not include bars or restaurants in its annex. The Local Government Act starts from not requiring a licence except on grounds of public order, safety, health or the environment (Art. 84 bis). Whether you are asked for an activity licence or a responsible declaration is enough is decided by your region and your council: ask before you sign the lease.

The common rules, applied to a restaurant

Electricity. For the low-voltage regulation, a bar is premises open to the public "cualquiera que sea su ocupación" (whatever its occupancy) (ITC-BT-28): even with six tables, the installation is inspected by an inspection body every five years and has emergency lighting. Maintaining it is the holder's job (Art. 20), with no compulsory contract.

Fire. The RIPCI (Spain's fire protection installations regulation) does not say how many extinguishers you need, but it does say how they are maintained: every three months you check them yourselves (in place, accessible, sealed and with the pressure gauge in the operating zone), every year the maintenance company comes and every five years the level C test is due; records are kept for five years. The ten-yearly inspection is not required if all you have is extinguishers, fire blankets, plans or emergency lighting (Art. 22).

Heating and cooling. In the RITE (Spain's thermal installations regulation) power decides: up to 70 kW, a maintenance company working to table 3.1 and a record kept for five years; above that, a contract, a yearly certificate and an efficiency inspection every four years. Specific to restaurants: heating at 21 °C at most, air conditioning at 26 °C at least and, where customers come in from the street, a door that closes by itself (IT 3.8).

Water. The kitchen and toilets fall under Royal Decree 487/2022 on Legionella, with no size threshold; terrace misting units add a monthly nozzle check and a test every six months. If you close for more than a month, everything is cleaned and disinfected before reopening.

What does not usually apply to you. The self-protection plan under the Basic Directive in force since 11 October 2026 only reaches a restaurant if its region's public entertainment law treats it as a leisure activity and it is in an enclosed building with a capacity of 1,000 or more or an evacuation height of 28 m or more. A defibrillator, in the four regional examples read, only appears with very large capacities. And from the first employee, an occupational risk assessment (Ley 31/1995, Art. 16).

What depends on the autonomous community

The complaint form and its notice, the food health register, whether a licence is needed or a declaration is enough, the self-protection catalogue, the defibrillator and whether smoking or vaping is allowed on the terrace. The national rules on this page apply throughout Spain; for the rest, check your region's official gazette and your council's by-laws.

What the rules do not say