Tool

Build a cleaning schedule

Ohio's food code mostly says “as often as necessary” and leaves the schedule to you. This builds that schedule. Tick what applies, adjust any interval, and print it for the wall — or for the inspector who asks whether you have one.

Two kinds of interval, drawn differently.

Items marked Legal maximum come from a rule — you may clean more often, never less. Everything else is a starting point from a manufacturer or from practice, and yours to change. Set a legal item longer than the rule allows and this page will say so, here and on the printout.

Food safety

Clean food-contact surfaces and utensils used with TCS food Legal maximum

Required at least every four hours through the day unless a listed relief applies.

Set by: Ohio food code · OAC 3717-1-04.5
How often:
Test sanitizer concentration with test strips

A sanitizer sink at the wrong concentration looks identical to one at the right concentration.

Set by: You — but the code requires a test kit on site
How often:
Calibrate food thermometers

Every temperature record you keep is only as good as the probe that took it.

Set by: You
How often:
Clean utensils used to prepare food in a cold room Legal maximum

Relief from the four-hour rule, but only at 41°F or below and only if the frequency is documented.

Set by: Ohio food code · OAC 3717-1-04.5
How often:
Check every handwash sink for soap and hand drying

Each handwash sink must be supplied with soap and a drying method. Running out is one of the most common violations there is.

Set by: Ohio food code · OAC 3717-1-06.2
How often:
Inspect cutting boards for scoring

Boards scratched past the point of being effectively cleaned and sanitized must be resurfaced, or discarded if they cannot be.

Set by: Ohio food code · OAC 3717-1-04.4
How often:

Refrigeration

Clean refrigeration condenser coils

A fouled coil makes the box run warm, shortens compressor life, and erodes your cold-room relief.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer
How often:
Check and clean walk-in door gaskets

A torn gasket is a permanent open door — it shows up as a temperature log problem first.

Set by: You
How often:
Record refrigeration temperatures

The log is the evidence that the box was cold before the food went out.

Set by: You
How often:
Deep clean and sanitize the ice machine

Ice is a food. The machine is the one nobody looks inside until it is visibly wrong.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer
How often:

Ventilation & fire

Wash hood baffle filters

Filters are what stops grease reaching the duct. The hood contract does not cover them in between.

Set by: You · OAC 3717-1-06.4
How often:
Professional hood, duct and rooftop fan cleaning

Solid fuel and high-volume frying sit on much shorter cycles. Ask which band you are in.

Set by: Fire code, via NFPA 96 — scales with cooking volume · OAC 1301:7-7-09
How often:
Fire suppression system inspection

Also the moment anyone checks whether your system still matches the equipment under the hood.

Set by: Fire code, via NFPA 96 — confirm with your fire code official · OAC 1301:7-7-09
How often:
Change make-up air unit filters

Starve the make-up air and the hood stops pulling properly, which people blame on the hood.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer
How often:
Boil out the fryer

Carbon build-up shortens oil life, changes the flavor of everything fried, and is fuel sitting under a hood.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer
How often:
Filter fryer oil

The cheapest way to cut your single largest consumable cost, and it takes ten minutes.

Set by: You
How often:
Degrease walls and ceiling above the cook line

Grease overhead is both a fire load and the thing an inspector looks up at.

Set by: Ohio food code — physical facilities in good repair and clean · OAC 3717-1-06.4
How often:
Deep clean ovens — walls, door and racks

Burnt-on carbon changes how the oven holds heat, which quietly changes your cook times.

Set by: You
How often:

Warewashing

Delime the dish machine

Scale wrecks heaters and wash arms. Hard water means more often than the manual says.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer — water hardness drives it
How often:
Replace or check dish machine dosing tubing

Peristaltic tubing goes brittle on its own timetable. When it fails the machine runs normally and stops dosing.

Set by: Service contract
How often:
Record wash and rinse temperatures

The data plate on the machine is the number that matters, and only the gauge tells you if you are hitting it.

