It’s important to keep your kitchen clean regardless of whether you are restaurant, hotel, resort or even just in your own home. The kitchen is the most popular place for bacteria to be festering. If you’re serving food to customers or guests, you want to make sure that the food their enjoying doesn’t make them sick later. The easiest way to ensure that your food is being contaminated with bacteria, follow these tips on how to keep a kitchen clean.
Keep Your Hands Clean
The cleanliness of your kitchen and the food you’re preparing starts with clean hands. You should be washing your hands thoroughly under warm water with soap for at least 20 seconds. Remember to always dry your hands with a clean towel. Do this after each stage in the food preparation process, and no running your hand under water doesn’t count.
Try Automatic Soap Dispensers
For those of you who do wash your hands the correct amount while preparing food, try automatic soap dispensers. These will make it hard for contamination to spread if you aren’t touching the pump.
Food Areas Need to be Clean
This is especially important for restaurants and hotels which serve hundreds of guests every day. Areas where food is prepared must be disinfected prior to contact with any food. Areas which have any raw food such as poultry, meat, fish, eggs and even fresh veggies must be washed immediately after contact and before any other food touches it. This ensures that bacteria from raw foods doesn’t contaminate other foods or even the utensils you are using.
Use of Fabrics in the Kitchen
Even though beneficial during the cooking process, kitchen towels, cloths and even sponges must be dealt with properly after coming in contact with raw food. They must be washed in hot water higher than 140 degrees Fahrenheit and disinfected or even just disposed of after use. These type of fabrics are hotspots for bacteria if they’re being used multiple times without being properly sanitized or replaced.
Use the Right Cleaning Solutions
Keeping a restaurant or other place where food is served sanitary means having to use necessary cleaning solutions that sometimes contain chemicals. It’s important to know which chemicals to use in different parts of the kitchen. Avoid getting these substances on the utensils or dishes that the customers use, these type of chemicals should only be used for cleaning the kitchen itself. Try using non-toxic or environmentally-friendly chemicals when cleaning the utensils and dishes customers eat off of.
Fridges and Sinks
These appliances are at a high risk of containing bad bacteria considering the food is stored in the fridge and prepared using the sink. These two appliances should be disinfected and sanitized very often to ensure clean food storage.
Set a Regular Cleaning Schedule for Staff
A consistent cleaning schedule is very important for your business and your staff. If cleaning is being done the same way at the same time, it is more likely to be sanitized correctly. In addition to proper cleanliness, a regular cleaning schedule ensures that the kitchen isn’t being forgotten about after all the work is done. This way each staff is responsible for a designated station and the work is done in a timely and proper manner.
Send Sick Employees Home
It’s best to send employees who are sneezing and coughing home for the day if they are showing signs of a fever, vomiting or diarrhea. It’s better to not risk having food contaminated or even getting other employees and customers sick as well. Tasks that don’t involve direct contact with food and customers.
Follow Food Safety Management Principles
Making sure food safety principles are being followed is extremely important in order to keep a business clean. These principles can guide you through processes to keep your kitchen sanitary such as:
- minimising the risks of cross contamination
- rendering the spoilage of food in your restaurant almost impossible
- eliminating the possibilities of harmful bacteria spread and growth.
Awareness of these standards and practices for you and your staff will allow for a clean and healthy kitchen. Food storage and preparation must be followed under these food safety management principles in order to make sure it’s being kept sanitary.