Weekly Deep Clean Checklist

Daily cleaning keeps your kitchen operational, but deep cleaning keeps it safe. This Weekly Deep Clean Checklist helps you schedule and track the intensive cleaning tasks that go beyond daily routines — the jobs that prevent grease build-up, pest harbourage, and the kind of hidden contamination risks that EHO inspectors actively look for.

Why Deep Cleaning Needs Its Own Schedule

Daily cleaning covers surfaces and equipment you use every shift. But areas like extraction ducting, behind equipment, floor drains, and cold room walls need regular deep cleaning too. These are the areas where:

• Grease and grime accumulate over time
• Pests find harbourage points
• Mould and bacteria can establish in hard-to-reach spots

An EHO inspector will check these areas. If your extraction hood is caked in grease or your floor drains are blocked, it signals that your cleaning regime has gaps — and that directly affects your food hygiene rating.

A documented deep clean schedule shows inspectors that you have a planned approach to these tasks, not just a reactive one.

What’s Included

This one-page landscape checklist covers 12 deep clean tasks tracked across a 4-week cycle:

• Degreasing extraction hood, canopy and ducting
• Deep cleaning behind and underneath all equipment
• Descaling dishwashers, taps and sinks
• Cleaning and sanitising all shelving and racking
• Deep cleaning cold rooms (walls, ceiling, floor)
• Cleaning light fittings and ceiling vents
• Deep cleaning grease traps and floor drains
• Reorganising dry stores
• Full strip-down clean of ovens, grills and fryers
• Cleaning walls and tiled surfaces
• Servicing pest control devices
• Deep cleaning customer toilets (walls, fixtures, grouting)

The checklist includes fields for Month, Location, Completed By, and Reviewed By.

How to Use It

1. Print one per month — the form covers 4 weeks
2. Assign tasks — spread deep clean tasks across the month so they don’t all fall on one day
3. Tick off each task as it’s completed each week
4. Manager sign-off at the bottom confirms the work was done and reviewed
5. File completed checklists — keep them alongside your daily cleaning schedules for a complete cleaning record

Part of a Complete Cleaning System

Deep cleaning sits on top of your daily cleaning routines:

• FOH Daily Cleaning Schedule — daily front-of-house tasks
• BOH Daily Cleaning Schedule — daily kitchen tasks
• Pest Control Inspection Checklist — regular pest monitoring

For a full guide on building a comprehensive cleaning system, read our Ultimate Guide to FOH and BOH Cleaning Schedules.

Common questions

What is the difference between daily cleaning and deep cleaning?

Daily cleaning keeps the surfaces and equipment you use every shift clean and safe. Deep cleaning tackles the areas daily routines miss — extraction ducting, behind and underneath equipment, floor drains, cold room walls and grease traps — where grease, mould and pests build up over time.

How often should a commercial kitchen be deep cleaned?

There is no single legal interval — it depends on how heavily each area is used. A common approach is a monthly deep clean cycle, with high-grease items such as extraction canopies and ducting cleaned more frequently. Insurers often require professional extraction cleaning at set intervals.

Do EHOs check deep cleaning?

Yes. Inspectors look behind and underneath equipment, inside extraction systems and around drains — the areas a quick daily wipe-down does not reach. Built-up grease or blocked drains signal gaps in your cleaning regime and count against your structural compliance and confidence in management scores.

Why is extraction cleaning important?

Grease that builds up in canopies, filters and ducting is a serious fire risk and a place for pests and bacteria to harbour. Regular degreasing reduces fire risk, supports your insurance cover, and is one of the deep clean tasks EHOs expect to see documented.

Go Digital

Tracking deep clean tasks on paper across multiple months makes it hard to spot patterns or missed tasks. With Forkto, you can schedule, assign, and track deep cleans digitally — with automatic reminders, version control, and a complete audit trail ready for any inspection.