Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Checklist Template: How to Clean a Commercial Kitchen

Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

Cleanliness is hugely important for restaurateurs. While your front of house can be as clean as a whistle, any slack in cleanliness or hygiene in the kitchen can still make its way through to your diners and really turn them off. You know what we’re talking about – greasy plates, spotty glasses, and potential contamination in food. 

Keeping your commercial kitchen immaculate helps prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria, cross-contamination, and damaging crackdowns or even closures by health inspectors. Additionally, of course, it keeps your customers coming back.

A lack of cleanliness can kill your business.  But it’s completely preventable if you have an excellent cleaning routine, and what better way to do that than by using commercial kitchen cleaning checklists? 

These simple tools give your cleaning routine structure and direction. They give the staff responsibilities and accountability, and all this without micro-managing. So what are these checklists all about, and how do they improve your business? That’s what we’re going to look at here.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• Why commercial kitchen checklists are so valuable

• What daily, weekly, and monthly items these checklists should contain

• Which supplies and cleaning products you need to keep things spotless

• Tips to keep your commercial kitchen as clean as can be

Ready? Let's dive in.

The Importance of a Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

Think about the way your kitchen gets cleaned right now. You’ve probably trained staff and then let veterans show new people the ropes, but important tasks may have been lost in translation. Rather than organizing and prioritizing tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly items, cleaning might be done on an ad hoc basis. And who keeps track of who is supposed to do what? Do you have a system of accountability to make sure cleaning tasks are appropriately shared and all of them are completed?

With checklists, your kitchen cleaning procedures can be standardized to make cleaning efficient, organized, and fair. For your business, kitchen cleanliness can help prevent contamination and disease. The CDC estimates that 48 million people get sick from food each year, and you definitely don’t want your kitchen to be responsible for even one of those cases. Having weekly and monthly deep cleaning items also ensures that you can stay on top of cleanliness and not let important tasks fall by the wayside. 

But staff also truly benefit when you institute cleaning checklists. 

A checklist is a simple way to save time by letting everyone know clearly what they’re responsible for and how often to do it. Initialing adds accountability, which helps show that cleaning task distribution is fair and everyone is pulling their weight. Checking things off the list is a way to let staff feel accomplished when they get an unsavory task out of the way. Finally, the checklist keeps bosses from having to micro-manage by laying out all necessary tasks clearly.

Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Checklists

Cleaning checklists can include tools and supplies in addition to cleaning tasks. These tasks can be organized into daily, weekly, and monthly categories for further organization.

Cleaning Supplies Needed 

For commercial kitchen cleaning, here are some supplies you might need:

• Surface and glass spray cleaners 

• Specialty cleaners for larger equipment (dishwasher, range, oven, ice machine, etc.) 

• Sponges and scourers

• Degreaser

• Disinfectants and sanitizer solution

• Clean cloths 

• Mop, broom, and dustpan

• Mop and bucket of hot, soapy water 

• Cleaning gloves

Daily Cleaning Tasks

During the Shift 

These are some of the most common items you’ll find on a list to do at the start or during a shift:

• Clean all surfaces before starting prep

• Sanitize surfaces between prepping different foods

• Properly wrap, date, and label any foods put in containers

• Scrape down griddles and grills between uses

• Clean up big spills or splatters

• Ensure proper temperatures of hot and cold food holding units

• Sanitize surfaces after being touched by potentially contaminating foods (e.g. raw meat)

• Fill, run, and empty the dishwasher 

• Wash and return food prep equipment between runs of dishes

• Mop the floor to prevent slipping

When Closing Out 

A big cleaning is necessary before closing out for the day. Important items can include:

• Clean and sanitize the washing station and sinks

• Lift up and clean floor mats

• Take out the trash and recycling

• Clean the grills and griddles and empty drip trays

• Sanitize any hot or cold food-holding units 

• Clean equipment and tools, and clean and re-season pots/pans

• Degrease and sanitize all surfaces

• Sweep and mop the floors

• Wipe and sanitize food prep surfaces and polish all stainless steel surfaces 

Weekly Cleaning Tasks

You’ll want to save more intensive cleaning items to be done weekly. These can include:

