Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Schedule: What to Clean and How Often

Quick answer: the FDA Food Code sets a few hard cleaning deadlines and leaves the rest to you. Food-contact surfaces in use with TCS food (time/temperature control for safety food, like meat, dairy, and cooked rice) are cleaned and sanitized at least every 4 hours, and every time you switch from raw meat to ready-to-eat food. Grills, ovens, microwaves, the dish machine, and wet wiping cloths are cleaned at least every 24 hours. Ice machines, soda lines, and similar equipment follow the manufacturer's schedule. Floors, walls, hoods, and restrooms are cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean, which in practice means a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule. Below is that schedule, with the section of the 2026 Food Code behind each rule, and a printable version to post in the kitchen.

Your state or local health department enforces its own version of the code, which may differ, so check its rules too.

What the Food Code Requires

A few exceptions let you clean food-contact equipment less often than every 4 hours, such as prep in a refrigerated room kept at 41°F or below (every 24 hours) or containers on a salad bar held at safe temperatures and topped up with the same food (every 24 hours). Big jobs like floors and walls are done when the least food is out, such as after closing (§6-501.12(B)).

Daily Cleaning Checklist

• Surfaces in use with TCS food: wash, rinse, and sanitize at least every 4 hours, and between raw meat and ready-to-eat food.
• Prep tables and cutting boards: clean and sanitize between tasks and at close.
• Slicers, mixers, and can openers: take apart, clean, and sanitize. A dirty slicer in use marks inspection item 16 out on its own.
• Grill, griddle, flat-top, and oven racks: clean the cooking surfaces at least once a day.
• Microwave: clean the inside and door seals.
• Dish machine and three-compartment sink: drain, clean, and refill; check wash temperature and sanitizer strength at the start of each shift. Our sanitizer log is a free place to record it.
• Iced tea dispensers and self-service utensils: clean.
• Wiping cloths: launder the day's wet cloths, and change sanitizer buckets whenever they look cloudy or dirty (§3-304.14).
• Handwashing sinks and restrooms: clean, and restock soap, paper towels, and toilet paper.
• Equipment outsides: wipe fridge handles, door gaskets, knobs, and fronts.
• Trash cans: empty, reline, and clean any that are soiled.
• Floors: sweep and mop after close, using wet or dustless methods (§6-501.13). Dump mop water only in the mop sink, never a food prep, handwashing, or dish sink (§6-501.15), and hang mops to dry (§6-501.16).

Weekly Cleaning Checklist

The Food Code doesn't name a frequency for most of these; it says to clean as often as necessary. Weekly is a sensible starting point for a busy kitchen, and more often if grease or soil builds up faster.

• Hood filters: run them through the dish machine or soak and scrub, so grease doesn't build up (§6-501.14).
• Behind and under the line: pull out equipment you can move and clean the floor and walls.
• Walk-in and reach-in shelves: empty one section at a time, clean, and throw out anything past its date mark (§3-501.18).
• Floor drains and the mop sink: scrub out.
• Trash cans and the dumpster area: wash the cans; sweep and hose the pad (§5-501.115).
• Produce fogger reservoir, if you use one: drain, take apart, brush with detergent, flush, and rinse with at least 50 ppm chlorine. This one is a code requirement: at least weekly (§5-205.14).
• Food thermometers: check calibration (§4-502.11). Our calibration log shows how.

Monthly Cleaning Checklist

• Ice machine: clean and sanitize the bin and the inside at least as often as the manual says, with the cleaner it names.
• Soda nozzles and lines, coffee grinders, and other enclosed equipment: on the manufacturer's schedule, which for some parts may be more often than monthly.
• Dish machine: delime as its manual directs, and check that it reaches the temperatures on its data plate (§4-501.15).
• Ceilings, vents, and light shields over food and dish areas.
• Freezers: clean out, and defrost if ice is building up.
• Pest control: check traps and entry points between service visits (§6-501.111).
• The schedule itself: walk the kitchen with it, and retrain anyone who's skipping steps.

On a schedule someone else sets: professional cleaning of the hood and exhaust ducts is set by your fire code, and grease trap pumping by your local wastewater rules. Keep the service records.

How to Clean and Sanitize a Food-Contact Surface

1. Scrape off food and soil.
2. Wash with detergent. In a three-compartment sink, the wash water is at least 110°F or the temperature on the detergent label (§4-501.19).
3. Rinse with clean water.
4. Sanitize. Mix chemical sanitizer to the strength on its label and check it with test strips. Leave chlorine on for at least 10 seconds and other chemical sanitizers for at least 30, or as long as the label says (§4-703.11). Quat sanitizer needs water at 75°F or warmer (§4-501.114). For hot-water sanitizing by hand, immerse for at least 30 seconds in water at 171°F or hotter.
5. Air-dry. Don't dry with a towel (§4-901.11).

