cleaning-schedule

---
name: cleaning-schedule
description: Turns the way your kitchen actually gets cleaned into a written schedule that names every item, how often, with what, by whom, and a signing sheet that proves it happened. Use when an inspection is coming, when a new starter needs to be shown how to clean something, or when the only record you have is that everyone knows what to do.
---

# A cleaning schedule on the wall, and a signed sheet that proves last Tuesday

You give me a walk round your kitchen, bar and back areas: phone photos of the shelves and the fridge, the labels on your sanitiser and degreaser, the rota, a WhatsApp message saying who does close on a Saturday. You get back a cleaning schedule with one line per item, the frequency in the words the Food Standards Agency uses, a numbered method a new starter could follow at midnight, the dilution rate and contact time copied off your own bottles, a weekly signing sheet, and a short list of what you could not answer, which is where an inspector will start.

## What it does

1. **Walk the building once and list everything that needs cleaning, before deciding anything about frequency.** The Food Standards Agency's safe method says "Walk through your premises and make a list of everything that needs cleaning. This will depend on what you do in your business." It groups the list three ways and I use the same three, because an inspector reading your schedule is reading it in that order. Items that come into contact with food, down to "Equipment with moving parts e.g. food mixers, slicers, vacuum packing machines and processors" and "Ice machines". Frequently touched items: "Rubbish bins, broom and mop handles", "Door handles, taps, switches, controls, cash registers and scales", "Can openers, telephones, probe thermometers". Other items: floors, walls, ceilings, "Storage areas", "Waste areas and drains", "Microwaves, ovens, dishwashers, hot-holding and display cabinets", "Self-service and staff areas". Then I add the ones only your building has: the cellar cooler, the coffee grinder burrs, the chip dump, the extraction canopy filters, the ice well behind the bar, the dumb waiter. A schedule that lists twelve items in a kitchen with sixty is not a schedule, it is a sample.

2. **Split the list into clean-only and clean-then-disinfect, and say why beside each one.** The FSA is explicit: "You do not need to disinfect everything - concentrate on those items that will come into contact with food and frequently touched items such as door and appliance handles. You will also need to clean and then disinfect surfaces or items that have been touched by raw food, or leaks or spills from these." So the floor gets a clean. The chopping board, the fridge handle and the sink the raw chicken tray sat in get the two stage clean, and so does anything under a raw meat shelf, because that is where the leak goes. I mark each line C or C+D so nobody has to work it out at eleven at night.

3. **Write the frequency in the five words the FSA schedule uses, then tie each one to a named moment.** The example schedule has five frequency columns: "After use", "Every shift", "Daily", "Weekly", "Other". "Regularly" is not one of them and never goes on a line, because it cannot be missed and therefore cannot be checked. Every line gets one column ticked and a moment attached: "Every shift, at handover, 15:30 and 22:00"; "Daily, close, after last order"; "Weekly, Tuesday before delivery". For "Other" I write the interval and the trigger: "Monthly, first Monday, extraction filters". The FSA says of fridges, "Clean and disinfect fridges regularly at a time when they do not contain much food", which in most kitchens means Sunday night or Monday morning, not a busy Friday, so the schedule should say which.

4. **Write the method as numbered steps, copied from the FSA pattern and finished with your own labels.** The FSA's worked example for a work surface runs: "1. Remove any obvious food and dirt. 2. Wash the surface with hot soapy water (detergent diluted according to manufacturer's instructions) to remove grease and any other food and dirt. 3. Rinse with clean water. 4. Apply a disinfectant. Make sure you leave it on for the contact time recommended by the manufacturer. 5. Rinse with clean water. 6. Leave to dry naturally or use a clean disposable cloth." Two stages, in that order, because "Chemical disinfectants only work if surfaces have been thoroughly cleaned first to remove grease and other dirt." If you use a sanitiser, the FSA says to "make sure you use it first to clean and remove grease, and then again to disinfect" - one spray is half a clean. I fill the numbered steps in for every C+D line, and where the step says contact time I put the number off your bottle, not a number from anywhere else.

5. **Read the dilution rate and the contact time off your own labels and put both in writing.** These two figures are the difference between a clean surface and a surface that looks clean. The FSA defines contact time as "how long a cleaning chemical needs to be left on the item you are cleaning", and warns that "If you add too much or too little water, then the cleaning chemical might not work effectively." So every line carries the product name, the dilution as printed, and the contact time in minutes. If a label photo is unreadable or the bottle has been decanted into an unmarked spray, that line goes on the cannot-answer list rather than getting a plausible number. A contact time invented by me is the one thing here that could give you a false pass.

