If you are a restaurant owner, you need to abide by the existing rules and regulation in regards to cleaning your kitchen hoods. The actual commercial kitchen exhaust system cleaning guidelines are stated in the National Fire Protection Association Standard 96 otherwise known as the Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations. This regulation provides the minimum fire safety standards related to the design, installation, operation, inspection, and maintenance of all public and private cooking operations. All commercial kitchen operators and kitchen exhaust hood cleaners must observe strict compliance of this regulation to keep their businesses running.
Who are qualified to do kitchen hood cleaning jobs?
The governing standard provides also the qualification of the people who will perform the job. It states that the entire exhaust system shall be inspected for grease build up by a properly trained, qualified and certified person(s) acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction. Kitchen exhaust cleaning is not just done by anybody. While restaurant employees are expected to clean the exterior surfaces of exhaust hoods as part of the normal hood cleaning procedures, thorough cleaning of the system is to be carried out by certified kitchen exhaust cleaning professionals.
Exhaust hood cleaning requirements and best practices are outlined in NFPA-96 Standard section 11.4, including the frequency of cleaning for all the types of commercial kitchens:
- Monthly
These are for systems serving solid fuel cooking operations
- Quarterly
These are for systems serving high-volume operations, such as 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, wok cooking, etc.
- Semi-annually
These are for systems serving moderate-volume cooking operations
- Annually
These are for systems serving low-volume cooking operations, such as churches, day camps, seasonal business or senior centers