A hot-water dish machine's final rinse has to reach at least 180°F (165°F for a stationary-rack, single-temperature machine) and no more than 194°F as it enters the manifold, so that dishes reach 160°F at the surface (§4-501.112, §4-703.11). Chemical-sanitizing machines run at the temperatures on their data plate. Cleaning removes dirt; sanitizing is what kills the germs left behind: the code defines it as a 99.999% reduction of disease-causing microorganisms. For which sanitizer to buy, see our guide to food-safe surface sanitizers.

Supplies That Make the Schedule Easier

These are the products that speed up the jobs kitchens put off, each checked against its live Amazon listing. Use every chemical as its label directs, and wash, rinse, and sanitize any food-contact surface a degreaser or oven cleaner touches.

A degreaser for hoods, walls, floors, and equipment outsides. Zep's citrus concentrate is sold as a restaurant-grade degreaser for appliances, grills, stovetops, and stainless steel. Zep says not to use it on glass, plastics, or natural stone.

A griddle cleaning system for the daily flat-top clean. 3M's kit has six liquid pouches, six scouring pads, a pad holder with a long handle, and a squeegee, and works on a hot griddle (300–350°F) in a few minutes.

An oven and grill cleaner for the burnt-on grease a daily wipe misses. Easy-Off says its professional formula is for ovens, grills, broilers, and broiler pans.

Ice machine cleaner. Check your machine's manual first and use the cleaner it names. If it calls for a nickel-safe cleaner, Nu-Calgon's is one option.

Color-coded cloths, so the cloth that cleaned the restroom never touches a prep table. This 50-pack comes in four colors; assign one to food-contact surfaces, one to equipment outsides, one to front of house, and one to restrooms, and post the key.

A stiff scrub brush for sinks, floor drains, and equipment feet, with chemical-resistant polypropylene bristles.

Make the Schedule Stick

A cleaning schedule only works if someone owns each task. Put a name or a shift next to every line, have staff initial when it's done, and have the person in charge check the sheet before closing. Keep the finished sheets with your temperature logs. Under the 2026 Food Code, the person in charge is responsible for making sure employees sanitize properly, by monitoring sanitizer concentration, temperature, and contact time (§2-103.11(L)), and a signed schedule and sanitizer log are the simplest proof. Cleaning shows up all over the health inspection report: food-contact surfaces (item 16), wiping cloths (41), warewashing (48), nonfood-contact surfaces (49), toilet facilities (53), and the building itself (55).

Want the written procedures to go with the schedule? Our Food Safety Plan Kit includes an editable cleaning and sanitizing procedure among its 24 written procedures built on the 2026 Food Code, plus training records, monitoring logs, and a self-inspection checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often do food-contact surfaces need to be cleaned and sanitized?

Under the FDA Food Code, at least every 4 hours while they're in use with TCS food, and also before working with a different raw meat, fish, or poultry, when switching from raw to ready-to-eat food, and any time they may have been contaminated. Cooking surfaces like grills and ovens are cleaned at least every 24 hours.

Is a written cleaning schedule required?

The Food Code doesn't require a cleaning schedule by that name, but it sets the frequencies above, and the 2026 edition requires a written food safety management system within four years of your health department adopting it. That system covers the person in charge's duties, including making sure equipment is properly sanitized. Check whether your health department asks for a cleaning schedule too.

What is the difference between cleaning and sanitizing?

Cleaning removes food, grease, and dirt you can see. Sanitizing uses heat or chemicals on an already clean surface to cut disease-causing germs by 99.999%. Sanitizer doesn't work on a dirty surface, so always clean first.

How often should kitchen hood filters be cleaned?

The Food Code only says ducts must be cleaned and filters changed often enough that they don't become a source of contamination. Many busy kitchens wash filters weekly; wash them whenever grease builds up. Professional cleaning of the whole hood and duct system is set by your fire code.

How hot does a commercial dish machine need to be?

For a hot-water sanitizing machine, the final rinse must be at least 180°F (165°F for a stationary-rack, single-temperature machine) and no more than 194°F, so dishes reach 160°F at the surface. Chemical-sanitizing machines follow the temperatures on their data plate.

Bottom Line

The Food Code's hard deadlines are short: every 4 hours for food-contact surfaces in use, every 24 hours for cooking equipment, the dish machine, and wiping cloths, and the manufacturer's schedule for ice machines and drink lines. Everything else is "as often as necessary," which a written daily, weekly, and monthly schedule turns into something staff can actually follow and an inspector can check.

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