The Plough Inn in Harborne is a shining example of best practice in the catering and hospitality industry in more ways than one.  The inn has an award winning menu and it has been voted one of the best 20 pubs in the UK.  Landlord Adam Johnson has extremely high standards and one of the many reasons for the pub’s continued success is his eye for detail in every single part of the operation – everything must be right.

This includes the less glamorous and visible part of the business such as the cleaning of ventilation and extraction units and specifically ensuring the regular cleaning of the ductwork system. This specialist cleaning has been carried out by Ductbusters for several years.

The majority of catering establishments feature a canopy extraction system within the kitchen to control the build up of heat, steam and grease emissions in the cooking area. The filters in the canopy act as a good first line of defence against grease deposition but still allow the smaller particles to pass into the extract ductwork system. These deposits will accumulate over time and can pose numerous hygiene and fire risks.

The canopies and filters are easily accessible for regular cleaning by staff, but the ductwork is normally hidden above a ceiling and can pass through numerous walls and floors before reaching the discharge point.  This lack of access is where the problem lies.

These hidden sections require specialist attention for cleaning to TR19 standard. This standard also indicates a recommended frequency of cleaning depending on the number of hours per day the kitchen is operational. Once cleaned to TR19 a cleaning certificate can be produced to verify compliance with Health & Safety obligations & insurance requirements.

Adam Johnson said:

“It is essential to have clean ducts both to minimize any fire and health risks and importantly to ensure you have the necessary certificates to validate your insurance policy.  We clean where we can every day and do a deep clean each week, but even so there are still a lot of inaccessible areas that require specialist knowledge and equipment.  We have worked with Ductbusters since 2004 and they do a great job for us.  It is easy to ignore duct cleaning but it is absolutely vital – hygienically, legally and of course for reasons of safety.”

Ductbusters has launched an information campaign for restaurants and hotels highlighting the issues and offering a free site survey to help identify any problems.