How often a commercial kitchen needs a deep clean (canopy, filters, floors, drains) and what inspectors look for
Deep cleaning frequencies for a commercial kitchen in Adelaide: canopy filters weekly to monthly by cooking load, canopy and duct quarterly to yearly, floors and drains nightly with a weekly scrub, and what council inspectors look for under the Food Act and Standard 3.2.2.
A commercial kitchen in Adelaide needs its canopy filters cleaned weekly where there is heavy frying or charring, fortnightly to monthly for lighter cooking, the canopy itself and the accessible ducting degreased quarterly to yearly depending on use, the floors and drains cleaned every night with a machine scrub and drain flush weekly, and a full deep clean behind and under the equipment every one to three months. The nightly clean by the kitchen team keeps the surfaces. The deep clean is what stops the grease, the pests and the inspector's notes. Below is a frequency table, what each item involves, and what a council environmental health officer is looking for when they walk in.
Updated 3 November 2026. Written by Jordan Sinclair, JC Commercial, Adelaide. Standards and documents are named so you can read them yourself; this is practical guidance, not legal advice.
What the law requires
Food businesses in South Australia operate under the Food Act 2001 (SA) and the national Food Standards Code. Standard 3.2.2, Food Safety Practices and General Requirements, requires a food business to keep its premises, fixtures, fittings and equipment clean and in good repair, and the Food Standards Australia New Zealand guidance on cleaning and sanitising explains the difference between the two. Standard 3.2.2A added food safety management tools for higher-risk businesses, including a food safety supervisor and record keeping. Local councils enforce the Act through environmental health officers, with SA Health setting the state framework. None of these documents give a cleaning frequency for a canopy. They require the kitchen to be clean, and they leave it to the business to show how.
Frequency table
| Item | Frequency | Who | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canopy filters (baffle or mesh) | Weekly for heavy frying, grills and charcoal; fortnightly to monthly for lighter cooking | Kitchen team or contractor | Grease-laden filters are a fire load and let grease into the duct |
| Canopy interior, plenum and accessible duct | Quarterly for heavy use, six-monthly for moderate, yearly for light | Specialist contractor | Insurers and the fire maintenance standard AS 1851 expect it on a schedule tied to use |
| Floors: sweep, degrease, mop | Every night | Kitchen team or contractor | Slips, pests and odour |
| Floors: machine scrub, grout, under equipment edges | Weekly | Contractor | A mop pushes grease into grout; a scrub lifts it |
| Floor drains and grease trap access | Flushed weekly; grease trap pumped on the council's schedule | Contractor; licensed pumper | Blocked drains flood the floor; the trap is a council condition |
| Behind and under equipment (ranges, fryers, benches, cool rooms) | Monthly for heavy use, quarterly for moderate | Contractor, with equipment moved | This is where inspectors look first |
| Walls, splashbacks, ceiling, lights | Walls weekly; ceiling and lights quarterly | Contractor | Grease on a ceiling drips |
| Cool room and freezer: floors, shelving, door seals | Weekly floors; monthly shelving and seals | Kitchen team or contractor | Seals and shelving show up in audits |
| Bins, bin area and loading bay | Daily bins; weekly area wash | Contractor | Pests start outside |
Canopy filters and the exhaust system
Filters are the part of the system the kitchen can clean itself and the part most often neglected. A baffle filter from a fryer line is heavy with grease within a week; run through a dishwasher or a soak tank and it goes back the same day. Left a month, the grease moves past the filter into the plenum and the duct, where nobody can reach it without a specialist. The canopy interior, the plenum and the accessible duct need a degrease on a schedule tied to how the kitchen cooks: quarterly for a busy pub or charcoal kitchen, six-monthly for a cafe, yearly for a kitchen that mostly reheats. Insurers often make that schedule a condition of cover and ask for the certificate after each clean, so the contractor's record is also the insurance record. The earlier guide to cleaning commercial kitchen equipment covers the equipment side.
