PREVRA Restaurant Hood Cleaning: Schedule, Frequency, and Fire Safety Compliance
A clear reference for cleaning your kitchen extraction system. Covers the legal requirements under TR19, fire safety regulations, and SFBB cleaning schedules.
Why hood cleaning is a fire safety and compliance priority
Grease build-up in extraction canopies and ducting is one of the leading causes of commercial kitchen fires in the UK. Your insurer will almost certainly require evidence of regular professional cleaning — and may void your cover if you cannot produce it. The BESA TR19 standard sets the benchmark for what insurers and fire authorities expect.
Counter-intuitively, a hood that looks clean on the outside can be dangerously clogged inside. The internal ducting, which you cannot see, carries most of the grease. This is why visual inspection of accessible surfaces is not enough — you need professional deep cleaning at a frequency determined by your usage volume.
Using this cleaning schedule in your kitchen routine
Display this poster near your extraction system to remind staff and managers of the cleaning frequency required. Daily surface wiping of canopies and filters is a kitchen team task. Quarterly or six-monthly deep cleans must be carried out by a TR19-certified contractor who provides a certificate of cleanliness — file this certificate as your EHO and insurer will ask for it.
Digital SFBB tracks both daily cleaning checks and schedules your professional deep cleans with reminders. Your compliance records, including contractor certificates, are stored in one place and accessible during any inspection.
Common hood cleaning mistakes that put your kitchen at risk
The biggest mistake is assuming the daily wipe-down of external surfaces is sufficient. Grease accumulates inside the ducting and on fan blades where it solidifies into a flammable residue. Another error is using the wrong cleaning chemicals — caustic-based cleaners can damage aluminium filters and release harmful fumes. Always use products designed for commercial extraction cleaning. Finally, skipping scheduled deep cleans to save money is a false economy: the cost of a kitchen fire or an insurance claim denial far exceeds the cleaning cost.
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