6. **Prove the products meet the standard, and keep the proof somewhere you can point at.** GOV.UK is direct: "To make sure disinfectants meet the right standards, check the labels include either BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697 codes." The FSA safe method asks the question straight out: "Where do you keep information to confirm your disinfectants or sanitisers meet BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697 standards?" I check each product you photographed for one of those codes and flag any that show neither. The answer goes on the front page as a real location: "product data sheets, blue folder, office shelf". A cupboard full of good chemicals with the sheets lost is a finding waiting to happen.

7. **Put a name on every line and every shift, not a department.** "Kitchen team" is how a job goes undone for three weeks. Each line gets a role that exists on your rota: KP, second chef, duty manager, contract cleaner. Where the FSA says "For equipment or areas that are hard to clean, you may wish to employ a contract cleaner", the schedule names the contractor, the interval and the date of the last visit, so the canopy and the ductwork are not quietly nobody's job. Then I write the training line the FSA asks for: "Train staff on the cleaning schedule, so they know what they have to do, and when. Supervise cleaning."

8. **Cover clear and clean as you go and food waste separately, because that is where most of the day's cleaning happens.** A weekly deep clean does not save a kitchen that spreads bacteria between tasks. The FSA: "Wash or wipe away spills as soon as they happen. Clean and then disinfect work surfaces after wiping up spills from raw food", and "Wash work surfaces thoroughly between tasks. Use a new cloth (or one that has been washed and disinfected) to clean work surfaces before preparing ready-to-eat food", because "A dirty cloth could spread bacteria and allergens to the surface." On waste, food waste "should be stored in a specific place, away from food preparation, before it is collected. This area should be cleaned and disinfected regularly." The bin store and the grease trap get their own lines, frequency and name.

9. **Build the signing sheet, the four weekly review and the went-wrong box, then print it and put it on the wall.** The schedule is the instruction. The signed sheet is the evidence. One page per week, one row per line that is Daily or more often, initialled at the time and not on Sunday from memory. Underneath it, the box the FSA asks you to fill when something is found dirty: "If you find that any item in your kitchen is not properly clean, and where necessary disinfect it, and allow it to dry", then "Write down what went wrong and what you did about it in your diary." Every four weeks, read the sheet and change the schedule where it is losing: a line initialled late every Saturday needs moving to a different shift, not more reminding. The FSA suggests you "may wish to put your cleaning schedule on the wall", and it is right, because a folder in the office is read by inspectors and by nobody else.

## Then it checks

1. Every item photographed or named on the walk round appears as a line on the schedule, and every line carries exactly one ticked frequency out of After use, Every shift, Daily, Weekly and Other. No line says "regularly", "as required" or "when needed".
2. Every line marked C+D has all the numbered steps written out, with the clean stage before the disinfect stage, and no step reads "sanitise" as a single action.
3. Every disinfectant or sanitiser named carries a dilution rate and a contact time that came off a label in your photographs. Any product whose label could not be read appears on the cannot-answer list instead, with no number supplied for it.
4. Every product named is recorded as showing BS EN 1276, BS EN 13697, both, or neither, and the schedule states where the confirming information is kept.
5. Every line names a role that appears on your rota, or a named contractor with the date of the last visit. No line says "kitchen team", "all staff" or "cleaner".
6. The pack contains the schedule, a blank weekly signing sheet whose rows match the Daily and Every shift lines exactly, a went-wrong box, and a four weekly review date.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never write a dilution rate or a contact time that was not read off the product you actually use. A wrong contact time produces a surface that passes the eye and fails a swab, and it will have been written down by you, in advance, in your own document.
- Never fill in a signing sheet for a day that has already gone. A gap is an honest gap. A back-filled sheet is a false record that everyone on the shift knows is false.
- Never let a line name a group instead of a role on the rota, and never leave the hard items, ductwork, canopy filters, drains, ice machines, off the schedule because a contractor might be doing them. Write the contractor and the date, or write that nobody is.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's environmental health officer, food safety adviser or local authority to check before it is relied on. It writes down what you already do. It is not food safety advice and it does not certify that your kitchen complies with anything.

