Ultimate Guide to Commercial Kitchen Cleaning

It is important to always keep your commercial kitchen clean in order to achieve the overall success of your restaurant business. Most businesses are judged by the service and food quality they bring to their customers as well as the sanitary food preparation they execute for the overall health of their customers and kitchen employees. Unsanitary food preparation areas in the kitchen pose a thread to your business and can lead to loss of customers as well as revenue and even magnify the risks of having injuries and accidents in the kitchen.

While there are cleaning tasks that needs to be done only once or twice a month, there are sanitation and cleaning tasks that needs to be completed in your commercial kitchen on a daily basis in order to maintain the health of your kitchen. One of the most effective ways to keep track of these tasks is to have a comprehensive list of tasks to be completed along with cleaning methods and recommended products.

Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Equipment
This task should be done on a daily basis to avoid buildup of grime and grease in your equipment and to keep them in good working conditions. Kitchen equipment like grinders, mixers, blenders and slicers have multiple parts and simply wiping it down with disinfectant isnt enough to sanitize the equipment.

Luckily, most kitchen equipment comes with a user manual with instructions on how to clean the products along with tips on how to properly disassemble the machine without causing damage to its mechanisms.

Here are a few tips on how to clean your kitchen equipment once you have disassembled it:

Wash each part of the equipment thoroughly with hot soapy water to remove large pieces of food stuck in the equipment. You may need to use high-pressure hose to remove sticky or dried food
Never use abrasive materials. You can opt to use heavy-duty antibacterial dish soap to remove food grease without leaving any abrasive chemical residue.
To access hard to reach places, you can use a small hard-bristled brush
Rinse all kitchen equipment parts with hot water.- Make sure that all parts are dry and clean before you reassemble the equipment

Cleaning commercial preparation surface
Food preparation surfaces should be sanitized several times a day, after every food preparation task. Commercial kitchen surfaces were mostly designed with stainless steel which makes it easier to sanitize and clean. However, there are surfaces that are sometimes overlooked during the cleaning process such as movable prep tables like chopping boards and high shelves.

Movable prep surfaces should be washed thoroughly with soap and water before sterilizing in the dishwasher. You can follow these sanitation tips for other hard prep surfaces:

Remove items from shelves and countertops and thoroughly wipe away food scraps or debris. to scour off dried food, you can use hot soapy water
Always use a professional-grade disinfectant spray which can be safe for use near food
When using disinfectants, make sure that you use gloves and spray approximately 8-inches away from the surface
Leave prep tables to air dry
For tiled surfaces, it may be necessary to use a specialized tile cleaner that can kill bacteria by penetrating into the tile grout.

Cleaning commercial stove tops
It is important to clean stove tops and surfaces every end of service as these areas can easily become grimy with spilled food and grease. There are different sanitation and cleaning procedures depending on the type of burner in commercial kitchens.

Heres a few tips on how to clean commercial stove tops:

Wipe up spills as they happen during service as these grease become burnt and hard to remove
If you are using gas stove burners, remove the burner covers along with the drip trays and knobs and soak these in hot soapy water to loosen the grease.
For electric stoves, remove the metal bowls by lifting the burner plates. Soak the knobs and bowls in hot soapy water.
Use steel wool when scrubbing off grease
After cleaning the burner covers, rinse and dry the equipment thoroughly before assembling it back to the stove top
Once a month, you need to pull the stove tops away from the wall and clean the back of the stove and wall.

Cleaning commercial grill
Grill plates usually become dirty as these directly come in contact with the food being cooked. It is essential that food residue is removed and scraped from the grill several times during the food service, most efficiently in between orders.

Commercial grills are a lot easier to clean when they are still warm. Here are a few tips to safely sanitize and clean your commercial grillers:

Food residue from the grill can be cleaned using a grill scraper or a wire brush
Before cleaning, switch off the grill and let it slightly cool
For grills with non-chrome cooking surface, you can wear heat resistant gloves and scrub its surface using a brill brick in able to remove finer food particles
Chrome grills can be cleaned using a specialized grill cleaner along with a non-abrasive cloth
The waste drawer can be removed, emptied with its contents and soaked in hot water and dish soap.

Cleaning commercial oven
Most commercial ovens are manually cleaned even for just once a week. If you are fortunate, some commercial ovens have a self-cleaning feature that saves you all the trouble. Below are a few tips to help keep your oven clean:

When the oven has cooled after service, you can wipe any spills
If you want to make a thorough clean, first remove the oven racks then soak these in a hot, soapy water
Food residue accommodating in the interior surfaces can be wiped out using a damp cloth. To avoid damage, focus on cleaning around the air vents
Opt for cleaning your commercial oven with baking soda and vinegar mixture if you can afford to clean your oven every after service.
For ovens that are not cleaned regularly, you will need a commercial grade oven cleaner. Make sure to leave the oven doors open at night after cleaning in order to remove the fumes.

Cleaning Kitchen Hoods
Range hoods becomes extremely dirty as these were designed to suck grease and smoke in cooking areas. If these arent frequently cleaned, there is a possibility of grease build up which may also drip back into your cooking area. High volume kitchens usually opt for professional exhaust cleaning services. Here are simple tips to make your cleaning easier:

Frequently clean your exhaust to avoid clogging
Exhaust filters should be removed when cleaning and soaked in hot water together with heavy-duty degreasing solution.
Remove and soak trays in degreasing solutions then after which, scrub then rinse using hot water
Clean damp cloth should be used when removing any chemical residue from the degreasing solution
All components of the hood should be completely dry before reassembling

Cleaning kitchen floor
Though kitchen floors arent in contact with the food you serve, this can become a threat to health if you do not clean it properly. Although you sweep and mop your kitchen floor everyday, this isnt enough to sanitize the area. Here are a few tips to make sure you properly sanitize your kitchen floor:

Before mopping, make sure to sweep up debris including those under the counters and bench tops
Never use just ordinary soap when cleaning your kitchen floor as this can leave residue and leave a threat when the floor gets wet during your food service
Commercial-grade floor cleaners are ideal to kill bacteria as well as other pathogens on the floor
Always sanitize every cleaning equipment for your kitchen. Soak your mop in chlorine in order to kill bacteria
Pull out all your cooking equipment and benches once a week to scrub underneath surface