Food premises

Back to Food safety index

Food safety

Keeping your kitchen clean

Keeping your kitchen clean, using clean equipment and having a personal hygiene policy in place will help you produce safe food. This is vital to prevent food poisoning as harmful bacteria can build up on equipment, surfaces, chopping boards, crockery, utensils, switches, door handles, taps and other areas that you and food can come into contact with.

ensure a constant, easily accessible supply of cleaning cloths, cleaning chemicals and hot water is available at all times
using clean cloths, mops, buckets and re-freshed hot water for cleaning is essential
store cleaning equipment, detergents and fluids in a separate compartment away from food
clean all bench and food contact surfaces with detergent or degreaser to remove the dirt, then use a food grade commercial sanitiser to kill the bacteria
always read the labels on cleaning chemicals
prepare a cleaning schedule and make sure that everyone knows what duties they are responsible for
use a commercial grade dishwasher to wash all utensils ensuring the rinse cycle temperature is above 83ºC
never use tea towels or multipurpose cloths for cleaning
sanitise or boil cleaning cloths at the end of each day. Colour coding your cloths can help, e.g. red cloths for raw meat, blue cloth for cooked meat, etc
do not use food sinks to fill or dispose of mop water
clean food waste containers on a weekly basis or as necessary to minimise odours.

Cleaning schedule

Item to be cleaned	Cleaning frequency	Cleaning method
Bench tops and food preparation equipment eg meat slicer	Throughout the shift as required and at the end of the shift	Wipe down with a clean cloth soaked in a warm water detergent solution followed with sanitiser.
Floors	Sweep regularly throughout every shift and mop at the end of each day.	Sweep clean, then mop with a hot water detergent and disinfectant solution. Never clean the floor with cloths..
Walls	At the end of each day	Wipe with a clean cloth soaked in warm water and detergent
Glass display cabinets and counters	At the beginning of every day	Spray with a window cleaner and wipe with a clean cloth to a sparkle.
Coolroom, freezer and refrigerator	Weekly or more frequently as necessary	Clean shelving and mop/wipe out with clean water and detergent solution. Wipe down the exterior, especially the door handle, with detergent solution and a clean cloth
Shelving	Nightly	Use a clean cloth and warm detergent solution
Exhaust canopy and fan	Nightly	Spray exterior with window cleaner and wipe with a clean cloth
Exhaust canopy and fan	Weekly	Wash inner services and around exhaust ducting with warm detergent solution and a clean cloth or scrubbing brush.
Light fittings	Weekly	Wash with warm detergent solution.

Here is an example of a cleaning schedule:

Cleaning schedule (56kb) PDF

To view PDFs download Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website. Further help on how to view PDFs.