So you want to keep your kitchen and restaurant looking spotless for your customer? Well, we have a few tips that will help you stay on track. Use these every day to ensure that you prevent foodborne illnesses, reduce the spread of germs and make your restaurant more pleasant for guests and employees.
Keep Hygiene a Top Priority
Cleanliness in the restaurant and kitchen start with you and your employees. If your people are washing their hands regularly, keeping loose hair tied up in a hair net or other restraining apparatus and wearing clothes that are not too loose or dirty, then you’ll have a much easier time keeping the kitchen and restaurant clean. There are state guidelines that every restaurant must follow, as well as federal guidelines that ensure that your place of business is not penalized by the FDA. On top of that, you can establish your own standards as an employer that keep the level of cleanliness very high.
Clean Equipment Regularly
Most restaurants do a good job of wiping down and sanitizing food preparation surfaces, but they often forget about cleaning the equipment they cook and prepare food with. This can include drink machines, meat slicers, fry vats and other tools that aren’t always easy to put into a sink of soapy water and clean out. These will need to be properly sanitized and wiped down on a regular basis to reduce the risk of spreading germs. Follow manufacture guidelines as to how to clean these pieces of equipment and then set up a regular cleaning schedule for your staff to follow as well.
Store Food in a Secure and Safe Place
You want your food to be kept at the right temperature when it is not being serviced and prepared. Make sure the freezer and refrigerator areas are clean and well maintained. If the temperature doesn’t stay at the right level for very long, then you can end up with an entire supply of spoiled food.
You also want to make sure that any kitchen storage areas for food are kept clean and well maintained. Any hot storage locations need to be sanitized each day, and food needs to be rotated out of those areas when it has been there for too long. It is always better to throw away food that is potentially contaminated or spoiled rather than to run the risk of serving it to the customer. Your restaurant’s reputation is on the line.
Clean Spills Immediately
In a busy kitchen, spills are going to happen. That’s just a fact of life, but you will want to deal with these spills right away. It’s tempting to leave them until the end of work time or when you have more time to deal with them, but cleaning up spills immediately ensures that slipping hazards are minimized and that there is less to attract pests. You are also creating a heathier, safer and pleasanter environment for your kitchen staff.