If you’re a restaurant manager or owner, you know how important running a clean ship really is. When it comes to how your actual restaurant customers see your place, the benefits of cleanliness are obvious. Maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness in your restaurant kitchen prevents food from becoming contaminated with toxins or bacteria. And, keeping the restrooms, dining area and entryways clean leaves customers with a positive impression. It’s never been more important to make sure your restaurant cleaning services are routinely and professionally implemented.
The key to keeping a kitchen cleaning checklist is consistency. In order to keep your facility in top shape, you will need to create a restaurant cleaning schedule – without this, it’s easy to miss important tasks that could cost you when a health inspector comes to your business.
Back of House
Besides the restaurant cleaning checklist below, there are some routine tasks your staff should be taking care of throughout the day. These tasks include: always wiping down the grill between cooking red meat, poultry, and fish; wiping down prep areas between tasks; switching cutting boards in between tasks; changing sanitizing water and rags frequently; and emptying trash bins when they’re full. Here are some other restaurant kitchen cleaning chores to add to your daily, weekly, and monthly checklists:
Daily
- Change foil linings of the grill, range and flat top
- Disinfect prep surfaces and tools like knives, can openers and meat slicers
- Wipe down and clean the grill, range, flat top and fry
- Clean behind and underneath all equipment
- Wipe down walls wherever there are splashes
- Mop floors, scrub and degrease deck and baseboards
- Wash beverage dispenser heads in soda fountains
- Disinfect the waste disposal area to prevent pests and the spread of bacteria
- Run hood filters through the dishwasher
- Clean rubber floor mats
Weekly
- Wash and sanitize walk-ins
- Delime sinks and faucets
- Clean ovens (including the walls, sides and racks)
- Clean floor drainers with cleaner
Monthly
- Clean coffee machines
- Empty grease traps and properly dispose of grease
- Clean ice machines
- Clean refrigeration coils to remove dust
- Wash walls and ceilings to remove grease buildup
- Wash behind the hot line to prevent clogs
- Clean and sanitize freezers
- Change pest traps
- Wash and clean vent hoods (depending on type of type of cooking operation)
Front of House
It’s just as important to keep the dining area of your business as clean as the kitchen. In addition to the list below, your staff should be doing the following throughout the work day: wiping down and sanitizing tables between customers; cleaning condiment shakers and bottles that look dirty; brushing crumbs off of chairs and booths; and taking out trash if it’s full.
Daily
- Clean and sanitize bathrooms – disinfect toilets and urinals, mop floors, wipe down sinks, mirrors, fixtures, partitions and dispensers, and take out the trash
- Wipe down and sanitize tables, both dividers
- Clean seats and benches
- Vacuum carpets and mop floors
- Wipe down walls, light switches, handles and push plates
- Inspect condiment caddies for any bottles or shakers that are dirty and clean them off
Weekly
- Disinfect door handles
- Wash glass windows and doors
- Inspect air ducts and clean or dust them
Monthly
- Dust and wipe down light fixtures, ledges and window sills
- Dust any stationary objects and wall art used for decoration
- Clean cobwebs from corners and the ceiling
- Wash and wipe down walls
Also consider hiring a professional commercial kitchen cleaning company that uses state-of-the-art cleaning and disinfecting equipment and environmentally-friendly techniques, to help create a cleaner and safer kitchen and work environment. The company should walk through your business with you to create a customized cleaning schedule based on your needs and budget. The company should also recommend a kitchen exhaust cleaning schedule appropriate to the volume of your cooking operation. Most importantly, a professional service company should understand what is most important to you so the cleaning consistently meets your expectations.
Additionally, the cleaning company should practice hygienic cleaning by using a combination of techniques and tools to remove soils and germs, such as color-coded microfiber cloths for surface cleaning, which are 99 percent more effective than traditional cloth at capturing and removing soil and germs.
Remember, the best cleaning companies understand issues like disease and infection reduction, and cleaning for health and safety. Maintaining a clean and healthy facility – from back-of-house, to entryways, floors and restrooms – will keep your employees safe and your customers coming back.
