— By Nathan Willard —
Kitchen cleaning and maintenance is a marathon, not a sprint.
For restaurant managers who already have enough on their plates, preventative maintenance (PM) can easily get swept away in the busyness of a daily routine.
As a result, PM items that need to be performed on a regular basis often get pushed to the side. In the blink of an eye, a fire safety inspection that restaurant managers and owners should be prepared for is only weeks away, catching managers and their kitchen staff off guard.
This sense of unease can be easily alleviated when restaurant kitchens implement effective fire prevention measures. These precautions ensure code compliance, but more importantly, they prioritize the safety of both staff and guests.
These measures and precautions cover several vital areas that must be addressed. First, managers and their staff can perform small in-house cleanings and maintenance at the end of each workday. They should also schedule routine inspections and upkeep of fire suppression systems and fire extinguishers. Additionally, partnering with a professional company to ensure proactive kitchen exhaust system maintenance is essential.
Luckily, restaurant managers don’t need to determine how often they should be scheduling cleaning and maintenance services for their kitchen exhaust system. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publishes specific guidelines by way of the NFPA 96, which considers the type and volume of cooking operations that regularly occur in a facility. For instance, busy restaurant kitchens with high cooking volumes and solid fuel cooking operations require monthly cleaning, but facilities with lower volume operations, like churches and daycare centers, may only require semi-annual cleanings.
While the NFPA 96 is a valuable resource, relying on a professional kitchen exhaust system company is the only way to ensure your facility continually meets fire code requirements.
Why Is Regular Kitchen Maintenance So Important?
When it comes to keeping restaurant kitchens safe and ensuring fire prevention measures are up to standard, regular exhaust system maintenance is of the utmost importance. That is because cooking of any quantity produces a number of effluents such as grease, moisture and smoke. In a properly functioning exhaust system, these effluents are drawn up into the hood, through the filters and then into the ductwork — where they build over time. When this system is not cleaned on a routine basis, this buildup becomes a fire hazard.
In addition to ensuring restaurant kitchens are safe and up to code, establishing a routine maintenance schedule will help extend the lifespan of various systems that are integral to a restaurant kitchen’s daily operations. An example of this is a system that has been neglected for an extended period of time and urgently needs to be cleaned prior to inspection. In that case, it is much more difficult to restore the system to the point of passing an inspection during the timeframe of a normal cleaning.
Restaurant managers should also schedule regular maintenance services to avoid the health and safety concerns that come with a neglected restaurant kitchen. This includes fire hazards resulting from poorly maintained kitchen exhaust systems and a sticky, slippery and potentially pest-ridden kitchen environment due to an accumulation of grease. Regular maintenance will not only help avoid these concerns entirely, but will grant restaurant managers greater peace of mind that their restaurant kitchens will pass upcoming inspections and continue to serve as safe workspaces for kitchen staff.
Keeping Up with Commonly Neglected Areas in Commercial Kitchens
Just because an area is out of sight or difficult to access does not mean it should be out of mind. Out-of-sight areas such as ductwork, roofs and behind vent hood filters are some of restaurant kitchens’ most commonly neglected areas. While this mainly occurs due to the busy environment that is typical of restaurant kitchens, it is also becoming more difficult for restaurant managers to keep up with routine filter cleanings and other important maintenance items due to the ongoing kitchen staff labor shortage.
With that in mind, restaurant managers can be proactive in keeping up with these crucial maintenance items by scheduling them on a routine basis through a professional kitchen exhaust cleaning company. For instance, companies like ours offer worry-free filter replacement services, which involve replacing grease-laden filters with matching clean ones before taking the dirty filters off-site to clean them.
These companies also offer regular hood cleaning and maintenance services to remove any grease and smoke buildup accumulated since their last cleaning. As a result, restaurant managers can rest assured that they are receiving exceptional cleaning and maintenance services that will help keep their kitchens up to code and minimize potential fire hazards.
Common Problem Areas That Result in Failed Inspections
Whether an inspector is evaluating a restaurant kitchen or another type of commercial kitchen, there are several problem areas that make it easy for them to determine if the kitchen is behind on maintenance. These areas include hood stickers, which list the date of its last inspection and cleaning; any visible accumulation of grease; and the absence of access panels in required areas along the ductwork. Missing access panels often means that critical parts of the exhaust system haven’t been cleaned recently or have never been cleaned since they were installed.
Inspectors may also have access to third-party compliance software programs that host detailed commercial kitchen maintenance reports. These reports allow them to determine a commercial kitchen’s cleaning and maintenance frequency without having to physically enter the establishment. This makes it easier for inspectors to see if a kitchen is behind on crucial maintenance items that help keep kitchens up to code and minimize fire risks.
Benefits of Partnering with a Reliable Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Company
While fire safety can never be completely guaranteed in any setting, restaurant managers can do their part to prevent kitchen fires by partnering with a reliable kitchen exhaust cleaning company. As experts specializing in these services, these companies pride themselves on cleaning the entire system every time and providing thorough before-and-after reports so restaurant managers can trust that they are getting their money’s worth.
As a result, restaurant managers can rest assured knowing that their exhaust system has been properly cleaned and maintained, making their next inspection a breeze. Since these establishments serve as the livelihood of restaurant managers and kitchen staff and provide a sense of community for these staff members and their restaurant patrons, regular cleanings and maintenance help keep these facilities safe, up to code and inviting to anyone who sets foot inside.
— Nathan Willard is the brand president of HOODZ International in Ann Arbor, Mich. HOODZ is a recognized leader in the commercial kitchen exhaust system cleaning and preventive maintenance industry.