Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free commercial kitchen cleaning checklist is for kitchen managers, head chefs and cleaning leads in restaurants, hotels, cafés and contract catering. One run is one week of the kitchen’s cleaning schedule, and it is built to run on a weekly recurring schedule. It starts by setting up the week: the site, who leads the cleaning and who signs it off, and every chemical in use with its dilution and contact time from the label. Each day’s cleaning of food-contact surfaces, equipment, touch points, hand-wash basins, bins, floors and cloths is recorded in a table, area by area. The kitchen manager then checks raw and ready-to-eat separation, and the weekly jobs cover fridges, canopy filters, ovens, dry stores and the dishwasher. A deep-clean phase appears in weeks when periodic items are due, and the infestation tasks appear when signs of pests are found. The week closes with problems put right and the kitchen manager’s sign-off.
A kitchen that looks clean at the end of service can still have a greasy canopy, a fridge nobody has emptied for a month and a mop that does the floor and the prep bench. UK government guidance for food businesses says you must be able to prove you clean effectively, with a cleaning schedule that covers what is cleaned or disinfected, how often and with which products. In the US, the FDA Food Code, a model code that states and local health departments adopt as their own rules, sets how often food-contact surfaces are cleaned and how they are sanitized.
This checklist is that schedule for one week, run on a weekly recurring schedule. The nightly shut-down clean that closes each trading day sits in the Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist. This one is the full rota: every area day by day, the weekly jobs a day cannot fit and the deep clean when it is due. The HACCP Food Safety Checklist decides which hazards your cleaning has to control.
Covers: food-contact surfaces and boards, equipment, touch points, hand-wash basins, bins, floors, disinfectant and cloths.
Who: the cleaning lead and the shift team.
Output: a table on each task showing who cleaned it and when, day by day.
Covers: fridges and freezers, canopy filters, ovens and fryers, dry stores, the dishwasher, walls and shelving, plus the raw and ready-to-eat checks and the pest checks.
Who: the cleaning lead, checked by the kitchen manager.
Output: dated records and the kitchen manager’s sign-off.
Covers: behind and under heavy equipment, high-level surfaces, the cold room, the ice machine, drains and the grease trap, and the specialist ductwork clean.
When: monthly, or at the interval in your deep-clean plan.
Output: before and after photos and contractor reports.
Eight phases follow one week of a commercial kitchen’s cleaning. Phase 2 is recorded day by day in a table on each task. Phase 5 appears only in weeks when deep-clean items are due. The infestation tasks in Phase 6 appear only when signs of pests are found, and the corrective actions in Phase 7 only when something was missed or failed.
Answer which rules apply first; it adds the matching legal notes to the tasks. Every due date counts from the date and time the cleaning week starts.
Record each day in the table on the task: who did it, when, and anything not done. Clean and disinfect in two stages: clean off dirt and grease first, then apply the disinfectant and leave it for the contact time on the label.
The kitchen manager checks these on the floor once a week. Separate areas, equipment and cloths come first; anything that has to be shared is cleaned and disinfected between raw and ready-to-eat use.
Spread these across the quieter days of the week. Each task records when it was done.
Shown only when deep-clean items are due this week. Do the work when the kitchen is closed or quiet, and mark items not due this time as not applicable.
Food left out and dirty corners draw pests in. The infestation tasks appear only when signs of pests are found, and the checklist cannot go further until the kitchen manager confirms the area is safe to use.
Use the daily tables and the checks above to find what was missed or not done well. The corrective action tasks appear only when there were problems.
The kitchen manager reviews the whole week on the record and on the floor before signing it off.
Both systems ask for the same things: a planned schedule, clean first and then disinfect or sanitize, chemicals used as the label says, and raw food kept away from ready-to-eat food. The UK puts most of the detail in guidance from the Food Standards Agency (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Food Standards Scotland. The US puts it in the FDA Food Code, which each state or local health department adopts. Use the table to set your own kitchen rules; it is not legal advice.
| Topic | UK (FSA and FSS guidance, Regulation 852/2004) | US (FDA Food Code 2026, a model code) |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning schedule | A cleaning schedule and record covering what is cleaned or disinfected, how often and with which products. SFBB in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and CookSafe in Scotland include one | No set form. Physical facilities are cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean, and when the least food is exposed, such as after closing (6-501.12) |
| How surfaces are cleaned | Two stages: clean off dirt and grease, then disinfect for the contact time on the label. A sanitiser is used twice, once for each stage | Washed (Part 4-6), rinsed, then sanitized before use (4-702.11, 4-703.11) |
| Disinfectant standard | Disinfectants and sanitisers should meet BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697, or an equivalent standard | Chemical sanitizers used to their EPA-registered label (4-501.114), with a test kit to measure the concentration (4-302.14) |
| Contact time | As the manufacturer’s label says, at the right dilution | Consistent with the label: at least 10 seconds for most chlorine solutions and 30 seconds for other chemical sanitizers (4-703.11) |
| Food-contact surfaces | Cleaned and, where necessary, disinfected often enough to avoid any risk of contamination (Annex II, Chapter V), and always after contact with raw food | Cleaned at each change from raw to ready-to-eat food, between different raw animal foods and at least every 4 hours in use with TCS food (4-602.11); cooking equipment and microwave cavities at least every 24 hours (4-602.12) |
| Cloths | Disposable cloths recommended; re-usable cloths washed on a 90°C cycle (FSA); cloths from raw areas not used on ready-to-eat areas unless washed in between | Wet wiping cloths held in sanitizer between uses and laundered daily; cloths for raw animal food kept separate (3-304.14) |
| Raw and ready-to-eat | Separate areas, equipment, utensils and cleaning materials, or cleaning and disinfection between uses; complex equipment such as slicers and vacuum packers not shared during the working day | Surfaces cleaned and sanitized at each change from raw to ready-to-eat food (4-602.11), and separate wiping cloths for raw animal food (3-304.14) |
| Chemical storage | Cleaning agents and disinfectants not stored in areas where food is handled (Annex II, Chapter I) | Stored apart from food and clean equipment, never above them (7-201.11); working containers labelled with the common name (7-102.11) |
| Pests | Adequate procedures to control pests (Annex II, Chapter IX) | Premises routinely inspected and kept free of pests (6-501.111); dead or trapped pests removed (6-501.112) |
| Ventilation | Filters and other parts needing cleaning readily accessible (Annex II, Chapter I) | Ducts cleaned and filters changed so they are not a source of contamination (6-501.14) |
Check which Food Code edition applies. The FDA’s 2026 Food Code is its most recent full edition, but each state and local agency adopts the code on its own timetable and may amend it. Your health department can tell you which version its inspectors work to.
