How Cleaning Extractor Fans Helps Improve Air Quality

The extractor fans in your commercial kitchen are used for a multitude of purposes. They aren’t just there to remove smoke and odours from the air. They are also a vital piece of equipment to help improve indoor air quality. 

Indoor air pollution, which can encompass a variety of pollutants, can be particularly damaging in a commercial kitchen if it isn’t managed properly.

On a wider scale, indoor air quality is believed to be the greatest environmental risk to public health, according to the Stockholm Environment Institute. 

This is because it can lead to a wide range of health problems, while also not being monitored regularly or addressed in many modern buildings. 

In this sense, commercial kitchens already have the upper hand, because it’s well-known that these workplaces require adequate ventilation and equipment to help keep the air as clean as possible. 

One aspect of this is regular kitchen extract cleaning, to ensure that all your extractor fans and ducts are performing at their optimum levels and removing pollutants from your commercial kitchen environment swiftly and efficiently. 

Alongside keeping your kitchen extractor fans and ventilation systems as clean as possible and in proper working order, other steps you can take to reduce the levels of indoor air pollution being generated in your commercial kitchen are:

• Make sure all cookware is cleaned properly to remove any oil residue or burnt-on food.

• Use less oil while cooking and choose oils with a high smoke point whenever possible.

• Consider changing the way in which you cook – for instance swapping gas hobs for electric induction ones. 

This is not a new challenge. In 2023, the British Safety Council launched a campaign to help draw attention to indoor air pollution in commercial kitchens and to encourage restaurant and takeaway owners to take steps to tackle it where possible.