Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

Every restaurant owner needs to ensure the cleanliness and adequate maintenance of the restaurant kitchen, and other facilities to avoid food contamination. The cooking of food takes place in the kitchen. A dirty kitchen harbor diseases and germs that may poison food items. 

Public restaurants are one of the fastest means by which food poisoning spreads. Over the last ten years, we discovered that 3,900 solved cases of foodborne illness originated from unhygienic restaurants in the United States. Thus, running a restaurant with a dirty kitchen may put your customers’ lives at high risks.

Thorough cleaning of a restaurant kitchen goes beyond sweeping the floor or clearing the cobwebs.  

Proper cleaning may be difficult to achieve if you don’t know where, and the best time to clean.

  You will save yourself a lot of trouble and time just by creating a kitchen cleaning checklist. 

This article will take you through the process of creating a restaurant cleaning checklist. The checklist enables you to easily organize your kitchen cleaning routine into daily, weekly, and monthly activities. 

Before we dive in, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you need to put more effort into keeping your kitchen restaurant clean always.

Why is it Necessary to Keep the Restaurant Kitchen Clean?

 It is vital for restaurant owners always to keep their kitchen clean. A clean kitchen gains you more customers and improves your reputation among the competition in ways you wouldn’t know.  You would make cleaning a priority if you know how much it can make or mar your business. Below are some reasons why you need to keep your restaurant kitchen clean.

• It creates a good impression.  A clean kitchen and spotless restaurant with shiny facilities draw more people to your business. This creates a good feeling about you, improving your competitiveness.  On the other hand, when your restaurant kitchen is always dirty, someone will tell someone. This gives your business a bad reputation, which is detrimental to your growth. 
• The risk of shutting down. There are some individual regulatory bodies whose duty is to ensure that restaurants are conducive and hygienic enough to offer food, water, and drinks to consumers. If your restaurant does not meet the requirements set by these regulatory bodies, they can close down your restaurant. These inspections are carried out at random. So, you will not know when they will visit. 
• The risk of pest infestation. A dirty restaurant attracts pests such as rodents, flies, and cockroaches. This makes any food prepared, bad for consumption. Flies and pests are usually carriers of diseases and very difficult to remove. You want to pay attention to the way you clean your kitchen before it starts breeding pests. 
• It protects consumers from food poisoning. Earlier in this article, we found out that most food poisoning cases in the united states emerged from public restaurants. No consumer would come back to your restaurant if he got sick because of your food.  

We have already established the importance of keeping your restaurant kitchen regularly. Let’s move on to discuss how to create a restaurant kitchen cleaning checklist. We have divided the cleaning routine into three categories to ease their practice. These include Daily cleaning, Weekly cleaning, and Monthly cleaning.

Daily cleaning

Daily cleaning has to do with the cleaning tasks that you must do every single day of work. They must be done all seven days of the week if you open your restaurant every day, including weekends. Here are some cleaning activities that should make up the daily cleaning checklist for your restaurant. 

• Dust the walls of the kitchen: Some dirt might have accumulated on the walls. Failure to wipe them clean can result in contamination of the food.
• Clean and disinfect all surfaces. Before starting the new day at work, it is necessary to wipe every surface in the kitchen clean to ensure a hygienic cooking environment.
• Replace foil linings of grill, range, and flattop with new and clean ones. Do not reuse such items to avoid the risk of contamination.
• Clean your work station such as grill, range, flattop, and fryer. Every nook and corner of these items must be cleaned thoroughly every day to avoid the accumulation of dirt and food contamination in the long run.
• The can openers, and meat slicers need to be adequately washed because they are items you frequently use in the restaurant.
• Clean the floors with water and disinfectant to get rid of dirt and germs.
• The head of your dispenser needs to be cleaned correctly.
• Get rid of the kitchen waste, disinfect, and clean the waste bin (inside and outside).
• Clean rags, aprons, towels, uniforms, or any piece of cloth used that day. You can do that before you leave for the day.
• Wash the dishes and unclog the kitchen sink.

Weekly Cleaning checklist

A weekly cleaning checklist is a list of activities that must be carried out weekly. It is essential to do these cleaning tasks, at least once a week.

• Clean and disinfect the walk-in refrigerator. You cannot afford to wash the fridge daily because it will slow down work and disrupt your schedule. However, cleaning it once in a week requires in-depth cleaning after closing hours, keeping your restaurant safe from rubbishes that might harbor germs.
• Your oven needs abject cleaning at least once a week after frequent use- baking, grilling, and cooking. Use a soft sponge to wipe the doors, walls, and racks of the oven weekly.
• Your kitchen sinks and faucets need to be de-limed weekly to relieve them of mineral deposits. 
• Don’t forget that the drain in the kitchen needs to be adequately cleaned using the appropriate drain cleaners.
• Find a way to clean your deep fryer weekly. The boiling method seems to work correctly.

Monthly Cleaning Checklist

The monthly cleaning checklist involves cleaning routines that must be followed every month. You have to adhere to this routine as strictly as possible. Here are some monthly tasks you can include in the cleaning checklist for your restaurant kitchen.

• The area at the back of the hotline needs to be cleaned thoroughly every month. Use a damp sponge to wash.
• The tea and coffee makers need to be cleaned deeply every month. You cannot continue to clean the top alone. Dedicate a day in the month to perform an in-depth cleaning.
• The ice machine, freezer, and fridge also need cleaning once a month. Clear out the items and clean them thoroughly every month. Use a brush and vacuum cleaner to remove the dirt.
• Use soap to clean the walls of the kitchen. Wipe the kitchen ceiling clean with a damp cloth.
• Clean the vents and filters with appropriate cleaning agents. 

Conclusion 

Routine cleaning (daily, weekly, and monthly) is necessary when it comes to running a commercial kitchen or restaurant. Every employee must be urged to maintain a clean kitchen to prevent food contamination, endangering consumers’ lives. 

This article shows restaurant owners the list of activities that should make up their cleaning template. Use this template as a cleaning routine and maintain a clean restaurant kitchen.