Floors and drains
A kitchen floor is cleaned every night by the kitchen team, and that is where most kitchens stop. A mop and bucket move the grease around and push it into the grout, and within a month the floor is dark, slippery and smells on a warm day. A weekly machine scrub with a degreaser and a wet vacuum, including the edges under the benches and the step into the cool room, resets the floor. The drains are flushed at the same time and the grates lifted and scrubbed. The grease trap is a separate matter: councils set the pumping interval as a condition of the trade waste permit, and the licensed pumper's docket is the evidence. A kitchen that has had a floor scrubbed weekly for a year looks different from one that has been mopped, and inspectors can tell at the door.
Behind and under the equipment
The deep clean an inspector cares about most is the one nobody sees: behind the range, under the fryers, behind the benches and the cool room. Grease, food debris and the pests that follow them collect there. A proper deep clean moves the equipment (on castors or by two people), degreases the walls and floor behind it, cleans the equipment's own sides and back, and puts it back. Monthly for a heavy kitchen, quarterly for a moderate one. Done after service and before the next, with the photos in the record, it is also the fastest way to show an officer that the kitchen is managed rather than tidied.
What inspectors look for
Environmental health officers inspect without notice and score what they see. On the cleaning side the common findings are grease on the canopy and filters, a dirty floor under the equipment, a blocked or smelling drain, a cool room floor with spills, dirty door seals, a dirty bin area, and no record that any of it is done on a schedule. The fix for the last item is the simplest: a written scope with the frequency for each item and a record of each visit with the date and photos. Under Standard 3.2.2A, higher-risk businesses already have to keep records that substantiate their food safety controls, and cleaning records sit naturally alongside them. For the wider programme see Safe Food Australia, FSANZ's guide to the food safety standards.
Splitting the work between the kitchen and a contractor
Most kitchens settle on the same split: the kitchen team does the nightly clean of surfaces, equipment exteriors and floors; a cleaning contractor does the weekly floor scrub and drain flush, the monthly or quarterly deep clean behind the equipment, and the walls and ceiling; a specialist does the canopy and duct on the insurer's schedule. Writing that split into a scope, with the frequency for each item, is what stops the gaps. The contractor's visit record then carries the dates and photos, a response term where a problem is acknowledged within 2 hours and resolved within 24 covers the night something goes wrong, and no lock-in contract keeps the arrangement honest.
JC Commercial deep cleans commercial kitchens across Adelaide after service, timed so the chef can check and sign off before the next one, with photos every job. The commercial kitchen cleaning page sets out the method, the piece on how often a commercial kitchen should be deep cleaned goes into the deep clean itself, and a 15-minute walk-through turns the kitchen into a written scope with the price. Pub kitchens are covered in the guide to pub cleaning costs in Adelaide.
FAQs
How often should canopy filters be cleaned in a commercial kitchen?
Weekly where there is heavy frying, grilling or charcoal, and fortnightly to monthly for lighter cooking. If the filter drips when lifted, the interval is too long.
How often does a kitchen exhaust duct need cleaning?
Quarterly for heavy use, six-monthly for moderate and yearly for light, as a general guide. Your insurer and the fire maintenance standard AS 1851 may set the interval, and the contractor's certificate after each clean is the evidence.
Is a nightly mop enough for a commercial kitchen floor?
No. The nightly clean keeps the surface; a weekly machine scrub with a degreaser and a wet vacuum lifts what the mop pushes into the grout and under the edges.
Do councils in South Australia inspect commercial kitchens?
Yes. Council environmental health officers inspect food businesses under the Food Act 2001 (SA), usually without notice, and record what they find. Cleaning behind equipment, the canopy and the drains are among the most common findings.
What records should a kitchen keep for cleaning?
A written scope with the frequency for each item, a record of each deep clean with the date and photos, the canopy and duct certificates, and the grease trap pumping dockets. Higher-risk businesses already keep food safety records under Standard 3.2.2A; cleaning records sit alongside them.