Keeping a kitchen inspection-ready

An inspection is not really a test of how clean your kitchen is today. It is a test of whether you have a routine, and whether you can show it. Kitchens that pass comfortably tend to do a small number of dull things every week rather than a large clean the night before.

What an inspector is actually looking at

Not the visible surfaces, mostly. They will look behind and underneath: the gap between the fridge and the wall, the underside of prep benches, the seal around the floor waste, the inside of the bin store. Those are the places cockroaches live, so those are the places that tell the truth about a kitchen.

They will also ask what you do about pests, and what has been done recently. An answer with a date and a written treatment record on it is a different conversation from an answer that starts with “we spray sometimes”.

The weekly routine

• Pull out one appliance a week. Not all of them, one. Clean behind it, check for droppings and egg cases, put it back. Over a month you have covered the kitchen without ever losing an evening.
• Check the water. A dripping tap, a slow floor waste or condensation pooling behind a fridge will keep a cockroach population alive with almost no food. They need water far more urgently than they need crumbs.
• Empty and wash the bin store. Not just the bins, the floor under them. This is the single most common source we find.
• Look at the cardboard. Deliveries arrive in boxes and cockroaches arrive in boxes. Break them down and get them out the same day rather than stacking them in a corner.
• Write it down. A page on a clipboard with a date and initials is enough. It costs nothing and it answers the question an inspector is going to ask.

Why water matters more than food

A kitchen is never going to be free of food residue. That is not a realistic target and no inspector expects it. Water is different, because water is fixable. A cockroach can live a surprisingly long time without food but not without moisture, so a kitchen that is genuinely dry overnight is a kitchen that struggles to support a population.

That is why the first thing we look at on a commercial job is plumbing and drainage rather than the pantry.

What treatment adds

A weekly routine keeps numbers down. It does not clear an established population living in a wall cavity or under a motor housing, because you cannot reach it. A treatment does, and in a food area that usually means gel bait placed into the harbourage rather than a spray across a surface.

Read what an insect treatment involves, and what to do beforehand, on our services page. If an inspection is coming, tell us when, and we will work around your trading hours.