What should a restaurant kitchen's planned-maintenance schedule cover to stay inspection-ready?
I want a proper planned-maintenance (PM) programme for my restaurant kitchen — so equipment doesn't fail mid-service, and so we're always inspection-ready.
- What should a restaurant kitchen PM schedule cover — refrigeration, extraction, cooking equipment, dishwashers?
- At what frequency for each?
- What keeps me inspection-ready (the hygiene/safety side)?
Trying to build a schedule I can hand to a contractor and hold them to. What does a solid restaurant kitchen PM programme look like?
3 answers
Short answer: a restaurant kitchen PM programme is a matrix of "which equipment, what task, how often," built so nothing fails at service time and nothing fails an inspection. The heavy hitters are refrigeration (temperature integrity), extraction (fire safety + grease), cooking equipment (gas safety + consistency) and dishwashing (sanitising temperature). Frequencies range from daily staff checks to scheduled contractor visits. Document every task with dates — an inspector wants to see records, not promises.
A solid PM matrix: - Refrigeration (fridges, freezers, walk-in cold room): daily temperature logs by staff; scheduled condenser-coil cleaning + gasket checks + calibration by a tech. Temperature integrity is both a stock and a food-safety must. - Extraction (hood, ducts, filters): clean filters frequently (daily/weekly by staff); scheduled deep hood-and-duct degrease by specialists — this is a fire-safety item inspectors and insurers care about. - Cooking equipment (ovens, ranges, fryers): gasket/calibration checks, gas safety checks (leaks, interlocks) by a competent tech, fryer oil management. - Dishwashers/glasswashers: daily descale/rinse-aid checks; scheduled service to confirm the sanitising rinse temperature is being reached (hygiene-critical). - General: water-quality/descaling (hard water wrecks machines here), and a records file of every service with dates.
Frequency principle: daily staff checks (temps, filters, cleanliness) + scheduled contractor PM (quarterly-ish, tighter for extraction/refrigeration) + immediate action on any fault.
Inspection-ready = documentation: temperature logs, cleaning schedules, service records, gas/fire-safety certificates. A Dubai Municipality inspection goes far smoother when you can hand over the records. (Verify current DM requirements directly, as they update.) Put it on a contract with a commercial kitchen-equipment maintenance provider and keep the paperwork. F&B owners — what does your inspector check hardest?
From the equipment side, the two that cause the most grief if neglected are refrigeration and extraction — a fridge losing temperature is a stock-and-safety emergency, and a greasy hood/duct is the fire risk everyone underestimates. Both reward scheduled PM massively. And in this water, descaling is a recurring must across dishwashers, combi-ovens and ice machines, or they degrade fast. Build the schedule around temperature integrity, grease control and descaling, keep the records, and most "surprise" failures and inspection issues disappear.
Café-scale version of the same thing: the day we started logging fridge temperatures and booking a proper hood degrease and equipment service on a schedule, the random breakdowns and the inspection stress both dropped. The records are the bit people skip and it's exactly what gets checked. A contractor PM contract plus daily staff checks is the combination that works — staff catch the daily stuff, the contractor catches the wear you can't see. Cheaper than a mid-service fridge failure or a failed inspection.
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