Kitchen extract cleaning for schools and colleges

Canteen extract cleaned in the holidays

School kitchens cook to a fixed timetable, then close for half terms and holidays. That makes planning simple. We book your TR19® kitchen extract clean for a holiday week, an INSET day or a weekend, so no lunch service is lost and no pupils are near the work.

We survey first, from photos and details or on site, then give you a fixed quote, usually within one working day. On the day, cooking equipment is off and cool, the kitchen is sheeted, and waste grease and water are contained and removed. The catering team comes back to a clean kitchen at the start of term.

What schools and colleges need

• Kitchen extract cleaning: canopy, plenum, filters, ductwork, fan and discharge
• Kitchen deep cleaning and grease trap cleaning
• TR19® Air cleaning of classroom, hall and toilet supply and extract
• Air handling unit cleaning: filters, coils, drain trays and fans
• Fire damper drop testing and remedials
• LEV testing for dust and fume extraction in design and technology, science and art rooms

Food technology classrooms with cooker hoods and extract can be cleaned on the same visit as the main kitchen.

Colleges and universities often have more than one kitchen: a main refectory, a café, a training kitchen for catering students and halls of residence. Catering training kitchens can cook for long hours during term, so they may need cleaning more often than the size of the kitchen suggests. Halls may also have shared laundries, where laundry extract cleaning keeps lint out of the ducts. We survey each system and suggest a schedule that fits the academic year.

Cooking hours and the BESA bands

BESA’s guidance on kitchen extract cleaning bases the minimum cleaning interval on daily cooking hours:

A primary school kitchen that cooks a lunch service often falls in the light or moderate band. A secondary school or college canteen serving breakfast, lunch and sometimes evening events may be moderate. Boarding schools that cook all day, every day, can sit in the heavy band. These are minimums; grease thickness readings show whether the system needs cleaning sooner. BESA says grease should not exceed a mean of 200 microns between cleans, and 500 microns or more at any point needs immediate spot cleaning.

A holiday clean, step by step

1. We agree a date in the holidays and confirm who will let us in, where we can park and how we reach the roof.
2. On the day, we sheet the kitchen, take grease readings and photograph the system before we start.
3. We remove and clean the filters, then clean the canopy inside and out and the plenum behind it.
4. We clean the ductwork through its access panels, then the extract fan and the discharge.
5. We take readings again, photograph the clean system, refit the filters and check the fan runs.
6. We clear up, remove all waste and hand the kitchen back.
7. You receive the TR19® certificate and photo report for your estates file.

If the kitchen also needs a deep clean, a grease trap clean or damper testing, we do it in the same visit, so the holiday week is used well.

Working safely on a school site

Even in the holidays, schools have staff, contractors and sometimes holiday clubs on site. We sign in, follow your site rules and agree which areas we’ll use and how we’ll reach the roof. We are CHAS and SafeContractor accredited, ISO 9001 certified and fully insured, so the paperwork your estates team or trust asks for is ready.

If the work has to happen in term time, we can clean after school, in the evening or at the weekend, and keep the kitchen and any routes we use closed off.

Before we arrive, we send the method statement and risk assessment your school asks for. Ladders, tools and chemicals are never left unattended, and we leave no waste behind. If we find anything that needs attention, such as a damaged fan or a damper that won’t close, we tell the site team before we leave.

Who is responsible?

TR19® is not law. The law is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which needs the responsible person to assess and reduce fire risk. In a school that may be the local authority, the academy trust, the governing body or the proprietor, depending on how the school is run. Where catering is contracted out, the contract should say who arranges extract cleaning. GOV.UK explains the responsible person’s duties.

TR19 is the benchmark that insurers, fire officers and EHOs look to, and many insurers ask for proof of regular cleaning.

EHOs, ratings and certificates

School kitchens are inspected by the council’s environmental health team, and the rating is published on the Food Standards Agency’s food hygiene ratings site. After every clean you get a TR19® certificate issued through the BESCA VHE portal, and a photo report showing the system before and after, the grease readings, any areas not reached and the next clean date. We are a BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite member, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease. BESA also covers general supply and extract under TR19® Air.

Trusts, councils and several schools

Multi-academy trusts and councils can put every kitchen and ventilation system on one maintenance contract, with cleans timed to each school’s holidays and frequency band. Every site has its own certificate and report, so you have one clear record across the estate.

Summer is the busiest time for school estates work, so it helps to book early. We can spread cleans across the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays, and use half terms for kitchens that need cleaning more than once a year. If your schools are run by a contract caterer, we can work with them as well as with the trust or council, so everyone knows when the clean is happening and who holds the certificate.