Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

A signed cleaning record is the main evidence an Environmental Health Officer uses to decide whether your kitchen is clean every day, not just on inspection day. Done properly, this routine stops the four things that sink hygiene ratings and trigger enforcement: cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food, allergen cross-contact, grease fires in the extract system, and pest infestations.

A kitchen cleaning checklist split the way real kitchens clean: the daily close-down, the weekly jobs, and the monthly deep tasks, each with a place to initial, in line with FSA Safer Food, Better Business cleaning guidance.

10 checksPDF + phoneReviewed August 2026

Built on published UK guidance Show sources

Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995, reg. 4 (chilled food at or below 8C); FSA Safer Food Better Business for Caterers, "Cleaning effectively" and "Cleaning schedule" safe methods (two-stage clean, sanitiser to BS EN 1276 / BS EN 13697, contact time); Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 (Regulation (EC) 852/2004 hygiene of food-contact surfaces); BESA TR19 Grease (Fire Risk Management of Grease Accumulation) cleaning frequency table by use level; FSA allergen guidance for food businesses (cross-contact controls).

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A well-kept cleaning setting — Made for places like this

What’s on it

10 things to check.

Everything that matters, nothing that does not. Here is the full list, exactly as it appears on the template.

1Before service, check every fridge and chilled display reads 8C or below (the legal maximum) and freezers read -18C or below. Aim chillers at 1C to 5C so they stay legal when doors open. Write the reading, the time, and your name on the temperature record. If any chiller reads above 8C, move cooked meats, dairy, fish, and other ready-to-eat food to a working unit straight away, then report the fault before you start.
2Before prep, take the right colour board and knife for the job: red for raw meat and poultry, blue for raw fish, green for salad, fruit and herbs, brown for raw vegetables, yellow for cooked meat, white for dairy and bakery, purple for allergen or free-from prep. Bin any board with deep cuts or staining you cannot scrub out, because bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter sit in the grooves and survive normal cleaning. The colour only works if you also clean and sanitise the board every time you change food type.
3Clean and sanitise food-contact surfaces in two stages, and always between raw and ready-to-eat tasks. Stage one: scrape off debris and wash with hot detergent water to remove grease and dirt. Stage two: rinse off the detergent, apply a sanitiser that meets BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697 at the dilution on the label, and leave it wet for the contact time stated (often 30 seconds), then air-dry or wipe with a clean disposable cloth. Disinfectant does not work on a dirty or greasy surface, so never skip stage one.
4At the start, middle, and end of service, sanitise the hand-touch points that get missed because they do not look dirty: tap handles, fridge and oven door handles, bin lids, light switches, and door push-plates. Use the same sanitiser as food-contact surfaces. These spots carry bacteria from hands straight into prep areas.
5Change your cleaning cloth and refresh your sanitiser bucket through the shift. A cloth wiped across surface after surface just spreads the contamination it picked up, so use disposable cloths or swap to a colour-coded cloth washed at 60C between uses. Make up fresh sanitiser solution at least every 4 hours, or sooner if it looks dirty, because a dirty or wrongly diluted solution stops killing bacteria.
6At the end of each service, clean all cooking equipment (grill, hob, oven, salamander, fryer surround) while it is still warm but cool enough to touch safely. Lift out fryer baskets and soak them in degreaser if heavily soiled. Grease left on equipment is the most common cleanliness failure EHOs record and a direct fire risk. Sign the equipment off on the nightly cleaning record.
7Wipe the canopy filters and check under the canopy for grease drips or pooling at least weekly. If grease is dripping, stop using that section until it is cleaned. The full extract ductwork must be professionally cleaned to BESA TR19 Grease by use level: every 3 months for heavy use (12 to 16 hours a day), every 6 months for moderate use (6 to 12 hours), and every 12 months for light use (2 to 6 hours). File each TR19 certificate, because insurers and EHOs both ask for it and a missing certificate can void your fire insurance.
8At least once a week, pull out and deep clean behind and underneath fixed equipment: fridges, fryers, ranges, and prep tables. Shine a torch into the gaps, because the grease and food debris trapped there is the main thing that draws in mice and cockroaches. Log the clean. Record any pest signs (droppings, gnaw marks, smear marks) and report them to your pest contractor the same day.
9At close, check every open item of food is covered, labelled with its date opened or use-by date, and in the right unit. In any shared fridge, ready-to-eat food goes above raw, with raw meat and fish covered on the bottom shelf so nothing can drip onto food eaten without cooking. Throw out anything past its use-by date. Unlabelled containers and out-of-date food are two of the most common EHO findings.
10At the end of the shift, sign and date the cleaning record to confirm what was cleaned, by whom, and when. This is the first document an EHO asks for. A spotless kitchen with no signed records is treated as if it is not cleaned consistently, because there is no proof. Record the job as done, not just planned.

Good to know

Colour-coded chopping boards are not required by UK law; the law requires you to prevent cross-contamination and show an EHO how. The board colour is only the label on your system, not the system itself. If staff cut raw chicken then raw beef on the same red board without cleaning and sanitising it between, that is still a cross-contamination failure. The control that counts is cleaning, sanitising, or heat-disinfecting equipment between raw and ready-to-eat use; the colour just makes separation easy to see and to demonstrate.

Source: Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995, reg. 4 (chilled food at or below 8C); FSA Safer Food Better Business for Caterers, "Cleaning effectively" and "Cleaning schedule" safe methods (two-stage clean, sanitiser to BS EN 1276 / BS EN 13697, contact time); Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 (Regulation (EC) 852/2004 hygiene of food-contact surfaces); BESA TR19 Grease (Fire Risk Management of Grease Accumulation) cleaning frequency table by use level; FSA allergen guidance for food businesses (cross-contact controls).

Good to know

Questions, answered

What should a kitchen cleaning checklist include?

Daily jobs (surfaces, equipment, floors, waste), weekly jobs (behind and under equipment, fridges), and monthly or deep-clean tasks, each signed and dated. That split, plus the record-keeping, is what food-hygiene inspections expect to see.

Is this the same as a cleaning schedule?

It is the record half: what was cleaned and who signed it. Pair it with the Weekly Cleaning Schedule for the planning half, or take the Food Safety Pack for the full kitchen set.

What is the Kitchen Cleaning Checklist?

Why does it matter?

How do I get it, and is it up to date?

The PDF downloads the moment you check out, prints sharp in black and white, and opens on any phone. It is reviewed for August 2026 and you get any future update free when the official guidance changes.

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