Set by: You
How often:
Run cleaning chemicals through coffee and espresso machines

Rancid coffee oils are a flavor problem long before they are a hygiene one, and they are invisible.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer
How often:

Bar

Clean beer lines, faucets, couplers and taps Legal maximum

Fourteen days is the outside limit. Past it, cleaning becomes remediation and needs stronger chemistry.

Set by: Division of Liquor Control · OAC 4301:1-1-28
How often:
Clean wine and mixed beverage dispensing lines Legal maximum

A longer clock than beer, and the one most often left off the contract entirely.

Set by: Division of Liquor Control · OAC 4301:1-1-28
How often:
Sign the beer line cleaning record card Legal maximum

Signed at the time of service. Six months on the card, two years on the premises.

Set by: Division of Liquor Control — the permit holder’s duty, not the cleaner’s · OAC 4301:1-1-28
How often:
Check bar glassware sterilizer strength

Not less than 150 ppm available chlorine, two minutes — higher than your kitchen sink runs.

Set by: Division of Liquor Control · OAC 4301:1-1-28
How often:
Clean soda gun tips, holsters and dispenser heads

The holster collects syrup and drains nowhere. It is the single most reliably filthy thing behind a bar.

Set by: You
How often:

Plumbing & waste

Clean floor drains

The most common source of both odor and fly problems, and usually on nobody’s list.

Set by: You
How often:
Sample and test private well water (total coliforms) Legal maximum

Required at least annually, and the most recent analysis must be kept on file at the operation.

Set by: Ohio food code — annual, if you are on a private water system · OAC 3717-1-05
How often:
Replace water filter cartridges

A spent cartridge stops filtering silently. The code requires the housing be reachable — use that.

Set by: Equipment manufacturer · OAC 3717-1-05.1
How often:
Test backflow prevention devices — including the carbonator

Carbonated water is acidic and can dissolve copper out of a supply line if it backflows.

Set by: Ohio plumbing code and your municipality · OAC 3717-1-05.1
How often:
Pump the grease interceptor

Interval is set locally and by your volume. Ask your sewer district what they expect to see.

Set by: Your municipality — not the food code
How often:
Clean the dumpster pad and enclosure

Outdoor refuse areas are required to be curbed and graded to drain, and kept clean.

Set by: You — inspectors look at it · OAC 3717-1-06.1
How often:

Front of house

Launder linens, aprons and wiping cloths

Sending aprons home with staff is not a laundry plan you can show anyone.

Set by: Ohio food code — must be mechanically washed · OAC 3717-1-04.7
How often:
Deep clean under and behind the line

Most findings that read as neglect are really findings that nobody owned a task.

Set by: You
How often:
Clean and restock restrooms

The restroom is the room a customer uses to decide what your kitchen looks like.

Set by: You — but the supplies are a code requirement · OAC 3717-1-06.2
How often:
Clean and sanitize high chairs and booster seats

A tray a small child puts hands and mouth on, between customers, all day. Check the straps and buckle while you are there.

Set by: You — the food code has no high chair rule
How often:
Deep clean anti-fatigue and entry mats

A mat that is never lifted is a wet, warm, food-soiled surface sitting on your floor.

Set by: You, or your mat service
How often:

Pest & premises

Pest control service visit

The code requires insects, rodents and other pests to be controlled to minimize their presence. A service record is how you evidence it.

Set by: Ohio food code requires pests to be controlled — the interval is yours · OAC 3717-1-06.4
How often:
Check pest monitoring devices and log what you find

Empty traps are evidence. Traps nobody checks are decoration.

Set by: You
How often:
Clear unnecessary equipment and clutter from the premises

The premises are to be free of items unnecessary to the operation — including equipment that is nonfunctional or no longer used.

Set by: Ohio food code · OAC 3717-1-06.4
How often:

Suggested intervals are starting points, not advice about your kitchen. Manufacturer intervals vary by model and by how hard you work the equipment; legal intervals are cited so you can read the rule yourself. Getting the finished schedule approved by your licensor is what turns “as often as necessary” into a document with their name on it — see who sets each interval.