The BS EN standards. BS EN 1276 and BS EN 13697 are the published test standards a disinfectant or sanitiser is checked against. UK guidance asks you to check that the product label names one of them, or to ask the supplier or manufacturer when it does not.
A weekly recurring schedule starts each kitchen’s week on time, assigned to its cleaning lead and kitchen manager, with every due date counted from the start of the week. A week that has not been finished shows as an open checklist on the Reports Grid.
Each daily task carries a table for the seven days, so a blank day stands out. The deep-clean phase appears only in weeks when it is due, and the corrective action tasks only when something was missed, through rules set by a single answer.
When signs of pests are found, the kitchen manager confirms the area is safe to use again, and nothing after that approval step can be completed until they record a decision. Every entry, photo and decision is kept with who made it and when.
CheckFlow does not clean the kitchen or choose your chemicals. That belongs to the kitchen manager, your chemical supplier and your food safety management system. It makes sure every job on the rota has a name and a date, that a missed clean reaches someone who puts it right, and that each week is reviewed and signed off. Our guide to recurring checklists shows how weekly routines like this one run.
Keep the trading day’s checks in the Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist, build or review the food safety plan with the HACCP Food Safety Checklist, and train new starters on your cleaning methods with the Restaurant Employee Training Checklist. Dishwashers, fridges and extraction need servicing as well as cleaning: the Preventive Maintenance Checklist keeps them on a schedule.
Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist
HACCP Food Safety Checklist
Restaurant Employee Training Checklist
Restaurant Health Inspection Checklist
5S Audit Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
Everything in the kitchen that needs cleaning, how often, how and with which product. Daily items usually cover food-contact surfaces and chopping boards, equipment and utensils, handles and other touch points, hand-wash basins, bins, floors and cloths. Weekly items cover fridges and freezers, canopy filters, ovens, dry stores and the dishwasher. Periodic items cover the deep clean: behind heavy equipment, high-level surfaces, the cold room, drains and the extract ductwork. Add pest checks, a record of anything missed and a manager’s sign-off.
There is no single legal interval. UK guidance asks for a cleaning schedule that says how often each item is cleaned, and Annex II of Regulation 852/2004 asks for cleaning often enough to avoid any risk of contamination. The FDA Food Code asks for physical facilities to be cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean. Set the interval by how fast grease and dirt build up: items that cannot wait go on the weekly list, the rest on a monthly or longer deep-clean plan.
Cleaning and disinfecting as two separate steps. First you clean: remove visible dirt, grease and food with hot soapy water or a cleaning product, then wipe or rinse. Then you disinfect: apply a disinfectant or sanitiser all over the surface and leave it for the contact time on the label. FSA guidance explains that disinfectants only work on surfaces that have been cleaned first. A sanitiser is a two-in-one product, so it is used twice, once for each stage.
In the UK, FSA and Food Standards Scotland guidance says disinfectants and sanitisers should meet BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697, or an equivalent standard, used at the dilution and contact time on the label. Check the label, and ask the supplier if it does not say. In the US, the FDA Food Code asks for a chemical sanitizer used according to its EPA-registered label, at a concentration you can check with a test kit.
In the US, the FDA Food Code asks for food-contact surfaces and utensils to be cleaned at each change from raw to ready-to-eat food, before use with a different type of raw animal food, whenever they may have been contaminated, and at least every four hours while in use with TCS food. They are sanitized before use after cleaning. UK guidance says to clean and disinfect food areas and equipment after contact with raw food and before preparing ready-to-eat food.
Use disposable cloths where you can and throw them away after each task. FSA guidance says re-usable cloths should be washed, disinfected and dried between tasks, ideally on a 90°C washing machine cycle, and that steeping dirty cloths in bleach is not effective. Cloths used on raw food areas must not be used on ready-to-eat areas unless washed in between. In the US, wet wiping cloths are held in sanitizer between uses and laundered daily.
In the UK, government guidance says you must be able to prove you clean effectively, and to set up a cleaning schedule and record. SFBB in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and CookSafe in Scotland, include a cleaning schedule. In the US, what you must record depends on your health department and any HACCP plan. Either way, a dated record of who cleaned what is the simplest proof for an inspector. Daily opening and closing checks belong in the Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist.
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