3 Major Problems With Not Cleaning a Kitchen Hood

Kitchen staffers should make sure to keep their range hood clean for reasons of efficiency if nothing else. Any sort of blockage will eventually make their hoods grind to a halt. Those who still need some extra encouragement should check out the following reasons to clean their kitchen hoods on a regular basis. We’re sure that after reading these, you won’t want to look at dirty food service equipment ever again.

1. Grease Buildup

This is more than likely the number one reason that kitchen hoods stop doing their job. Over time, cooking grease plugs the individual holes that allow air to pass through a hood. This can eventually stop a hood from working at all. Once that occurs, the air inside of your kitchen will become stagnant and not really have anywhere to pass. Some hoods don’t have filters or won’t necessarily vent to the outside. If that’s the case in your kitchen, then you need to be especially careful about keeping all of your gear clean.

2. Possibility Of Kitchen Fires

Worst of all, grease is flammable, and clogged range hoods are going to create an environment where even more dangerous events could happen. You need to have your kitchen hoods maintained by a professional hood cleaning service to reduce the risk of internal fires. Over 8,000 individual restaurants and cafeterias start on fire each year. In many of these cases, the biggest contributing factor was the fact that the hoods weren’t kept clean.

Flames from certain types of fried dishes have to be vented through the ceiling as well. If a hood isn’t working right, then there’s a good chance that these will actually start to spread back into the main area. Managers don’t want something like this to happen on their watch.

3. Regulatory Compliance

Regardless of whether you want to clean your range hood out or not, you’re simply going to need to in order to avoid falling afoul of health code regulations. The next time inspectors come into your commercial kitchen, they’re going to notice that it isn’t cleaned and cite you accordingly. That’s a major issue for anybody who wants to be sure they’re not going to lose their license. In one case, a truck that wasn’t properly cleaned caused an outbreak of food poisoning by contaminating the load of dairy products it was carrying. When the culprit is found inside a commercial kitchen, the potential outcomes are that much worse.

Small business owners as well as managers of cafeteria resources should be certain that they have their hoods cleaned out on a regular basis. Health inspections are sometimes done on a random basis, meaning you won’t necessarily know when someone is coming in to check things out. Getting a license revoked could spell the end of a business.

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll want to keep your equipment cleaned simply because it’s the right thing to do. Ensuring the health and safety of your own customers should always be your first priority.