## Built from
- Food Standards Agency, Safer food, better business, "Safe method: Your cleaning schedule", https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c52c48cdfd19de13d0f6de/sfbb-cleaning-04-your-cleaning-schedule-fix_1.pdf, pack published 29 January 2020, read 14 September 2026: the walk round and the three groups of items in step 1, the "you do not need to disinfect everything" rule in step 2, the five frequency columns in step 3, the six step work surface method in step 4, and the definitions of dilution rate and contact time in step 5.
- Food Standards Agency, Safer food, better business, "Safe method: Cleaning effectively", https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c52c9f93cc6e8b87a6f747/sfbb-chinese-cleaning-02-cleaning-effectively.pdf, pack published 29 January 2020, read 14 September 2026: the two stage clean, why disinfectant fails on a greasy surface, the BS EN question in step 6, the fridge timing in step 3, the contract cleaner line in step 7, and the went-wrong wording in step 9.
- Food Standards Agency, Safer food, better business, "Safe method: Clear and clean as you go", https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c52ce7471d520038d0f6c0/sfbb-indian-cuisines-clean-clear-as-you-go_0.pdf, pack published 29 January 2020, read 14 September 2026: spills, cloths between tasks, and the food waste section that became step 8.
- GOV.UK, "Food hygiene for businesses: Cleaning", https://www.gov.uk/food-hygiene-businesses/cleaning, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: the sentence that a cleaning schedule "must cover what needs to be cleaned or disinfected, how often, and which products to use", which sets the three things every line carries, plus the BS EN label check in step 6.
- Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, as retained in UK law, Annex II Chapter V paragraph 1(a), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/852/annex/II/chapter/V, latest available revised version, read 14 September 2026: equipment must "be effectively cleaned and, where necessary, disinfected. Cleaning and disinfection are to take place at a frequency sufficient to avoid any risk of contamination". That is the legal duty the frequency column in step 3 answers.
- Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Article 5, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/852/article/5, latest available revised version, read 14 September 2026: the duty to maintain "a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles", to establish "documents and records commensurate with the nature and size of the food business", and to keep them "up-to-date at all times", which is why step 9 ends with a four weekly review.

# Cleaning schedule builder

## You are given
A folder of inputs from a UK hospitality business: photos or notes from a walk round the kitchen, bar, cellar, store and bin area; photos of the labels on every cleaning chemical in use; a staff rota or list of roles; and optionally an existing cleaning schedule. Inputs are messy. Some labels will be unreadable and some items will be named only in passing.

## Produce
Write into `output/` in the working directory:

1. `cleaning-schedule.csv` - one row per item. Columns exactly, in this order:
`item,area,contact_type,clean_or_clean_and_disinfect,frequency,frequency_moment,responsible_role,product_name,dilution_rate,contact_time_minutes,precautions,method_steps,bs_en_standard`
 - `contact_type` is one of `food contact`, `frequently touched`, `other`.
 - `clean_or_clean_and_disinfect` is `C` or `C+D`.
 - `frequency` is one of exactly `After use`, `Every shift`, `Daily`, `Weekly`, `Other`. Never `regularly`, `as required` or `when needed`.
 - `frequency_moment` is a real time or trigger, for example `close, after last order` or `Tuesday before delivery`.
 - `method_steps` is the numbered method in one cell, steps separated by ` | `. For `C+D` rows the clean stage comes before the disinfect stage.
 - `bs_en_standard` is `BS EN 1276`, `BS EN 13697`, `both`, or `not shown on label`.
2. `signing-sheet.csv` - a blank weekly sheet. Columns: `date,item,frequency,initials,time_signed,notes`. One row per day per item whose frequency is `After use`, `Every shift` or `Daily`. Seven days.
3. `cleaning-schedule.html` - the same table, A3 landscape, print stylesheet, 11pt or larger, black on white, meant to go on a wall.
4. `cannot-answer.md` - a numbered list of every item with no readable product, no dilution rate, no contact time, no named role, or no BS EN code, each saying which field is missing and what the owner must photograph or confirm.

## Rules
- Never invent a dilution rate, a contact time or a BS EN code. If it was not readable in the inputs, leave the cell empty and add the row to `cannot-answer.md`.
- Never invent an item. Only items evidenced in the inputs, plus items the owner explicitly listed.
- Never write a group name in `responsible_role`. Use a role from the rota, or a named contractor with a last visit date.
- British English. Use `£` if any cost appears. No em dash characters anywhere in any output.
- Do not fill in the signing sheet. It ships blank.
- Put this line at the foot of the HTML and at the top of `cannot-answer.md`: "Working document prepared for the owner's environmental health officer or food safety adviser to check. Not food safety advice."

## Return
Print the four file paths, the number of rows in `cleaning-schedule.csv`, the count of rows marked `C+D`, and the number of entries in `cannot-answer.md`. Nothing else.