Commercial kitchens are measured indirectly across industry, facility, incident, waste-processing and workforce datasets. The figures below distinguish U.S. employer establishments from kitchen operations, historical estimates from observed counts, and national food-safety measures from restaurant-attributable events.
Key Commercial Kitchen Statistics
The most broadly useful figures span business scale, operating intensity, risk and labor:
- In 2022, 574,892 U.S. accommodation and food-services firms operated in the NAICS 72 employer universe.
- In 2022, 772,441 U.S. accommodation and food-services establishments were counted in NAICS 72.
- In 2022, $1,196,315,575,000 in revenue was reported by U.S. accommodation and food services.
- In 2022, 701,875 U.S. food-services and drinking-place establishments were counted in NAICS 722.
- In 2022, $800,120,264,000 in revenue was reported by U.S. restaurants and other eating places.
- In 2022, 608,144 U.S. restaurant and other eating-place establishments were counted.
- Food-service contractors had 30,086 U.S. establishments in 2022, including contractors serving institutional and other operations.
- Restaurants and commercial kitchens use an estimated 250,000 Btu per square foot according to an ENERGY STAR benchmark.
- Kitchen and cafeteria operations can account for up to 20% of site energy consumption in foodservice facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
- U.S. anaerobic digesters processed more than 200,000 tons from restaurants and food services in both 2022 and 2023.
- An estimated 5,600 U.S. restaurant fires per year occurred during 2011–2013.
- Cooking caused 63.5% of U.S. restaurant fires in the 2011–2013 USFA average.
- Average U.S. restaurant-fire property loss was $22,540 per fire in 2013 dollars in the 2011–2013 average.
- The United States reports an estimated 800 foodborne-disease outbreaks annually.
- CDC estimates indicate 9.9 million annual illnesses from the most common foodborne pathogens in the United States.
- In 2017, 489 of 761 reported single-location outbreaks with a preparation location were attributed to restaurant-prepared food in the United States.
- Food and beverage serving and related workers had a $14.92 median hourly wage in May 2024 in the United States.
- On-the-job training was required for 95.4% of U.S. food preparation and serving related workers in 2024.
Contents
- U.S. commercial kitchen scale and revenue
- Restaurant and foodservice segment statistics
- Commercial kitchen energy-use statistics
- Food waste and anaerobic digestion data
- Commercial kitchen fire statistics
- Food safety and workforce statistics
U.S. Commercial Kitchen Scale and Revenue Statistics
The 2022 Economic Census provides the broadest business-scale view, but its categories describe accommodation and food-services employers rather than kitchen-only operations. It covers establishments with paid employees that operated for at least part of 2022, and it separates firms from establishments.
| 2022 U.S. category | Firms | Establishments | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and food services, NAICS 72 | 574,892 | 772,441 | $1,196,315,575,000 |
| Food services and drinking places, NAICS 722 | 517,626 | 701,875 | $900,617,869,000 |
| Restaurants and other eating places, NAICS 7225 | 452,314 | 608,144 | $800,120,264,000 |
Source: EC2272BASIC Accommodation and Food Services: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies: 2022. Census revenue is sector revenue, not kitchen-only revenue, and NAICS 722 includes drinking places.
The same Census table reported $339,965,570,000 in annual payroll for accommodation and food services and $271,325,769,000 for food services and drinking places. Those payroll figures cover each sector’s paid employees, not kitchen labor alone.
Restaurant and Foodservice Segment Statistics
Within food services and drinking places, restaurants and other eating places represented a wide mix of operating formats. The segment counts below are 2022 U.S. employer-firm and establishment counts, with revenue shown where supplied.
| Segment | Firms | Establishments | Revenue, 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Special food services | 26,393 | 52,820 | — |
| Food-service contractors | 4,080 | 30,086 | $50,858,684,000 |
| Caterers | 12,289 | 12,579 | — |
| Mobile food services | 10,062 | 10,155 | — |
| Full-service restaurants | 224,403 | 254,201 | — |
| Limited-service restaurants | 166,733 | 271,243 | — |
| Cafeterias, grill buffets and buffets | 4,017 | 4,590 | — |
| Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars | 58,462 | 78,110 | — |
Special food services include food-service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, so these categories should not be added together as if they were mutually exclusive. Restaurants and other eating places include full-service, limited-service, cafeteria/buffet and snack-bar categories.
Commercial Kitchen Energy-Use Statistics and Benchmarks
Commercial kitchen energy data are generally benchmarks or design estimates, not a census of every kitchen. Throughput, operating schedules, equipment mix and ventilation design can materially change measured intensity.
The U.S. Department of Energy says kitchen and cafeteria operations can account for up to 20% of site energy consumption in foodservice facilities. This is an upper-bound design and operations estimate rather than a national average.
