Cleaning Log Template: Schedule, Sign-Off and What's Due

A cleaning log in a food business has two halves. The schedule lists every cleaning task, the area, how often it's done and how, from wiping down worktables after every shift to cleaning the hood filters once a month. The log records each time a task is done, who did it and who checked it. Together they answer the question an inspector, an auditor or a buyer asks: how do you know it was cleaned? In the example below, a bakery's schedule shows the walk-in cooler is four days overdue for its weekly clean, while the daily tasks and an allergen changeover before a nut-free batch are signed for. Below is what goes on the schedule and the log, allergen changeovers, verification, and a free template.

The short version

• Schedule every task: what, where, how often, the method and the chemical.
• Log each time a task is done, with who did it and who checked it.
• Daily, weekly and monthly tasks each get a due date; anything past it is overdue.
• Allergen changeovers are logged every time, before the next product starts.
• Sanitize at the concentration on the label, checked with test strips.
• Keep the log with your food safety records.
• TaroStack's batch records can carry the cleaning check before each batch; it doesn't keep the cleaning log. More below.

The schedule

Flint Hills Bakery, a made-up wholesale bakery in Topeka, Kansas, I use in these examples, keeps this master schedule:

The method column is what makes the schedule teachable: a new hire can follow it. Which tasks a kitchen needs and how often comes from its food safety plan; how one is put together is in what is a food safety plan.

The log, and what's due

Each log line is a date, the task as written on the schedule, the initials of who did it, and the initials of who checked it. The schedule reads the log, finds the last time each task was done, and shows what's due and what's overdue, so the walk-in's missed week stands out instead of hiding in a stack of sheets.

Allergen changeovers

A changeover clean, between a product with an allergen and one without, isn't on a calendar; it happens each time the run changes. So it's logged each time, before the next batch starts, with what was cleaned and who checked it. The record that says which products contain which allergens, and so when a changeover is needed, is an allergen matrix template.

Verification

"Checked by" is the second pair of eyes: a supervisor or the owner looks at the surface, the test strip or the swab and initials the line. Sanitizers work at the concentration on their label, so the check includes a test strip in the sanitizer bucket. People can't initial what they weren't trained to do; a record of who was trained on which task is an employee training log template. This is general information, not food safety advice.

Get the template

Download the cleaning log template. Two sheets: the schedule, with every task, area, frequency in days, method and chemical, and for each task the last time it was done, when it's due and whether it's overdue against the date you set; and the log, a line for each cleaning with the date, task, who did it, who checked it and notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The log says the mixer was cleaned and checked on Thursday. It doesn't say which batches were made on it afterward, or that the oatmeal cookies after the changeover went to the store that asked for nut-free.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack's batch records can carry the cleaning check before each batch. Plainly: it doesn't keep the cleaning schedule or log; the template does that.

A cleaning check on the batch. Batch record forms carry your own fields, such as "allergen changeover done" and "line cleaned," with sign-off, so a batch can't be recorded without the check that belongs to it.

Batches with their lots. Each batch notes the lots it used and goes into a lot of its own, so the batches made after a changeover are a list.

And the customers. One report walks a lot to every customer who got it.

Recipes, batches, lots, recalls and batch record forms are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What should be on a cleaning log?

The date, the task as written on the cleaning schedule, who did it, who checked it, and notes. The schedule behind it lists each task's area, frequency, method and chemical.

What is a master sanitation schedule?

The list of every cleaning task in a food business, with its area, how often it's done, and the method and chemical, so nothing depends on memory.

How often should a food business clean?

Food-contact surfaces after each use or each shift, floors daily, equipment and storage weekly, and less-used parts monthly, as the food safety plan sets out, plus an allergen changeover clean each time a run changes.

How long should cleaning logs be kept?

As long as your food safety plan, health department or buyers require; keep them with the other food safety records.