• Empty shelves and clean the surfaces of walk-in areas

• Dispose of any ingredients that are no longer fresh

• De-lime coffee makers

• Ensure floor and sink drains are clean and flowing

• Clean grease traps

• Check any pest prevention traps and clean or replace them as needed

• Replace the fryer oil 

• Clean insides and outsides of ovens and steamers

• Clean fan guards, vents, and hoods

• Wipe down and sanitize doors

Monthly 

Some items need to be done only once a month. They can include:

• Fully empty and deep clean the walk-in

• Deep clean fan, vents, and hoods

• Deep clean the floor 

• Clean out drains and remove any blockage 

• Clean inside microwave

• Clean inside dishwasher

• Wash walls and ceilings

• Clean out all ice and drink machines

• Empty and clean the insides of fridges and freezers

• Re-stock cleaning and first-aid items as needed

Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Tips

Checklists are excellent tools to organize and streamline your commercial kitchen cleaning procedures. They take the pressure off managing cleaning tasks and can allow you more time to focus on how to keep your restaurant as clean as can be. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

Tip #1: Focus on Preventing Foodborne Illness 

The last thing you want to do is make your customers sick. So, focus on preventing contamination of food and dishes before they even leave the kitchen. Keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Anything left in the danger zone (40 - 140 degrees °F) creates a risk. Keep pests away from your food stores. Avoid cross-contamination from potentially dangerous foods by keeping ingredients separate and surfaces sanitized. And be stringent about employee hygiene. Remember the 20-second hand washing rule and keep sick staff out of the kitchen.

Tip #2: Check the Health Department’s Guidelines

Every restaurant has to deal with health inspections. If you see them as a useful outside resource to help you maintain high standards, you’ll start to appreciate their visits rather than dread them.

Make inspectors and your customers happy by keeping your kitchen clean and pest-free. Food should always be properly stored at held at the right temperatures, and ingredients should be tossed when they’re no longer fresh. Proper staff hygiene and safe food prep can help you avoid cross-contamination, and following a kitchen cleaning checklist can help you stay in the health inspector’s good books.

Tip #3: Prevent Pests

Pests like mice and cockroaches can contaminate food and cost you money by invading your food stores. Keep them managed by:

• Keeping surfaces clean of food residues

• Keeping food in air-tight containers and not leaving any food out overnight

• Getting trash out of the kitchen regularly

• Cleaning and replacing pest traps as often as needed

• Being vigilant about checking for warning signs like droppings or nests and taking action as soon as possible 

Tip #4: Train Staff to Prioritize Food Safety

Educating and training your entire staff, front- and back-of-house, in proper hygiene, food safety, and overall cleanliness is key to making sure every guest has a safe, sanitary dining experience. 

Restaurant training is not a one-time thing, especially when it comes to food safety. Keep your staff trained and regularly updated on your cleanliness policies. Let them know just how crucial it is that things stay safe and clean. 

It’s important to see that everyone is doing things the way they should be done every day, not just the days immediately after a training session.

Tip #5: Deliver an Enjoyable Experience for Guests

Inspect your restaurant’s cleanliness as though you were a customer. What can you see that needs improvement? Or even better, ask or hire someone without bias to do this for you. Find out which items to improve stem from the kitchen and institute appropriate new cleaning policies to address them.

Remember that no matter how good your food or speedy your service is, customers will likely not return to a restaurant they think is dirty.

Despite all the setbacks in the past few years, the restaurant industry is still growing. An incredible 45% of diners are eating out at least twice a week, and another 20% go out once a week. Naturally, this means that they expect fantastic service, terrific food, great value, and, of course, cleanliness. With commercial kitchen cleaning checklists and a focus on health and hygiene, you can be sure to give your customers what they come for and keep them coming back through your door.