Keeping your commercial kitchen clean so that it complies with UK and European legislation is absolutely crucial if you want to be recognized as having high standards of hygiene and remain operational.
Hygiene in the food industry is absolutely critical. The build up of grease, oils and grime on surfaces such as canopies, light fittings, walls behind equipment and ceilings needs to be dealt with otherwise it can create health and safety risks to both your staff and your customers.
The commercial kitchen environment requires regular cleaning to get rid of potential contamination, debris, pests and harmful bacteria and failure to do so can lead to legal action and, worse case scenario, the closing down of the premises.
Health and safety as well as environmental health regulations all have to be taken into account and you need to have a system in place that covers regular cleaning for:
- Ovens
- Extractor fans, hobs and filters
- Deep fat fryers and steam ovens
- Dishwashers
- Cupboards, food and utensil storage areas and many more.
Maintaining hygiene standards
An area that can often be overlooked is the kitchen duct extract system. If you run a restaurant, hotel, a food serving pub or a canteen then you will be required by your buildings insurance company to have your kitchen duct extract system de-greased and cleaned. Failure to do this will render your insurance invalid if there happened to be a fire so it’s critical that you have a procedure for getting this done.
For any establishment that prepares and provides food it is mandatory by UK law to have everything in the kitchen cleaned once every 6 months. As well as maintaining hygiene standards this also sets best practices for everybody involved in the kitchen team. For open-plan kitchen and restaurants it also creates the right visual message for your customers when they see how spotlessly clean your kitchen is.
Not only that, regular cleaning will prolong the life of the kitchen catering equipment and cleaning the kitchen ducts will improve the air flow and keep the kitchen cooler, making it a better environment for everyone to work in.
