Cleaning & Pest Control for Food Businesses

Cleaning is the job everybody thinks they already know how to do, and it is the one an inspector looks at first. This course is about doing it so it actually works, proving it was done, and keeping the pests that follow poor cleaning out of the building.

Who this course is for

Anyone whose name ends up next to cleaning or pest control on the rota or the plan:

• Chefs, kitchen porters and front-of-house staff who do the cleaning
• Supervisors and managers who write the schedule and check it was followed
• Owners of cafes, takeaways, pubs, restaurants and mobile units
• Anyone in a school, care home or care setting kitchen
• Anyone who has just had a pest sighting and wants to know what happens next

What you’ll learn

• Which cleaning and pest duties are actually law, which are guidance, and which are only industry habit
• Why cleaning and disinfecting are two separate jobs, and what has to be true before a disinfectant does anything at all
• Contact time, dilution and what a product label is really telling you
• How to apply COSHH to the chemicals already under your sink: storage, mixing, and what to do after a splash
• How to build a cleaning schedule for a real kitchen and produce records that stand up afterwards
• How to recognise rodents, insects and birds from the signs they leave, and judge how urgent a find is
• How to design out the food, water, shelter and access that pests need
• What to do when you have a problem: who to call, what you may lawfully do yourself, what has to be notified, and how it affects your hygiene rating

How it works

Eight lessons, each split into short topics with a practice game at the end. Every lesson finishes with its own assessment of 10 questions drawn at random from a bank of 20, so no two attempts are the same. The course ends with a final exam of 20 questions drawn from a bank of 40 covering everything. The pass mark is 80% and you get three attempts at each assessment. Finish the course and your certificate, with your name and a reference anyone can check, is issued to My Account → Certificates.

12 months’ access · any device · certificate the moment you pass

Worth being clear about: this is knowledge training. It gives you the understanding behind the job and the records, and it sits alongside your own cleaning schedule, your pest contractor’s reports and any training your employer arranges. It does not replace them, and it is not a pest control qualification: laying rodenticide is a job for a qualified contractor.

Course content

• Before you startLesson
• The law behind cleaning and pest controlLesson
• The duty to keep the place cleanTopic
• The duty to control pestsTopic
• What happens when you breach itTopic
• The same duties across the four nationsTopic
• Law, guidance, or just how we’ve always done itTopic
• Where cleaning and pests meet the hygiene ratingTopic
• 🎮 Practice: law, guidance or habit?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: The law behind cleaning and pest controlQuiz
• Why cleaning works, and why disinfectant often doesn’tLesson
• What you are actually removingTopic
• Detergent, disinfectant, sanitiserTopic
• Why a dirty surface defeats a disinfectantTopic
• Contact time and dilution: read the labelTopic
• BS EN 1276 and BS EN 13697Topic
• Cleaning as a control, not a choreTopic
• 🎮 Practice: will the disinfectant work?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Why cleaning works, and why disinfectant often doesn’tQuiz
• Doing the job — methods that actually cleanLesson
• The method behind every cleanTopic
• The twin sinkTopic
• The dishwasherTopic
• Clean as you go, and cleaning in placeTopic
• The things that get missedTopic
• Proving it workedTopic
• 🎮 Practice: what undoes the clean?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Doing the job — methods that actually cleanQuiz
• Choosing, using and storing the chemicalsLesson
• What COSHH actually asks of youTopic
• The safety data sheet, and what it is notTopic
• Mixing, and the order you pourTopic
• Controlling exposure while you workTopic
• Storage, and the rule that is in the food lawTopic
• When something goes wrongTopic
• 🎮 Practice: safe to store together?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Choosing, using and storing the chemicalsQuiz
• Designing the scheduleLesson
• Why the schedule is where an outcome duty becomes somebody’s jobTopic
• Walking your own premisesTopic
• Deciding what needs disinfecting, and what does notTopic
• Matching the item to a method that worksTopic
• Writing the entry so it can actually be followedTopic
• Keeping the design honestTopic
• 🎮 Practice: what is this clean aimed at?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Designing the scheduleQuiz
• Knowing your pestsLesson
• Why pests are a food safety problem, not just unpleasantTopic
• Rats and miceTopic
• Cockroaches and crawling insectsTopic
• Flies and flying insectsTopic
• Stored product insects and birdsTopic
• Finding something — the first five minutesTopic
• 🎮 Practice: which pest left that?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Knowing your pestsQuiz
• Keeping pests outLesson
• Why prevention is the legal answerTopic
• Proofing the buildingTopic
• Waste and the outside areaTopic
• Deliveries and storageTopic
• MonitoringTopic
• Making it somebody’s jobTopic
• 🎮 Practice: what lets them in?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Keeping pests outQuiz
• When you have a pest problemLesson
• The notification duty most businesses have never heard ofTopic
• What the business may lawfully do itselfTopic
• Working with a pest contractorTopic
• Reading the report and closing it outTopic
• Chemicals, food and safetyTopic
• The inspection, the rating and getting back on your feetTopic
• 🎮 Practice: first move on a pest findTopic
• Lesson Assessment: When you have a pest problemQuiz
• Course summaryLesson
• Final examQuiz