Commercial cooke hood/duct cleaning

[Mr. P]

Is anyone aware of legal legislation covering the cleaning of hood & ducts of commercial cookers?  Accepted, RA with regard amount/type of use and scale of build up of grease, fats etc.  I am just trying to pin down something concrete as a base line. Thanks

[John Webb]

I appreciate it is the fire risk you are most concerned with reducing, but I wonder if legislation for catering areas lays down any schedule for the regular cleaning of such equipment. Environmental Health officers at the local council may be able to give guidence on this as they are usually the enforcers.

[jayjay]

There is a document produced by BSRIA for the ABI re Fire Risk Assessment of Catering Extract Vents may be of help.

see link below there is a charge for the document.

https://infonet.bsria.co.uk/books-downloads/details/?p=1&i=67587&pa=s&k=catering&anc=2

[The Reiver]

There's nowt in this country to help thee marrer (Cumbrian too !!)
Nearest best practice is NFPA 96 2004 (now upgraded for 2008) in the good old US of A

The below link is from a cleaning company in the U.S. It outlines the various NFPA requirements:
http://www.chdca.com/nfpa96.htm

The only advice I can give is check with your insurers as to their requirements. I know for a fact that some commercial insurers will declare policies null and void if the build up of grease residue is too high for their liking. What that level of build up is will be for them to decide.

The HSE is pretty vague too:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/caterdex.htm

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cais10.pdf
......be easy to clean, avoiding the build up of fat residues.............etc. etc.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cais12.pdf
Doesn't even mention hoods, plenums and ducts in its' recommended schedule.

However, your hood extraction system will fall under HSE PUWER regs and should be maintained accordingly. Maybe the hood manufacturer may be able to throw some light on the issue ??

When I design a kitchen canopy fire protection system (and I do lots). I always specify that the canopy should comply with The LPCBs' LPS 1263:Part 1 (Fire Performance Requirements for Kitchen Extract Systems).
But this is more of a design criteria than a cleaning / hygiene one.

On a personal note, you'd have thought after the two big burn outs we've had in this country that have been directly linked to hood extraction, someone would have come up with some de-greasing guidelines or ACoP's by now.

So I'm afraid it's one big grey (or manky, greasy brown) area of nothingness in the UK. :/
Insurers would be your best bet.

[kurnal]

I thought there was something in food hygiene regs enforced by the environmental health officers and a six monthly deep clean comes to mind.

[Chris Houston]

Insurers perspective:

I know of no legislation, but will make it an insurance recommendation if it is not being done regulatly.  I think most insurance surveyor tend to recommend 6 monthly, although I think certain fast food chains (I'm lovin' it) tend to go for 3 monthy.  I tend to recommend along the lines of:

       As per the recommendations of the specialist contractor, or six monthly, which ever is the most frequent.  

I also expect filters to be cleaned approximatly fortnightly, but will adjust this depending how much they are being used, how clean they are during the inspection etc.

[patrickhamblin]

The FPA, together with InFiReS and BSRIA, has published a very good guide - Recommendations for fire risk assessment of catering extract ventilation - reference RC44. This can be purchased from the FPA and gives guidance regarding cleaning, amongst many other areas.

[Mr. P]

Thanks to you all.