Keeping Your Commercial Kitchen Clean

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-in-six Americans get sick from consuming contaminated food or beverages every year.

Food poisoning isn’t surprising considering commercial kitchens can serve as a hot spot for germs and bacteria if they aren’t properly maintained. Regardless of whether the kitchen is in a high school cafeteria or a five-star hotel restaurant, ensuring your commercial kitchen is a clean and healthy environment should be a top priority.

Systematic

To operate a successful kitchen, you will need to incorporate a regular cleaning schedule into the day to day running of your business. From everyday tasks to those which can be performed less regularly, your cleaning program will all depend on how often you use your kitchen.

For example, every day you will need to; wipe down the sink and worktops and clean the floor. Whereas cleaning cabinets, appliances, fridges, and other kitchen equipment may need less regular cleaning.

Ensuring you strict daily, weekly, and monthly tasks will help to ensure your cleaning program is adhered too and maintained.

Floors

Given the busyness of the typical commercial kitchen, dirty floors are standard in restaurants. Dropped food can cause germs in the air as small droplets and adversely affect the food’s quality. Employee shoes can track dirt into walk-in freezers, walk-in refrigerators, and food-prep areas, causing cross-contamination. The takeaway? Dirty commercial kitchen floors aren’t just a trip-and-fall hazard; they’re also a threat to public health, as they can harbor organisms that cause food-borne illnesses. Unfortunately, mopping may be insufficient.

So, what does work when it comes to the question of how to clean a greasy restaurant kitchen floor? We recommend a floor cleaning system that scrubs the floor and sucks up all the dirty liquid into a holding tank. While this may seem like an unnecessary expense compared to a mop, it’s an investment in the overall well-being of your restaurant kitchen. An industrial kitchen degreaser is one of the commercial kitchen cleaning supplies that can help remove grease from kitchen floors.

One additional tip: Save cleaning the floors for last to avoid having to do the work again due to debris falling from other surfaces as you wash them. 

Clean, Clean, and Cleaner 

Kitchen equipment and surfaces need more than just washing. To help ensure that bacteria numbers are reduced to a safe level, it’s essential to sanitize. There are two different ways to disinfect, with a chemical agent or with heat. This takes cleaning one step further and provides long-lasting protection against potential contamination.

Food poisoning occurs when someone consumes unsafe food or drink – often contaminated with harmful bacteria. So how can you keep your commercial kitchen clean and fresh?

First, hands are one of the primary ways in which germs spread. All people working in a position where they touch food should know how to wash their hands properly. Washing includes before and after handling raw food or touching anything that may have been exposed to germs.

Perishable products usually come with “use-by” dates, based on scientific testing. These dates indicate approximately how long items will remain safe for consumption. Following the use-by date, food could be unsafe to eat, even if it looks and smells normal.

It’s essential to make sure that your refrigerator is set below the 41°F if you want to ensure that chilled foods remain chilled to a safe temperature. Keeping foods at the right temperature during periods of storage can ensure that harmful germs are not permitted to grow and multiply. Make sure that commercial fridges do not get overfilled, as there should always be enough room for air to circulate – thereby maintaining the correct temperature.

Apply routines and stay consistent, and your commercial kitchen will thrive in cleanliness and productivity.