ENERGY STAR characterizes restaurants and commercial kitchens at approximately 250,000 Btu per square foot, and describes their energy intensity as roughly two to three times that of other commercial buildings. Its page also says high-volume quick-service restaurants may use up to five times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings.
Sources: ZEB Technologies: Kitchen Equipment & Design and Why Commercial Food Service Equipment?. The ENERGY STAR page also presents the Btu benchmark as approximately 73 kW per square foot, an unusual mixed-unit presentation retained as a source limitation rather than treated as a separate validated measure.
The Commercial Kitchen Asset Rating Methodology cites a 2017 benchmark that food-service industry buildings use approximately five to seven times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings. The same methodology cites up to 10 times more energy per square foot for high-volume quick-service restaurants; both are upper-bound or source-dependent comparisons, not universal averages.
Commercial Kitchen Food-Waste and Anaerobic Digestion Data
Anaerobic-digestion figures measure reported tons received by surveyed digesters, not all food waste generated by commercial kitchens. The 2022 and 2023 EPA source-category data reported more than 200,000 tons from restaurants and food services in each year, while commercial retail and wholesale sources contributed more than 400,000 tons in each year.
Industrial manufacturing and processing provides scale context: surveyed digesters received over 14 million tons in 2022 and 6 million tons in 2023 from that category. It is not commercial-kitchen waste and should not be combined with restaurant totals.
The EPA’s 2020 supplemental table covered 39 respondents, so its values are reported processing among respondents rather than national generation:
- Food-service waste, pre- and post-consumer, was reported as 9,731 tons in 2020.
- Restaurants and food services contributed 167,994 tons of fats, oils and greases in 2020.
- Retail and wholesale contributed 153,351 tons across listed food-waste types in 2020.
- The table reported 16,887,369 total tons across all listed sources and types in 2020, including industrial sources.
Sources: Anaerobic Digestion Facilities Processing Food Waste in the U.S. (2022 & 2023) and Supplemental Data from the 2023 Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste in the U.S. Survey Results.
Commercial Kitchen Fire Statistics, Causes and Losses
USFA restaurant-fire figures are NFIRS-based national estimates for a defined restaurant property-use subset of nonresidential building fires. The 2011–2013 series is historical and should not be presented as a current-year estimate.
USFA estimated 5,600 restaurant fires per year from 2011 through 2013, about 6% of all nonresidential building fires. The average rate was 0.3 fatalities and 11.0 injuries per 1,000 fires, while average property loss was $22,540 per fire in 2013 dollars.
| 2011–2013 restaurant-fire measure | Share or rate |
|---|---|
| Cooking cause | 63.5% of fires |
| Heating cause | 7.4% of fires |
| Electrical malfunction cause | 6.5% of fires |
| Limited to object of origin | 67.9% of fires |
| Limited to room of origin | 18.0% of fires |
Restaurant fires peaked at 6.3% of incidents during the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. alarm interval. Saturday and Sunday each represented 14.8% of incidents, the highest daily shares in the USFA table; these are incident distributions, not operating-hour-adjusted rates.
The earlier Restaurant Building Fires report estimated 5,900 restaurant building fires annually in 2007–2009, with 75 injuries and $172 million in annual property loss. Cooking was the leading cause at 59%, while 41% of nonconfined fires started in cooking areas and kitchens; deep fryers were involved in ignition in 9% and ranges in 7% of nonconfined fires.
Commercial Kitchen Food-Safety and Workforce Statistics
CDC’s national food-safety estimates describe the broader burden of common foodborne pathogens, not restaurant-attributable illness alone. The CDC reports approximately 800 foodborne-disease outbreaks per year, with estimated annual totals of 9.9 million illnesses, 53,000 hospitalizations and 931 deaths from the most common foodborne pathogens; its cited cost estimate is $74.7 billion per year for U.S. foodborne illness.
In 2017, the CDC recorded 489 of 761 single-location foodborne outbreaks with a reported preparation location as attributed to restaurant-prepared food. Those restaurant-attributed outbreaks were associated with 5,533 illnesses, but outbreak surveillance does not capture the full burden of sporadic illness.
The labor measures are broader than kitchen-only roles. In May 2024, food and beverage serving and related workers had a $14.92 median hourly wage, while food preparation and serving related occupations had a $16.41 median hourly wage.
The Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers: Occupational Outlook Handbook projects 5% employment growth from 2024 to 2034 for food and beverage serving and related workers. This is a forecast for the occupation group, not a guaranteed outcome or a commercial-kitchen-only projection.
Finally, the BLS Occupational Requirements Survey found that prior work experience was required for 24.5% of food preparation and serving related workers in 2024, while on-the-job training was required for 95.4%. The latter requirement does not specify training duration or content.
Source: Food preparation and serving related workers.