Commercial Kitchen cleaning and maintenance- A sumptuous walkthrough

A business craves for good reviews that encourage those involved in the activity and inspire them to continue doing so. It takes a lot of planning and proper execution to earn appreciation.

A searing freshly cooked food dish coming out of your production area says volumes about the atmosphere from where it is coming. How hygenic is the area, how well-ventilated is space, how sanitized are your utensils and so on?

Commercial kitchen types of equipment are designed to withstand huge workloads. These types of equipment need to function perfectly for a smooth and hassle-free run of your food trade. If you don’t have a grip over the maintenance of the appliances in your food work area, the wear and tear will cost you a huge hole in your pocket plus criticism, which nobody yearns for. For eg., a fire outbreak can pull you out of your business track for weeks. Or a foul smell coming out of your kitchen or food served will fetch you heavy fines and unlimited embarrassment.

The amount you have invested in purchasing your kitchen equipment must not go in vain. On the contrary, it should make you earn good profits and satisfactory smiles from your customers.

The anticipation of the cleaning task after a busy day can be scary and extremely tiring. Due to this reason, many sterilising jobs might get ignored which would pile up more messy work for the future. But we recommend you to break down into small ones to accommodate all jobs and it won’t be daunting you.

Quite many wiping jobs need to be carried out daily which can’t be pushed on weekly calendars. While several other sterilization drives need to be scheduled and followed on a weekly and monthly basis.

Below is an exhaustive walkthrough over cleaning and maintenance of a commercial kitchen that will give your brigade to maintain the commercial kitchen as neat as a pin. This will help them to perform daily food prep jobs in a hygienic and organised manner. Let’s take a look.

Cleaning should be performed daily to avoid greasing and griming of your equipage. Planetary Mixers, grinders, slicers and blenders are the kind of appliances whose several parts or accessories that come in direct contact with food. A simple wipe off will not do. The bacteria will still breed.

But you are fortunate that you get manuals while you purchase your appliance from the commercial kitchen equipment supplier. These manuals carry guidance over how to to keep your kitchen decks bacteria and pathogen-free.  

Cleaning of different parts in commercial equipment

First, disassemble the equipment carefully place the parts. While separating the parts, make sure you have plugged off the machine to avoid injuries. Once done, just follow the below pointers:

• Wash thoroughly each part as you might find sticky food on it. You might require a high-pressure hose to apply pressure while washing off dry food particles.
• A medium or small-sized brush with not very hard bristles will be required to clear up the areas which can’t be reached easily.
• An industry recommended washing medium is advised as it is not harsh with chemicals that would harm the parts of any particular equipment. A good anti-bacterial detergent is enough to support your clearing jobs without leaving any residue.
• Make sure you rinse all the parts with hot water. This will sterilize the equipment.
• Before you reassemble, ensure that all parts are dried completely.

Cleaning  of surface space

The surface area of your commercial kitchen requires sterilising many times a day. Like you should sanitize the surface where you were doing meat jobs before for doing veggie jobs on the same surface.

Near all surfaces are made up of stainless steel which facilitates easy sanitization. But if you ignore the proper way to do so, it can become breeding grounds of food ruining pathogens. Surfaces were cutting and slicing jobs are done, butcher’s chopping board and many such surfaces require thorough disinfection to carry out hygiene food tasks the next day.

Surfaces which can be moved should undergo absolute washing under warm water. The high temperature of the water helps in the sterilization of the movable surfaces like chopping boards and other mobile prep equipage.  Tips to sanitize immovable surfaces are below:

• Empty the surface before you start cleaning.
• Scrub out any dry food left on the surface with warm water.
• Make sure your disinfectant spray is safe for use near food.
• Wear safety gloves and apron while cleaning is in progress
• You should spray in a manner that the liquid spreads evenly and covers a large area to avoid wastage.
• Wipe the entire surface with warm water and allow it to dry completely before reusing it.
• To clear up the tile back splashing stains and the possible bacteria in it, you require a tile degreasing spray that would disinfect the pathogen inside it.

Cleaning of the surface of Gas Stoves

The most greasy areas of your food workspace will be the top of the commercial cooking range. With layers of oil spilt and food on it, the clear up task can be a nightmare. Allow me to roll-out some easy tips so that cleaning of commercial gas cooktops become easier:

• Make sure your gas knobs are off or if an electric one, switch it off
• While using make sure you wipe off spills as they become sticky and hard to remove after some time.
• Remove all gas burners and dip trays before using liquid soap on the surface of the gas top. Dip these burners in warm soapy water for some time so that the spills and grease come out easily.
• Apply some warm water over the surface spills so that it is easily removed later on.
• You will require high-quality steel wool to scrub off any grease stains or food leftover on the surface
• A heavy-duty degreaser spray will work quite effectively over the surface around the burner as well as the back and front of the stove.
• Place the soaked burners and stands of the gas stove under warm water and wash them thoroughly. Allow them to dry completely before placing them on.
• Once a month, the degreaser spray should be applied to the back and front of the gas stove.

Cleaning of the storage area

The area where storage is dry should be emptied and sanitized once a week. You need to make sure no food is left either in the tiles or on the floor as it might become a home to bacteria. This kind of storage if left without cleaning can attract rodents and lead to damage of stocks and disturbs the budget.

The cold storage area should be cleared up once a week. This would also facilitate stock rotation. Likewise, the outdated stock will be out and would not leave any foul smell or spill on the area. Sanitize your cold storage as below:

• Remove all the stock in your commercial fridge.
• Mostly the shelves are detachable. Remove them and dip them in warm soapy water. If required brush with a medium impact.
• Use the disinfectant spray to wipe off food from fridge walls. This will facilitate both cleaning and sanitization.
• Take the shelves out of warm water and run them through normal water. Allow them to dry and place them back in the fridge.
• Use an industry recommended spray to be used outside the fridge area and wipe it off with a cloth.
• Scrub and sweep the floor with warm soapy water and then fresh water. Allow the floor to dry before resuming routine tasks.

Cleaning of kitchen hood

Commercial kitchen hoods or exhaust hood canopies are designed to suck the fumes arising from oil, heat and other cooking methods. This functionality makes them extremely dirty and messy. If ignored, the grease can come back dripping in the food or could cause a fire accident. Their apparatus is complex. And thus it makes clearing up difficult and time-consuming. You can always get In touch with your commercial kitchen equipment supplier for guidance or see the manual or seek help from a professional hood cleaning contractor.

The below tips will make your task easy to clean up the hood:

• You should clear up your exhaust hood on a timely basis. Like this the grease won’t get accumulated, making the cleaning process further cumbersome.
• Soak the filters placed inside the exhaust in warm soapy water and a degreasing disinfectant overnight. This much time will make the grease easy to leave the surface and sticky dirt will be easily removable. Post this, slightly scrub the filter and wash it thoroughly. Let it dry and then install.
• Remove grease drip trays and wash off the excess grease over them. If required, soak them in degreasing agent and them wash them.
• For the exterior and interior of the hood, use degreasing spray and then wipe off with a clean damp cloth. Do not use harsh chemical driven detergents. They will damage the surface of the hood.
• Make sure all components are completely dry before you assemble them back.

When you buy commercial kitchen equipment, make sure your vendor not only delivers the equipage but also guides you over regular cleaning and sanitization process. They also assist you in making weekly and monthly sterilising calendars. You can also approach a sanitization contractor or a local sterilization inspector for guidance and services.