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Extraction cleaning - plain English
You run a kitchen, not a ventilation company - but TR19 Grease keeps landing on your desk. Here is what it actually means for you, stripped of the jargon, and what you genuinely need to do.
The short answer
TR19 Grease is the recognised standard for cleaning the grease out of a commercial kitchen's extract system. You do not need to understand the engineering - what matters is that your extract system builds up combustible grease, that it has to be cleaned properly and proven with a certificate, and that fire safety, your insurer and your environmental health officer all expect it. Your job is to keep it cleaned and hold the proof.
What it is, plainly
TR19 Grease is not a piece of equipment or a law with a number you can look up - it is a specification, a rulebook, for how the grease in a kitchen extract system should be cleaned and checked. When a cleaning company says they clean to TR19 Grease, they mean they follow that rulebook and prove the result, rather than just wiping what they can see.
The name puts people off because it sounds technical. But the idea behind it is simple: cooking throws grease into your extraction, grease burns, so it needs removing from the whole system properly and someone needs to show it was done. TR19 Grease is just the agreed way of doing and proving that.
Why it matters to you
The reason it keeps reaching you is that three things you care about all depend on it. Fire safety: grease in the ductwork is one of the biggest fire risks in a kitchen, and managing it is your legal duty. Insurance: most policies require the system cleaned and certificated, or a fire claim can be refused. And inspections: a grease-caked system does you no favours with an environmental health officer.
So TR19 Grease is not an engineer's concern you can leave to someone else - it sits directly on your risks as an operator. Getting it right protects your premises, your cover and your reputation; ignoring it exposes all three. That is why it belongs on your desk, jargon or no jargon.
What actually has to happen
Here is the part that trips operators up. A proper clean is not just the canopy and filters you can see - it is the whole hidden system behind them: the ductwork running through ceilings and up risers, and the extract fan. That is where the grease that matters most collects, and where a cheap clean quietly stops. TR19 Grease covers all of it.
And it is measured, not judged by eye. The cleaner takes grease readings before and after, so the result is a number you can rely on rather than a shiny surface. You do not need to understand the measurements - you just need to know that a real clean produces them, and that a clean with no readings has not really been checked.
What you have to do
Boiled down, your part is straightforward. First, get the system cleaned at the right frequency for how hard you cook - roughly every three, six or twelve months by your daily cooking hours, confirmed by the cleaner. Second, use a proper contractor who cleans the whole system and gives you a real certificate with readings and photographs. Third, keep those certificates on file, because they are your proof for the insurer, the fire risk assessor and the inspector.
That is genuinely it. You do not have to master the standard - you have to keep the system cleaned on schedule, insist on proper proof, and hold onto it. The engineering is the cleaner's job; the responsibility for making sure it happens and is evidenced is yours.
The takeaway
The useful shift is to stop seeing TR19 Grease as a technical subject you need to learn and start seeing it as a risk you need to manage. You manage plenty of things you are not an expert in - gas safety, food hygiene, electrics - by using competent people and keeping the paperwork. Grease extraction is the same.
So the plain-English version is this: your extract system gets dangerously greasy, TR19 Grease is the proper way to clean and prove it, and your job is to keep that happening and hold the certificates. Get a good contractor, set the frequency, keep the proof - and the standard is handled without you ever needing to read it.
Questions
A recognised rulebook for how the grease in a commercial kitchen's extract system should be cleaned and proven. Cleaning to TR19 Grease means following it and evidencing the result, not just wiping the visible parts.
No. You need to know that your extraction builds up combustible grease, that it must be cleaned properly and certificated, and that fire safety, your insurer and your EHO all expect it. The engineering is the cleaner's job.
Because it sits on three of your risks: fire safety (grease is fuel and managing it is your duty), insurance (cover often depends on it) and inspections (a greasy system counts against you).
The whole system - the hidden ductwork through ceilings and risers and the extract fan, not just the visible canopy and filters - and it is measured with grease readings before and after, not judged by eye.
Clean at the right frequency for your cooking hours, use a proper contractor who cleans the whole system and gives a real certificate with readings, and keep those certificates on file as your proof.
Roughly every 3, 6 or 12 months depending on how many hours a day you cook, confirmed by the cleaner measuring how quickly grease builds up in your system.
We clean the whole system to TR19 Grease and give you a plain, proper certificate - you manage the risk, we master the standard.
