PREVRA Restaurant Maintenance Checklist: Catch Problems Before They Close Your Kitchen
A scheduled maintenance checklist covering all critical kitchen equipment, building fabric, and utilities. Aligned with SFBB requirements for premises and equipment upkeep.
Why preventive maintenance matters for food safety and business continuity
Equipment failure during service is a food safety emergency. A fridge that dies at 7pm on a Saturday means you either serve food from an unsafe unit or close the kitchen. Neither option is acceptable, and both cost you money. Preventive maintenance reduces equipment failure rates by 60-80% compared to reactive repair-only approaches.
The counter-intuitive warning sign: a refrigeration unit that runs continuously without cycling off is often closer to failure than one that cycles normally. The compressor is working against a problem — low refrigerant, dirty condenser coils, or a failing door seal — and the unit is consuming 30-50% more electricity while it struggles. By the time the temperature actually rises, the failure has been developing for days or weeks. Your maintenance checklist should include listening to the equipment, not just reading its display.
Using this maintenance checklist for scheduled and reactive maintenance
Divide maintenance into three streams. Daily visual checks: fridge temperature displays, door seals, drain flow, lighting. Monthly preventive tasks: condenser coil cleaning, filter changes, seal inspections, calibration checks. Annual servicing: gas safety, extraction deep clean, fire suppression system, refrigeration gas levels. Each stream needs its own schedule and sign-off procedure.
Record every maintenance action — planned or reactive — with date, work done, parts used, contractor details, and next service due. A digital SFBB maintenance log links each equipment item to its full service history. When a fridge fails during an EHO inspection, you can show the inspector the last three years of maintenance records, proving it was not neglect.
Maintenance oversights that EHO inspectors find
Deferring non-urgent repairs. A dripping tap, a cracked floor tile, a missing coving section — each seems minor. Together they create conditions for bacterial growth, pest ingress, and cleaning difficulties that compound into a hygiene rating problem.
No contractor approval records. External maintenance contractors working in food preparation areas must operate to food safety standards. If a refrigeration engineer leaves debris and metal shavings on a prep surface, you are responsible.
Ignoring the building fabric. Maintenance is not just about equipment. Peeling paint, damaged wall panelling, and deteriorating floor seals all appear on an EHO inspection report under "condition of the premises."
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