Keeping Your Commercial Kitchen Clean With Regular Grease Trap Cleaning
More than 54 billion meals are served at 844,000 commercial kitchens in the United States each year. On average, over 40% of adults eat at a restaurant each day.
With such a high percentage of Americans eating out, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration places a high priority on food establishment inspections to prevent foodborne disease.
Each commercial eatery is required to have a certificate from the health inspector on display in their restaurant. Cleanliness is one of the most important things an inspector is looking for.
Make sure that your restaurant kitchen cleaning routine covers all your basis to ensure a pass every time.
Here’s our kitchen cleaning checklist that you can use in your commercial kitchen on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
Daily Restaurant Kitchen Cleaning
There are several tasks that should be part of the daily kitchen tasks to prevent a buildup of grime that can be difficult to tackle after days have passed.
Ideally, some of these tasks should be performed at the end of each shift (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) by kitchen staff. This will prevent the closing staff at the end of the day from having hours of work. It will also ensure a clean working environment during the day.
Here are the tasks that can be done after each meal shift:
- Sanitize all the work and prep surfaces including cutting boards
- Use a brush on the grill
- Toss the cleaning rags in the hamper
- Put all the aprons and chef coats in a separate hamper
- Hose off the floor mats
- Sweep and mop the kitchen floor
- Sweep the walk-in fridge
There are several cleaning tasks that can be done at the end of the day as well. These will ensure that the kitchen is clean and ready for a fresh start tomorrow.
The end of day cleaning tasks include the following:
- Use a wet rag to wipe grease or food splatters on the walls
- Wipe down small appliances such as coffee pots, toasters, and meat slicers
- Clean the beverage dispenser heads in the soda machines and the soda gun tips at the bar
- Clean the grill, griddle, range, flattop, and fryer
- Remove the old foil lining and replace with fresh foil on the range, grill, and flattop.
- Refill the soap dispensers and paper towel holders
- Scrub the stainless steel commercial sinks
- Take out the garbage and recycling
- Disinfect the garbage cans and put in clean bags
- Do a final sweep and mop of the floors and walk-in fridge
- Don't forget to check that all food is covered and property stored for the next day.
- Ensure that no ranges are turned on and that all the doors are locked.
Weekly Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Tasks
The weekly duties can be divided on different days so that all the tasks are done once a week but not necessarily on the same day. This will even out the workload for each shift.
The weekly cleaning tasks include the following:
- Clean the oven walls, doors and inside racks
- Clean the coffee machines
- Oil up all the cast iron cookware
- Sharpen all the knives
- Pull out everything in coolers and sanitize them before refilling
- Wash and sanitize the walk-in storage rooms and fridges and freezers
- Delime the 3-compartment sinks and faucets with commercial-grade cleaning products
- Clean any floor mats
- Use drain cleaners on floor drains
Commercial kitchen drains are susceptible to clogs from food and grease buildup. You might want to invest in The Drain Strainer to protect your drains and grease trap from clogging.
Create a schedule for these important tasks to ensure that staff does them every week on the same day.
Monthly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
The monthly tasks can be spread out during the month over various shifts so that some employees don't get the brunt of the work.
The monthly tasks include the following:
- Empty out the ice machine and sanitize it
- Clean the freezers
- Calibrate ovens and thermometers
- Clean behind the stove, fryers, and ovens to eliminate grease build up and clogs
- Dust fridge coils
- Sharpen the cheese and meat slicer
- Change pest traps
- Open up the first aid kit and restock items as needed
- Run a cleaning cycle through the coffee and soda machines
- Wash walls and ceilings
- Wipe down the dry storage area
- Grease trap cleaning
Grease trap cleaning is a dirty, smelly job. Consider installing The Drain Strainer to prevent food solids from clogging your grease trap and having to clean it more often than necessary.
Following this monthly checklist will help keep your kitchen in great shape and make the Health Inspector happy. Now, all that's left is the yearly tasks.
Yearly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
There are a few tasks that only need to be performed once or twice a year. This includes checking your fire extinguishers and fire alarm system. Replace batteries on smoke detectors if needed.
One way to remember to do the biyearly tasks is to align the tasks with the daylight sayings times changes. When the clocks change, replace the batteries on smoke detectors and check fire extinguishers.
Once a year you should clean the pilot lights on all your gas equipment. You might need to replace a bulb or two as well.
We recommend hiring a professional cleaning company to clean your hoods. This job takes a lot of time and is messy work.
Bottom Line
One of the biggest headaches with commercial kitchens is hiring a plumber to jet out the floor drain due to clogs. Our revolutionary Drain Strainer is a cost-effective commercial garbage disposal alternative.
It's not only better for the sewer system, but also better for the environment. You'll never have to pay a professional to unclog your floor drain or garbage disposal again.