Vomit and diarrhea clean-up procedure for a restaurant: a written plan and a kit checklist (free template)

Nobody plans for it. Then a child is sick next to the pastry case on a Saturday, the closest employee grabs the dish-pit mop, and the problem gets spread around the room.

The FDA Food Code asks every food establishment to have a written procedure for this moment. This post gives you one to adapt: the rule, a kit checklist, a step-by-step procedure, a clean-up record and a training sign-off.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your health department may have its own requirements; follow theirs where they differ.

What the Food Code requires

The 2022 FDA Food Code says in §2-501.11:

"A FOOD ESTABLISHMENT shall have written procedures for EMPLOYEES to follow when responding to vomiting or diarrheal events that involve the discharge of vomitus or fecal matter onto surfaces in the FOOD ESTABLISHMENT. The procedures shall address the specific actions EMPLOYEES must take to minimize the spread of contamination and the exposure of EMPLOYEES, consumers, FOOD, and surfaces to vomitus or fecal matter." (FDA Food Code 2022)

It's a priority foundation item. In the 2026 Food Code the same requirement moves to §2-502.11; the wording is the same apart from formatting. Who stays home, and when they come back, is in our employee illness reporting form.

Why it's stricter than normal cleaning. The Food Code's public health reasons for this section (Annex 3) explain that "Effective clean up of vomitus and fecal matter in a food establishment should be handled differently from routine cleaning procedures. It should involve a more stringent cleaning and disinfecting process." And it warns that "Some compounds that are routinely used for sanitizing food-contact surfaces and disinfecting countertops and floors, such as certain quaternary ammonium compounds, may not be effective against Norovirus." So the quat sanitizer in your buckets is not the answer.

What the plan should cover. The same annex lists what an establishment "should consider", including:

• "The procedures for containment and removal of any discharges, including airborne particulates"
• "The procedures for the evaluation and disposal of any food that may have been exposed to discharges"
• "The segregation of areas that may have been contaminated"
• "Minimizing risk of disease transmission through the exclusion and restriction of ill employees as specified in §2-201.12 of the Food Code"
• "The conditions under which the plan will be implemented."

Choosing the disinfectant

The annex points to "EPA registered disinfection products sufficient to inactivate norovirus". EPA publishes them as List G, and says: "EPA has reviewed required laboratory testing data demonstrating that these products kill norovirus." (EPA, List G)

1. Find the EPA Reg. No. on the label and search for it on List G.
2. Check the label's directions for norovirus. EPA tells you to make sure "the product's label includes directions for use as a disinfectant product against norovirus".
3. Note the contact time. EPA: "The contact time is the time the product must be applied to the surface for it to be effective." Write it on the kit; it's the step people cut short.
4. Add it to your chemical list and SDS binder, and store it away from food. See our chemical inventory and SDS binder index.

Mixing bleach instead? Use the strength and contact time your health department or the product's norovirus directions give; it depends on the product.

The kit checklist

Keep one sealed kit (a lidded bucket works) outside the food prep area, where any shift can reach it. Check it monthly; restock after every use.

The written procedure (template)

Fill in the blanks; keep a copy in the kit and one in your food safety binder.

Who this applies to: any vomiting or diarrheal event on a surface in our establishment, inside or out, by an employee, guest or anyone else.

Who cleans: the person in charge assigns a trained employee: _______ (first choice), _______ (second choice). Never the person who was sick.

Step 1. Stop and separate.

• Help the person who was ill away from the area; an employee stops work and tells the person in charge.
• Close off at least _____ feet around the spot with the sign or cones. Move guests away.
• Stop food prep and service there. Leave food where it is until step 4.

Step 2. Put on protection. Shoe covers, gown, mask, eye protection, two pairs of gloves.

Step 3. Contain and remove.

• Cover the spill with absorbent powder and let it set as the label says.
• Scoop it up from the outside edge in, without splashing, straight into a bag. Wipe with paper towels, outside in, and bag them.

Step 4. Decide on food. Throw out food, single-use items and open containers within _____ feet, or the whole room if it's a prep area. When in doubt, throw it out and record it.

Step 5. Clean, then disinfect.

• Wash with detergent and water, rinse, then apply the disinfectant over a wider area than the spill and leave it wet for _____ minutes.
• Food-contact surfaces nearby: afterwards wash, rinse and sanitize as usual.
• Disinfect touch points nearby: door handles, chair backs, menus, the card reader.
• Carpet or upholstery: _______ (your method).

Step 6. Tools and waste. Bag the scoop and towels; disinfect anything you keep. Take off protection: outer gloves, gown, shoe covers, eye protection, mask, inner gloves. Double-bag everything and take it straight to the dumpster.

Step 7. Wash. Wash hands and forearms at a handwashing sink. Change into a clean apron before going back to food.

Step 8. Exclude and report. If an employee was sick, apply the exclusion chart before they work again. If a guest blames your food, follow your incident report form and your health department's complaint process.

Step 9. Reopen and record. The person in charge checks, reopens and fills in the record.

The clean-up record

Training sign-off

Train everyone who might clean up before they need to: the kit, the nine steps, putting the protection on and off, and where the procedure is kept. Same idea as our training sign-off sheet.

Retrain when you change disinfectants. The procedure and kit are also lines on our food safety self-inspection checklist and mock inspection scoring sheet.

Where Mays fits

• The procedure on every phone. Put the nine steps in a Knowledge Base article. See Your knowledge base.
• Training with a quiz. An admin creates a module under Learning → Modules, uses Generate from docs to draft a quiz from that article, and Assigns it with an optional due date. See Creating learning modules and Assigning training.
• The record as a form. Under Tasks → Types, build a Clean-up record form with Date / time, Text, Checkbox for each piece of protection, Number for the contact time, Photo, Employee and Signature fields. See Building custom forms.
• Starting it when it happens. A manager creates a one-off task on the web with Custom form as the answer type. See Creating one-off tasks. Every submission lands in Tasks → Data, with Export CSV. See Task Data.
• Telling the next manager. Post it in the Logbook under Health & Safety. See The manager logbook.

What Mays doesn't do: check List G, time the contact period, or link a clean-up to an excluded employee's return. Staff can't start the form themselves; a manager creates the task. The logbook is text only.

Write it before you need it

Print the procedure, build the kit, train the team, keep the record.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set it up with you.