Cats, dogs and other household pets are about to be banished from the kitchens of Britain’s 20,000 B&Bs. No longer will hosts be able to prepare a farmhouse fry-up for their guests while the family labrador snoozes in a basket by the Aga.

B&B owners, who already complain of being overburdened by regulation, now face the enforcement by health inspectors of a European Union directive banning animals from food preparation areas. In response many are thinking of closing their doors to guests at a time when the domestic holiday market is booming.

The EU directive became law in 2006 but its effects are only now filtering through. The regulations apply to all food preparation areas, regardless of size. Those finding it hardest to adapt to the new rules are farmhouse B&Bs, where guests are put up in the family home and treated to a freshly cooked breakfast in the owner’s kitchen.

Carol Rennison, 48, who runs the Hawkswick Cote Farm B&B near Littondale, North Yorkshire, has a Jack Russell and a labrador. She said: “We are in a good walking area and a lot of guests bring their own dogs and they expect to see others here. My dogs come and go in and out of the kitchen.

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“Sometimes I will put them in the back of the Land Rover when I am doing the breakfasts, for convenience, but most of the time they sit in their wicker baskets in the kitchen. They are well behaved and don’t come anywhere near the food surface area. I would be reluctant to shut them out of the kitchen but, if it came to it, I suppose I would keep them in the Land Rover.”

Among those wondering whether it is worth continuing are Tish and Robert Bowditch, who turned Parnham Farm, near Bridport in Dorset, into a successful B&B business five years ago after their children left home. The couple’s labrador, Maisie, is a favourite with guests.

Mrs Bowditch, 51, who has lived in the farmhouse for 30 years, has only two bedrooms available for guests and said that she would probably close. “Maisie’s home is in the kitchen by the Aga,” she said. “We haven’t got a suitable outhouse for her.

“I am always very particular when it comes to preparing food and I am extra careful to keep her away. She wanders around the dining area but I always make sure the guests are OK with her first. Most of the time they are and make a fuss over her. Some guests often ask if they can take her out for a walk.”

David Weston, chairman of the Bed and Breakfast Association, which represents around 9,500 B&Bs, said: “Many of them have open-plan kitchen and dining rooms which also double as the living room. You might have an Aga in one corner and a hearth in the other, and the family pet snuggled up in front of either. We have had instances of health inspectors choosing to define food preparation area as the whole room, including the floor.”

Mr Weston does not allow any pets in his own B&B in Sherborne, Dorset, but he said: “That is the personal choice of myself and my wife. As an association we are not arguing that we want pets in the kitchen but you have to be sensible about it. If it is a family home as well as a business, especially if it is a farm, there are almost bound to be animals around. Many guests like it and they certainly know what they are letting themselves in for when they book a farmhouse B&B.”

Oliver Letwin, the Conservative MP for Dorset West, believes that the traditional farmhouse kitchen is in danger of becoming a “nostalgic fantasy”. He said: “The health and safety inspectors have determined that dogs and farmhouse kitchens are not compatible with one another. Faced with the prospect of such a beast in such a place, the inspectors have reached for the regulatory gun. My conclusion is that this particular aspect of the world has gone barking mad.”

However, Will John, principal environmental health officer at West Dorset District Council, classes the typical farmhouse kitchen as a “high-risk” food preparation area. “Most people would agree it is not hygienic to have animals in kitchens where food is being prepared,” he said. “A bed and breakfast may be somebody’s home but once a room is used to prepare high-risk food that is going to be sold to members of the public, it takes on a different meaning. If there was a food-poisoning outbreak that was traced back to those premises it would not be much of a defence in court to say, ‘It is OK because it is our home’.”

Stringent fire regulations introduced in the past couple of years have already made it hard for B&Bs.

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