Three tiers of ship's cook qualification and the dispensation period (MLC Regulation 3.2)

Whether a ship must carry a fully qualified cook does not have one answer. MLC, 2006 Standard A3.2 sets the requirement down in three tiers. There is the rule, there is a relaxation for ships with small manning, and there is a dispensation for when even that does not work. The conditions and the periods differ at each tier.

Food is free of charge for the whole period of engagement

food and drinking water supplies, having regard to the number of seafarers on board, their religious requirements and cultural practices as they pertain to food, and the duration and nature of the voyage, shall be suitable in respect of quantity, nutritional value, quality and variety, and shall be provided free of charge during the period of engagement;

free of charge during the period of engagement is in the provision. A structure that deducts a messing charge from wages runs against that sentence.

The test of suitability is written out in four terms: quantity, nutritional value, quality and variety. And what has to be taken into account in applying it is the number of seafarers on board, their religious requirements and cultural practices as they pertain to food, and the duration and nature of the voyage. The same menu can fall on the wrong side of the variety test once the voyage runs long.

The first tier is a trained and qualified cook

The shipowner has to ensure that seafarers engaged as ships’ cooks are trained, qualified and found competent for the position in accordance with the requirements set out in the law of the Member concerned. What goes into those requirements is written down too.

4. The requirements under paragraph 3 of this Standard shall include a completion of a training course approved or recognized by the competent authority, which covers practical cookery, food and personal hygiene, food storage, stock control, and environmental protection and catering health and safety.

The content of the course is listed in five strands: practical cookery, food and personal hygiene, food storage, stock control, and environmental protection and catering health and safety. Cooking skill alone does not fill that list. And the course has to be one the competent authority has approved or recognized.

The second tier is the relaxation for manning of less than ten

5. On ships operating with a prescribed manning of less than ten which, by virtue of the size of the crew or the trading pattern, may not be required by the competent authority to carry a fully qualified cook, anyone processing food in the galley shall be trained or instructed in areas including food and personal hygiene as well as handling and storage of food on board ship.

The relaxation is not automatic here either. Manning of less than ten is not the whole of the condition; the structure is that the competent authority may, by virtue of the size of the crew or the trading pattern, not require a fully qualified cook.

And what relaxes is the full qualification, not the training. Anyone processing food in the galley has to be trained or instructed in areas including food and personal hygiene as well as handling and storage of food on board ship.

The third tier is a dispensation with a fixed period

6. In circumstances of exceptional necessity, the competent authority may issue a dispensation permitting a non-fully qualified cook to serve in a specified ship for a specified limited period, until the next convenient port of call or for a period not exceeding one month, provided that the person to whom the dispensation is issued is trained or instructed in areas including food and personal hygiene as well as handling and storage of food on board ship.

Four limits attach to the dispensation: circumstances of exceptional necessity, a specified ship, a specified limited period, and that period running until the next convenient port of call or not exceeding one month. The hygiene and handling training condition attaches here as well.

That the ceiling on the period is fixed in the provision is what matters in practice. There is no structure inside the text where the person put in under a dispensation simply stays in the position.

The age threshold survives all three tiers

8. No seafarer under the age of 18 shall be employed or engaged or work as a ship’s cook.

None of the three tiers offers a way around this provision. On a relaxed ship and under a dispensation alike, nobody under 18 works as a ship’s cook.

On-board inspections have to be documented

Standard A3.2 paragraph 7 requires frequent documented inspections by or under the authority of the master. Three subjects are listed: supplies of food and drinking water in relation to their quantity, nutritional value, quality and variety; all spaces and equipment used for the storage and handling of food and drinking water; and galley and other equipment for the preparation and service of meals.

documented is in the provision, so having carried out the inspection does not by itself satisfy this paragraph.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from printed pages 55 to 57 of the consolidated MLC, 2006 (including the 2022 amendments). The specific cook qualification requirements and the approval of training courses are set by flag State law. What the prescribed manning on that ship is, whether the flag State requires a fully qualified cook, when a dispensation runs out if one was issued, and whether the on-board inspection records exist as documents are where the actual judgement starts.