Whether in the home or in a commercial environment, kitchen hygiene and cleanliness is always important. In particular, meeting food hygiene standards is of the utmost importance for commercial caterers. It is recognized good practice to implement a disciplined day-to-day cleaning regime, for example at the end of a shift. This approach certainly goes a long way towards keeping up hygiene standards.

Nevertheless, contaminants such as dirt, grease, and bacteria will inevitably accumulate over time in hard to reach places such as behind or between work units, or on the walls and ceilings. The best way to address this inevitable build-up is to schedule regular deep-cleans by professionals who have the knowledge, experience, and tools to efficiently clean those parts that cannot be readily cleaned on a day-to-day basis.

A professional kitchen deep-cleaning contractor will go about the cleaning process in a logical and systematic way. By way of an example, the contractor might follow a process along the following lines;

Firstly, the various kitchen appliances need to be dismantled so that their components can be assembled for immersion in a “diptank”. A diptank is a large container that is filled with a warm or hot de-greasing solution. Components that can be removed for dipping include; grease filters, oven trays, range tops and rings, fryer pans, grill trays, dismantled fan units as well as other heavily soiled items. The components that can be dismantled are immersed in the diptank, for a period of time according to the manufacturers’ guidelines.

Next, in order to prepare for cleaning of the walls and surrounds where the kitchen will be exposed to water, all electrical items need to be isolated and all exposed switches covered with a waterproof tape of polythene cover.

To reduce the mess and disruption resulting in cleaning grease from appliances with a pressure steam cleaner, some kitchen items are often cleaned out of doors. If so, then these are assembled and removed from the kitchen. Where possible, equipment is pulled out away from the nearest wall to ensure that thorough cleaning can be achieved both beneath and behind the equipment.

The inside areas to be cleaned are now scraped off all excess grease using wire brushes or scrapers, prior to applying an appropriate cleaning solution to the surfaces. Once cleaned, all excess dirt and cleaning chemicals are cleaned off all surfaces. Walls and ceilings are normally thoroughly steam cleaned with a steam vacuum appliance. Once this is completed, then the equipment can be returned to the position.

Cooking and preparation areas are sanitized. A steam cleaner and wet vacuum equipment are generally used to clean the floor areas.

Finally, the premises are tidied up – all the debris and rubbish is taken away, and the outside areas tidied up. At the end of the cleaning work, the customer will be given the opportunity to check the work and once he or she is satisfied then they can sign a customer acceptance form. Often deep-cleaning is conducted during the night in order to avoid scheduled kitchen operations. If so, then the cleaners may be responsible for locking up. In this case, they will then make sure the site is secure, and keys returned to the designated place.

Professional kitchen deep-cleaning companies are generally able to be flexible in scheduling a deep-cleaning session, that may take a few hours to complete, and so will be quite prepared to work at a time that avoids disrupting the kitchen’s normal working hours.

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