Standards

Kitchen Ventilation Cleaning & Maintenance

The HVCA is the true mark of quality throughout the Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry. HVCA members, like Kitchen Perfect, are rigorously inspected and assessed every three years to ensure reputability, quality works, health & safety standards in this industry.

Kitchen Perfect is an accredited member of the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA). All of our ventilation works are carried out to HVCA TR19 Good Practice guidelines. Companies who are not HVCA members can still work to these standards, as they are available to purchase from HVCA, however if the company is not an HVCA member you don’t have the added assurance of them being independently audited for reputability, quality works and health & safety standards.

All HVCA members are also registered with the Contractor Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS). CHAS registration helps to ensure a contractor is able – and can prove it is able – to comply with health and safety legislation.

In December 2006 Glasgow witnessed 3 restaurants suffer as a result of kitchen fires in this one month alone:

• Café India, Glasgow
• The Buttery, Glasgow
• Ashoka, Kirkintilloch

Good housekeeping is vital. Grease build-up has been the cause of previous fires. For example, a total loss fire at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton in December 1998 was attributed in press reports to grease build-up and breach of the ductwork walls. Ductwork systems with inspection hatches at 1.5 metre centres, for inspection and cleaning, allow grease build-up to be monitored and prevented.

HVCA recommend the following cleaning programme to protect your premises and ensure the cleanliness of your system:

Level of Usage	Hours of Usage	Cleaning Cycle
Light Use	2-6 hrs per day	12 Months
Moderate Use	6-12 hrs per day	6 Months
Heavy Use	12-16 hrs per day	3 Months

CookSafe – Food Safety Assurance System

Kitchen Perfect will always endeavour to keep up-to-date with current food hygiene and safety legislation and guidelines.

CookSafe is the food safety assurance system set out by the Food Standards Agency.

The following passages are excerpts from the COOKSAFE manual (Item 4: House Rules, Cleaning)

Why do we need to clean?

Cleaning of food premises is vitally important for a number of reasons:

• To prevent food poisoning - proper cleaning and disinfection will reduce harmful bacteria to a safe level on equipment and surfaces and will help to reduce the risk of cross contamination.
• To remove undesirable physical materials which may contaminate food.

It continues to point out...

What hazards are associated with the lack of cleaning?

Premises, equipment and utensils, which have not been effectively cleaned and disinfected, may be the site of an unseen build-up of harmful bacteria leading to the contamination of food.

Similarly, the lack of effective cleaning may give rise to an accumulation of dirt, liable to cause physical contamination of food or encourage pests.