01What the Code says
Food Standards Australia New Zealand sets the Code; enforcement is by state and territory health departments and, in practice, by council environmental health officers at inspection. The recurring requirement for a food premises is that surfaces in contact with food be smooth, impervious and able to be effectively cleaned.
Solid stainless plate meets that by construction. Which is exactly why the failures are about joints, not material — a perfect surface with a silicone bead at the wall is still a non-compliant detail.
| Detail | Compliant | Written up |
|---|---|---|
| Working surface | Solid plate, No.4 finish | Delaminated or swollen panel |
| Wall junction | Folded upstand or coved fillet | Bead of silicone to a flat top |
| Top-to-top joint | Welded and dressed | Butt joint with a gasket |
| Fixings | From below, sealed | Bolts through the surface |
| Internal corners | Radiused | Sharp welded right angle |
02What the council actually checks
An environmental health officer inspects the premises, not the supplier. Three things come up repeatedly on stainless tops:
- Torch under the front edge. Any gap between the top and the carcass collects debris. A folded edge closes it; a plate sitting on a raw carcass does not.
- Hand along the wall junction. A bead that has shrunk is a gap.
- Water at the sink. Where the top meets the bowl — welded, clipped or rimmed — has to be cleanable with the bowl in place.
None of this is about the alloy. It is about the drawing, which is why we ask for the joints to be marked on the plan.
03The part that is not the benchtop
Plumbing is certified separately and by someone else. A stainless benchtop with a welded bowl still needs the tap, the waste and the connection to be signed off under the applicable plumbing scheme, and a benchtop supplier cannot do that for you.
What we can do is make the aperture and the bowl suit the plumbing that is going in, which is a drawing question: give us the waste position and the trap clearance and it is resolved before the plate is cut.
04Documents with the order
Mill certificate with the heat number, our inspection sheet, and the packing list. If the project requires a declaration of conformity for food contact, say so on the enquiry and it is listed on the quotation.
The specification behind those documents is worth stating plainly, because it is what an officer is indirectly assessing. We cut from 5, 6, 8 or 10 mm plate in 304 or 316L, machine the edge to ±0.05 mm, grain the surface along its length and passivate every weld. Grade matters for a wet, salty or sanitised kitchen and hardly at all for a dry one; thickness matters for impact and for whether the top leaves the carcass at 900 mm or 890 mm. We grain across joints so there is no visible seam to collect debris in, and we pack on-edge with the edges protected.
On timing, our lead time is 15 working days from a confirmed drawing, and the inspection sheet that ships with the parts is the record the warranty is settled against. If a joint is ever questioned, that sheet and the joint detail on your drawing are what settle it — not a photograph taken after installation.
Benchtops, AU and NZ dimensions · Compliance overview · Request a quote