Keep Restaurant Equipment Safe: Proper Use of a Breading Station
May 7, 2018Keeping food safe and sanitary is vital for any restaurant.
A lot foodborne illness isn’t the result of the food itself, but rather a misuse of restaurant equipment that causes contamination.
A breading station is a piece of equipment that has a lot of opportunity for cross-contamination, since raw meat is used in it regularly. Make sure your policies and procedures reflect up-to-date safety standards and are strictly enforced.
What Foodborne Illness Can Do to Your Restaurant.
Your restaurant cannot afford to be known as the site of an illness outbreak due to carelessness. If negligence can be proved, you can be found liable for the sick person’s missed work, medical costs, and even long-term health.
There will be a lot financial consequences beyond the illness as well. You could be subject to regulator’s fines, increased insurance premiums, and may have to retrain your staff or close your restaurant temporarily.
In addition, you’ll suffer terrible bad press that can impact earnings for months or even years. In fact, being known as the source of foodborne illness due to misuse of restaurant equipment can cause your business to fail completely.
Foodborne illness can also affect your employees. If a staff member gets sick due to poor food hygiene, you’ll have to replace their hours and help others cover their work. You may even have to handle a worker’s compensation claim.
Avoid all of these by posting and enforcing food safety rules!
Breading Station Safety
In a commercial kitchen, your fryer can include a breading station right in front of the basket. This type of restaurant equipment helps ensure safety by minimizing the transport of raw meat, as well as keeping meat off of counters.
The breading station should be a removable bowl or basin. The breading mix, perhaps flour and seasonings, is placed in the basin. From there your cooks add the food and deposit it straight into the fry basket.
The first things that all fry cooks should know is to never mix meats in the same breading bowl, and to never follow meat with a vegetable. The breading basin should be replaced or dumped out and thoroughly washed before a new product is breaded.
Between batches of the same meat or vegetable, the breading mix must be kept colder than 41 degrees F. However, breading mix should never be kept overnight.
To help enforce these policies, remind your staff that it’s for their safety as well as the safety of the guests. It really does matter if you leave the flour out “just a few minutes” – anyone can get distracted. The kitchen manager should also make sure restaurant equipment and breading basins are clean and available so no one is caught short.
Get the Right Restaurant Equipment For Your Kitchen
At Tipton Equipment, we want to make it easy for you to find all the pieces your kitchen needs. We offer a wide variety of restaurant equipment, from grills to fryers to breading stations and more.
We’d love to help you outfit your restaurant with the best equipment available. Contact us today and let us know your needs!
Don’t Buy a Commercial Refrigerator Before Considering These 4 Things
A commercial refrigerator is an equipment staple of every restaurant. There are several things to consider when acquiring a commercial refrigerator for your kitchen. When searching for the correct type of unit, here are four things to consider to help you choose the...
5 Ways to Get the Most out of Your Dishwasher
Dishwashers are an incredibly helpful timesaver, and in the fast-paced restaurant industry, staff and managers are desperate for even a small amount of extra time. Although simply putting dishes into a machine seems simple, if your dishwasher is not well-maintained...
How to Keep Having Fun while Running your Restaurant
Restaurant owners typically have a passion for cuisine. Opening and running a restaurant is exciting, providing the opportunity to fully explore and develop your vision. However, if you have been in the restaurant business for any length of time, you know that it is...
3 Great Reasons to Maintain Your Restaurant Equipment
As the owner of a restaurant, you want a healthy and clean business. In the hustle of everyday restaurant management, it can be easy to forget to take care of issues that don’t seem as pressing as the customer complaining that they got the wrong order or that their...
Avoid Surprises During an Appraisal of Your Restaurant Equipment
When it comes to time for your restaurant equipment to be appraised, confusion can set in. For the purpose of the appraisal, personal goods are given value, but goods that are classified as ‘real goods’ are considered part of the real estate or the building structure...
Essentials of Cleaning and Preventative Maintenance for Your Restaurant Equipment
When it comes to your restaurant equipment, regular cleaning and maintenance is essential for making sure your equipment lasts for years to come. And it isn’t simply a matter of making your food processors and commercial mixers more efficient. There are considerable...
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Commercial Oven
As a restaurant owner, buying a commercial oven is an enormous investment. You will desperately want this oven to work properly and you need to make sure it does. You are responsible for your restaurant business. But what if your commercial oven stops working on the...
5 Steps to Cutting Food Waste from Your Kitchen
Food waste is a problem around the world. Taking steps to prevent food waste in your kitchen doesn’t just make your restaurant more morally strong; it can also help you save money on ingredients and attract more customers. Here are some steps you can take to reduce...
Planning Your Equipment Needs When Your Restaurant is Expanding
Your restaurant is doing great, guests are coming in, and they’re spreading the word about the culinary masterpieces your restaurant offers, as well as the exceptional service that is provided by the kitchen equipment and staff. But with all the new business, you’ve...
How to Keep Cool in the Restaurant Kitchen
Being in the kitchen, it’s hard not to feel overheated, especially during the summer. The heat of the stoves and ovens will quickly make the restaurant kitchen somewhere you don’t want to be. How do you keep cool in the kitchen? We have brought together some of the...
How and Why to Make Your Restaurant Lead-Free
If you own a restaurant, then you already know how important water is to your operations, and that poor water quality can adversely impact the success of your business. That is why you should ensure a restaurant lead-free environment. Water is an integral part of all...
Can You Handle These 5 Types of Difficult Restaurant Customers?
No matter how much you love it, running a restaurant certainly has its challenges. It is time-consuming, hectic, labor-intensive and competitive. And to cap it all, there are the difficult restaurant customers you often have to deal with. It’s impossible to please...
5 Unique Restaurant Concepts Guaranteed to Thrill Diners
With restaurants on almost every block, having a unique restaurant concept can help set you apart, making your establishment stand out. These concepts may have taken a bit to catch on, but they have quickly become popular sellers. Here are 5 unique restaurant concepts...
How to Run an Energy-Efficient Restaurant
You probably don’t need to be reminded of the high cost of electricity in running a restaurant compared to an energy-efficient restaurant. Right now, many establishments, including restaurants, are going green and adopting eco-friendly strategies to conserve...
Tipping: A Restaurant Controversy
When it comes to tipping or no-tipping policies in restaurants, there are strong feelings on both sides. While many restaurants have implemented no tipping policies, others are strong proponents for tipping. Still others aren’t sure which policy is right for their...
I applaud the writer for shedding light on this topic and emphasizing the significance of keeping restaurant equipment safe. Found the tip to never mix meats in the same breading bowl, and to never follow meat with a vegetable in order to avoid cross-contamination quite useful. In conclusion, mastering the art of breading goes beyond creating mouthwatering dishes; it involves a deep commitment to safety and best practices.