Your Complete Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Just bought a restaurant? One of the most challenging aspects of it will be the cleaning. You'll have to keep it maintained for a number of reasons.
For one thing, it's a safety hazard. You don't want your employees slipping and falling on grease coated floors. You also want to serve customers food that they will be able to enjoy without getting sick. One thing you don't want following you is a bad sanitation record.
Here is a helpful restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist that can get you past inspection and keep you and your reputation in working order for years to come.
1. Maintaining Grease Traps, Inceptors, and Kitchen Exhausts
Cleaning your grease trap regularly will keep it from backing up and blocking up your sewer line. You should do this weekly but if you find at the end of the week it's getting really full, then increase the number of times you clean it.
If it manages to back up into the commercial establishment it can cause a lot of health issues. It's also going to cost a lot to fix.
The inceptors and exhausts should also be cleaned on a regular basis. This just makes sure grease and oil don't enter the storm drain system.
2. Cleaning Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is most likely the material everything in your kitchen will be made of. This is because most stainless steel is resistant to bacteria and is really easy to clean. It also looks nice and sleek.
All you'll need to clean it is a wet cloth and a mild dish detergent to wipe away spills and other messes. If it's really stubborn, use baking soda or a commercial cream cleaner. Rinse and dry the area right after use.
3. How to Clean Your Floors
Cleaning your restaurant kitchen floor is a big thing that you need to make sure is done. If you don't your employees could slip and hurt themselves. That will get a huge safety violation slapped on you and you don't want that.
Not only are dirty floors a safety violation, but a health as well due to airborne bacteria. With how dirty they tend to get throughout the day, they'll need more than a good mopping to clean them up.
What you'll need is a cleaning system that not only scrubs the floor but sucks up all the gross liquid left behind. It'll be a huge hit to your wallet, but it's better than the alternative.
4. Cleaning Your Oven
The longer you wait to clean your commercial oven, the harder it will be clean it when you eventually get to it. There are many different ways to go about cleaning your oven and many different tools that you can use. Check your manufacturer's manual for the instructions.
A few pro tips: A microfiber cloth is a great thing to clean it with because it won't leave any flammable fibers behind. If the mess is really bad, the tried and true method of leaving the commercial grease cleaner on overnight works well.
It can be easy for you to get busy running your restaurant and forget some of these key cleaning things. You should make lists of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks to keep you reminded. Here is a sample of what should be on them.
5. Daily Tasks
Your daily tasks are the things that you and your employees should be striving to get done on a daily basis. You can assign these things to closers, or just train your employees to do them at the end of all their shifts.
You'll need to clean out the grease traps, wash equipment like can openers, and change the foil linings of the grill, range, and flattops. Make sure any surfaces that come into contact with food have been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and the floors have been done.
6. Weekly Tasks
Weekly tasks are the things that you should be getting done by the end of each and every week. Even though it's a lot of work you should remove everything from the walk-in coolers so you can clean and sanitize it.
Make sure to delime any sinks or faucets, clean your commercial ovens, oil any cast iron cookware, and use drain cleaner on the floor drains to avoid build up. Even though this isn't really a cleaning tip, you should also sharpen your knives so they are ready to go every week.
7. Monthly Tasks
Monthly tasks are the things that aren't really urgent to do because you only need to do them once a month. You should wash behind the ovens, stoves, and fryers to avoid fires.
Clean your freezers, and empty and clean the ice machine. You wouldn't think it gets that dirty but it does. Calibrate all your ovens and thermostats, wipe down any dirty ceilings, walls, windows, and storage areas, and change your pest traps if you have them.
8. Annual Tasks
Annual tasks are things that just need to be completed by the end of the year. Most of these tasks you can't perform by yourself, you'll have to bring in a professional.
You'll have to check your fire suppression system, check the fire extinguishers, and clean your hoods. This is where you want to bring in a professional because cleaning hoods is a gross and lengthy process.
Lastly, you want to use the instruction manual to clean the pilot lights on your gas equipment.
Your Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
Making sure your kitchen is up to code is a difficult and long process. Use this helpful restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist to stay ahead of the game, and keep your kitchen up and running. Don't fail your next health and safety inspection because you forgot something small.
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