Best Practices for Proper Grill Cleaning and Maintenance
Like many other aspects of your business, regular maintenance of kitchen equipment may seem like a hassle on a day-to-day basis, but in the long-run, will end up saving time, money, and perhaps even your reputation.
Often, the most overlooked item in a restaurant kitchen is the grill. While most managers/owners are aware of the importance of thorough, scheduled grease trap maintenance, duct and hood cleaning, and fire suppression inspection, the grill is sometimes left as an afterthought for employees to casually go over with a scraper ”
This can be a costly way to go about things, for three reasons. First, excess grease buildup on your grill will get transferred to customers’ food- which is at the same time unsanitary and also adds unnecessary fat and calories to their meal.
Secondly, as Ed Ebert of Commercial Appliance Repair explains, “Grills, especially electric grills, need regular, preferably weekly cleaning: they have red hot elements that turn grease into a caked-on carbon-material that is very difficult to remove.”
Ebert goes on to note that too much of this carbon residue can shorten the life of your equipment, or at the very least result in a costly repair job.
Not only is this black, cakey buildup unsafe to ingest, it puts your customers and employees at risk in another way by helping a fire spread through your restaurant. Flammable material on a grill is the fastest way for fire to shoot up your greasy exhaust hood and throughout the entire ventilation system, possibly causing dining room injuries and/or gutting the entire structure.
Finally, an unclean grill can be costly in the most strict business-sense of the word, as government health inspectors may lower your rating (dissuading some customers from frequenting your establishment) or require corrective steps to be taken (usually involving expensive, but avoidable, cleaning procedures and repairs).
For these reasons, along with the fact that a cleaner working environment will be motivational to your employees, it is surely in your best interest to keep your grilling surfaces as residue-free as possible, which is not too difficult to accomplish as long as you have a codified routine, with step-by-step instructions and procedures, which employees follow to the letter.
Your best course of action is a combination of regular in-house cleaning along with monthly or bi-monthly professional cleanings, which uses steaming equipment and specialized solvents to remove build-up in hard to reach places, or where other cleaning techniques have failed.
For your day-to-day grill cleaning, first remove as much residue as possible from grill elements using a standard scraper, making sure to collect the debris and not wash it away.
Once the grill is relatively grime-free, you can clean each grill element using a variety of cleaning solutions (not in any of your food prep sinks, of course), with the solution in one bucket and rinse water in another. Rinse water should be neutralized with lemon juice or another weak acid before being poured.
The next step is perhaps most important, because improper grease disposal is not only illegal, but devastating to your local environment. It’s vital to collect all solidified fats, grease, and oil and put them in with the rest of your bulk grease.
Similarly, when rinsing off cleaning equipment and buckets, make sure that the drain connects to a grease interceptor. This is best done in janitorial sinks or over floor drains that do not flow to the storm drain system.
Keeping your business green these days is not just good publicity anymore- it’s starting to become expected by consumers who have a wide variety of purchasing decisions and can afford to frequent environmentally-friendly establishments with little or no extra effort.
Franchise owners especially need to lay down company-wide policies regarding grill, as well as hood, duct, and exhaust fan maintenance so that there is no confusion among, or disparity between, locations.
One of your best options to ensure proper grill cleaning is to contact your waste management firm. They can set up regularly scheduled cleanings for you, and can even have a professional cleaner come in and teach your employees the right methods of cleaning and grease disposal.
Many franchises have chosen to contract out their grill cleaning, along with waste, recycling, cardboard, bulk grease/grease trap, and/or hazardous waste disposal to a management firm. These firms can help coordinate the scheduling, customer care, and billing issues associated with the growing number of services required to stay in compliance with legal codes and generally-recognized standards of sanitation.
A “Best Practices”-style plan of action is an easy way to keep costs down, keep customers and employees safe, and keep up-to-date with changing legal codes. If you prepare correctly, grill cleaning presents minimal hassle and allows you to provide your patrons with the best possible dining experience.