Education Business

So you have decided to deep clean your kitchen. This might be because you are worried about a build up of dirt, because of comments by an Environmental Health Officer or just because you think it’s a good idea. Whatever your motivation, it is crucial that you think before you act, otherwise it could all prove to be an expensive waste of time.

Be aware
The first thing to make clear is that a deep clean is not a substitute for the day to day cleaning of your kitchen. A deep clean may well return your kitchen to an as new state, but from the moment that people return and start cooking, then contamination will also return and with it the risk of E-coli and other food poisoning issues. The deep clean is an opportunity to clean things that may have been left for a long time – not a way of putting off daily hygiene tasks.
    
Secondly, it is very important that you properly schedule and resource the deep clean. By this I mean that it is vital to ensure that you know how many people are required to do the job, how much time it will take and what equipment is required. Deep cleans are disruptive and will therefore need to be properly planned and managed in the context of the rest of the kitchen operations.

Close the kitchen
To do a deep clean properly, the kitchen will need to be closed. This is both to enable you to move kitchen equipment around to enable a full clean, and to ensure that there are no risks to health and safety from things such as hot fat or wet floors while the clean is underway. You should bank on the kitchen being out of action for a couple of days to ensure that there is enough time for the deep clean.
    
Closing the kitchen also enables you to use more robust techniques to clean the kitchen area. You may wish to use a steam cleaner to remove stubborn grease from cooking equipment, or allow a chlorine-based cleaning product time to fully disinfect surfaces. In every case though, you should ensure that the person doing the work is properly trained and managed, and has access to the necessary personal protective equipment. If in doubt, ask a contractor to do the work for you.

Using a cleaning company
Deep cleaning can be disruptive, but it brings real benefits to the cleanliness and hygiene of a kitchen. You may be tempted to do the work yourself, but this may expose you and your staff both to health and safety risks, and also to the risk of not making a thorough enough clean. For these two reasons I would always recommend using a professional cleaning company to deep clean your kitchen.
    
So how should you go about choosing a company to deep clean your kitchen?
    
The first port of call should be your existing contract cleaning supplier, if you have one. Many catering establishments have already contracted out their daily cleaning, and if that is the case then it makes sense to discuss with them what your requirements are. In most cases I am sure that they will be able to help.
    
If, however, you do not have an existing contract cleaner in place, then there are a number of different avenues that you can take.
    
Perhaps the first port of call would be other kitchens in your area. Do they already use a contractor for their deep cleans? Can they recommend someone to you? Getting a contractor with local experience is a good way of ensuring that you find someone who knows how to do the job properly.
    
The other approach that you can take is to contact a trade association like the Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA). Trade associations have lists of members in your area and will be pleased to put you in contact with them. Moreover, if you want to discuss the work in more detail, the association is always available to provide advice and support.
    
However you chose your contractor, it is always a good idea to ask for and take up references, so you can see examples of other places they have cleaned, and ask the clients if they are satisfied.

Specification and monitoring
There are two more issues that you need to get right when you are contracting.
    
The first of these is the specification. In other words you need to be clear about what you want the contractor to do. It is no good asking for a deep clean of the kitchen, because deep cleans mean different things to different people. The contractor should be able to provide you with a model specification for a kitchen deep clean that you can then modify to suit your own needs.
    
Once the specification is clear, you then need to understand how the contractor will monitor the quality of their work. Some contractors use a formal quality system, such as ISO 9000, while others use in house systems. Both are equally valid, but you should satisfy yourself that whatever system is being used, it enables the contractor to manage the work properly and assure you that the agreed specification is being delivered.
    
In conclusion therefore, a deep clean is a fundamental part of ensuring that the kitchen remains hygienic. It may lead to disruption but it is worth it for the benefits to your business. It is best done by a specialist contractor, and you should be careful in how you choose, monitor and manage the contractor so as to get the best out of them.

For more information
For further information contact Andrew on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it