One in seven food outlets listed on the UK’s main delivery apps operates as a “dark kitchen”, according to new university research that maps the scale of delivery-only cooking facilities.
The study found that dark kitchens account for 15% of all online food retailers in England.
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These operations – often described as “cloud”, “ghost” or “virtual” kitchens – produce food solely for delivery and have no customer-facing shopfront.
They range from small temporary units to larger dedicated sites, including those run under models such as Deliveroo Editions.
Researchers said the findings expose the size of a largely out-of-sight segment of the takeaway market. They also noted that, despite rapid expansion, there has been no widely accepted definition of what constitutes a dark kitchen.
This lack of clarity has posed problems for regulators, local councils, environmental health and food safety officers, industry groups and consumers.
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By GlobalDataDr Lucie Nield, co-lead investigator from the University of Sheffield, said: “People deserve greater transparency about the food they are ordering online, and these businesses must be held to the appropriate regulatory standards.
“Without this, dark kitchens risk falling through the gap, with potential consequences for public health, particularly by encouraging increased use of online takeaways, greater availability and therefore greater consumption of high-fat, salt or sugar food.
“Dark kitchens have previously been poorly defined and under-researched, making their impacts difficult to fully understand.
“Adopting a shared definition is essential for clearer communication, more effective regulation and inspection and for driving public health agendas.”
Commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the project brought together several university teams to produce what it calls the first sector-wide framework for defining and identifying dark kitchens.
To shape the definition, researchers consulted academics, public health specialists, local authorities, national governing bodies, people working in the industry and consumers, aiming to reflect how these businesses function in practice.
The agreed wording is: “Technology-enabled commercial kitchen(s) operating primarily for delivery, to fulfil remote, on-demand, consumer online orders of food for immediate consumption.”
The team also set out to gauge how widespread dark kitchens are on major delivery platforms.
They used data-scraping techniques across apps such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo to pinpoint clusters of different food brands trading from the same postcode, treating this pattern as a strong sign of delivery-only hubs.
Locations were then checked against online mapping tools, including Google Maps, which the study says illustrates how difficult these sites can be for both consumers and regulators to identify.
The research notes that dark kitchens can provide business advantages, such as reduced overheads and the ability to operate from more flexible locations than conventional takeaway outlets.
However, it also highlights possible consequences for public health and regulation due to their relative invisibility in physical retail areas.
Traditional takeaways fall within spatial planning rules used by local authorities, including zones around schools designed to curb the number of takeaway outlets and promote healthier local food environments.
According to the study, these planning controls do not currently extend to dark kitchens, and their presence may weaken the intended impact of such measures.
The researchers also flagged risks around food safety and the clarity of information for customers, particularly people with allergies or specific dietary needs.
When several brands share a single kitchen facility, the report suggests that consumers may not realise their food is prepared in a shared environment, increasing the chance of unrecognised allergen cross-contamination.
