How I Use the Clean As You Go Template with Customers in Pilla
Clean as you go is the policy that sounds obvious until you watch it fall apart during a Friday night service. I've walked into kitchens where the written procedure says "clean spillages immediately" and there's dried sauce on the prep bench from two hours ago. The issue is rarely that staff don't know they should clean up. It's that nobody has set a clear standard for what "clean as you go" actually looks like in practice, and there's no consequence when it slips.
Food soiling is a growing medium for bacteria and a food source for pests. The longer it sits, the harder it is to remove and the more dangerous it becomes. That's the principle behind clean as you go, and it's why this is the default cleaning method across the catering industry. This article covers what your policy needs to include, gives you a template you can edit for your operation, and flags the bits that EHOs pay closest attention to.
Key Takeaways
- What is clean as you go in food safety? Clean as you go means cleaning surfaces, equipment, and spillages immediately during work rather than letting mess build up. It's the standard cleaning method in catering because it removes food soiling before bacteria can multiply and before residues harden
- Why do you need a clean as you go policy? Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires food premises to be kept clean and maintained in good repair and condition. A written policy sets the standard your team works to and gives your EHO evidence that cleaning is managed, not left to chance
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Clean as you go is a prerequisite programme. It sits alongside your cleaning schedules and two-stage cleaning procedures as part of the cleaning section of your food safety management system. The principle is simple: you clean as you work, not after.
Food debris and soiling left on surfaces or equipment does two things. It provides a growing medium for micro-organisms, and it acts as a food source for pests. Both risks increase the longer the soiling stays in place. A spillage cleaned within seconds is a non-event. The same spillage left for an hour is a contamination risk, and if it's on the floor, a slip hazard too.
There's a practical reason as well. Food residues are easier to remove when they're fresh. Leave sauce on a grill for three hours and it carbonises. What would have taken a quick wipe now needs a scraper and heavy-duty degreaser. I've seen kitchens where the end-of-shift deep clean takes over an hour because nobody cleaned during service. In kitchens that clean as they go properly, close-down takes 20 minutes.
The legal basis is Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which requires food premises to be kept clean and maintained in good repair and condition. Your EHO will look at the state of surfaces, equipment, and floors during their visit. They're not just checking whether you have a cleaning schedule pinned to the wall. They're looking at whether the kitchen is actually clean at the point of inspection. A clean as you go policy that's being followed is visible the moment someone walks through the door.
The contamination types this controls are primarily microbiological (bacteria transferred from soiled surfaces to food) and allergenic (allergen proteins left on surfaces after handling allergenic ingredients). Physical contamination from food debris is also a factor, particularly in open kitchens or where ready-to-eat food is prepared near raw food areas.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a clean as you go template in Pilla covering spillage response, work surface cleaning, bulk equipment, washing up procedures, waste removal, corrective actions, and record keeping. It gives you a structured starting point that you should edit to match how your kitchen actually operates.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Food Safety Management System". Use the same tag across all of your food safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says something generic, replace it with what actually happens in your business. If you don't have a dishwasher, update the washing section to describe your double-sink system. If you use specific cleaning chemicals, name them. The EHO wants to see that your policy reflects your operation, not that you've filed a generic document and forgotten about it.
Clean as you go
This is generally the method employed in the catering industry as it is the safest and easiest method.
Food soiling and debris is potential food and a growing medium for micro-organisms, as well as being a potential food supply for pests, therefore it must be removed as quickly as possible.
It is easier to clean if this is undertaken immediately after soiling has taken place, a build-up of food residues and soiling will make it more difficult to remove later.
Safety points
Food spillages
- Ensure food spillages are cleaned up immediately from both work surfaces and floors with single use disposable centrefeed roll
- Clean work surfaces afterwards and disinfect
- Floors should be mopped afterwards with a hard surface cleaner and hot water
- Wet and slippery floors can present serious slip hazards in a kitchen, always clean spillages immediately
Work surfaces
- Food preparation surface and any other surface that may come into contact with food directly both raw and cooked/RTE must be cleaned and disinfected effectively to ensure surfaces that are safe for food to be placed on them
- Care must be taken with spillages of major allergens, wet cleaning with a detergent is always the safest method, followed by disinfection
- Single use disposable centrefeed rolls should be used wherever possible, single use cloths can also be used for a single task they must be discarded after use
Bulk equipment
- Large equipment such as grills, ovens, microwaves and other large equipment should be cleaned of spills and food debris as soon as temperature permits or as a minimum at the end of food service
- Food residues on hot equipment will be harder to clean, requiring harsher chemicals the longer it is left on the surface
Washing
- Equipment, utensils, pots etc. must be cleaned as soon as possible and should not be allowed to build up
- Dirty pots must be stored off the floor on the dishwasher tabling or racking/shelves provided for the purpose
Waste removal
- Food waste must be removed from the kitchen area regularly and whenever waste bins are full
- Waste bins must be emptied every time at the end of a shift and the waste bin cleaned and disinfected
Corrective actions
- Reclean and disinfect items or surfaces that have not been cleaned properly
- Review cleaning methods and procedures if found to be not effective
- Retrain staff if required and give extra supervision until competency is shown
Record keeping
- Record any contraventions of the above safety points and any corrective actions taken
- Record any training or retraining of staff undertaken
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The spillage response section is the most important part. I'd want to see that your team knows the difference between a standard spillage and an allergen spillage. For standard spillages, it's centrefeed roll to remove the bulk, then clean and disinfect the surface. For allergen spillages, you need wet cleaning with detergent first, because sanitiser on its own won't remove allergen proteins. That distinction matters. I've seen kitchens where staff spray sanitiser on a flour spill and assume the surface is safe for a coeliac customer. It's not.
The waste removal section should specify that bins are emptied at the end of every shift and that the bin itself is cleaned and disinfected. Not just emptied and relined. The inside of a bin that's had raw chicken trimmings sitting in it for six hours is a contamination source if it's not properly disinfected.
For bulk equipment, I'd want to see that the policy sets a clear expectation: clean as soon as temperature permits, not at the end of service unless there's no other option. The longer food residues sit on hot equipment, the harder they are to remove.
Common mistakes I see:
The work surfaces section often says surfaces must be "cleaned and disinfected" but doesn't mention that allergen spillages need detergent first. Staff who are trained to spray and wipe with sanitiser will do exactly that for allergen spills, and it's not enough. The template covers this, but I'd make sure your team understands why the two procedures are different.
The washing section says dirty pots must be stored off the floor, but I still walk into kitchens where pots are stacked on the floor next to the dishwasher. It happens most during busy service when the racking is full. The contamination risk is real: the base of a pot that's been on the floor transfers whatever's on that floor to the next surface it touches.
Waste bins get emptied but rarely disinfected. The template specifies both, and this is a point EHOs check. A bin that's been emptied and relined but not cleaned still has bacterial residue from the previous shift's waste. End-of-shift means empty, clean, disinfect, then reline.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.