Safety Tips for Your Commercial Kitchen
August 29, 2019Safety tips for your commercial kitchen to keep it running smoothly and keep disease out.
A well-run commercial kitchen means maintaining the utmost cleanliness and safe conditions for your food preparation. If you were to contaminate an area with Salmonella or other dangerous bacteria accidentally, your customers and employees could get very sick. You also need to know how to pass any checks done by the local health department, so your restaurant can operate with full certification.
Ask Yourself, Is My Commercial Kitchen Safe?
Preventing food preparation area accidents:
- Do my employees use a stool or footrest to avoid prolonged standing?
- Do I make stools and footrests available to my kitchen workers?
- Do we rearrange food prep tasks to avoid overreaching?
- Do we use mechanical kitchen appliances for chopping, dicing, or mixing foods to avoid repetitive stress injuries?
- Do we provide approved uniforms, hairnets, and gloves for our employees?
- Do our employees wear uniforms, hairnets, and gloves?
Preventing lifting accidents
- Have my workers been trained to lift with their legs not with their backs, whether it is a light or heavy load?
- Are workers trained to bring bulky items close to their chest so they can stay balanced and eliminate straining?
- Are employees trained to use tilt containers or get help when lifting or pulling fluids or bulky items?
- Are my employees empowered to point out safe and proper lifting techniques to fellow employees?
- Do supervisors take the lead by setting the right example?
Preventing slips, trips, and falls
- Is the kitchen staff trained to mop up spills and wet areas immediately?
- Is kitchen, supply areas, freezer floors, and walkways kept free of clutter?
- Is the proper ladder training provided?
- Do employees know how to use ladders correctly to avoid overreaching and overextending themselves?
- Are employees required to wear proper slip-resistant footwear?
- Is the kitchen floor swept and mopped each night?
Proper Handling
All produce needs to be washed and scrubbed thoroughly before being served. Washing can be done right before serving, as some veggies wilt if removed too far ahead of time. Never use soap or bleach on produce. Coldwater is best. A produce brush for harder items like turnips, carrots, or potatoes is recommended.
Conduct Self Inspections
A good commercial kitchen manager conducts regular self-inspections so that he can make sure to spot problems before they get out of hand. Preparation is especially the case since many kitchen inspections conducted by the authorities are conducted unannounced, making it extra essential to stay prepared.
Kitchen Equipment in Little Rock
Tipton Equipment Restaurant Supply has a selection of kitchen equipment in Little Rock that will help enhance the menu of any restaurant, deli, or supermarket. Our span of kitchen equipment will help you keep up with growing consumer demand for fresh, high-quality...
What You’ll Need: Arkansas Convenience Store Equipment Freezers and Refrigerators
Your convenience store can't just have any old piece of equipment.What’s a Convenience Store? A convenience store is what the name implies; a store of convenience in an easily accessible area where customers usually have a variety of household products, beverages,...
Commercial Ice Cream Freezer: Keeping it Clean
To many, cleaning an ice cream freezer merely means pulling out all the food and allowing the appliance to defrost. Defrosting is a vital step, but it is not the only thing that needs to happen to maintain a clean freezer. To ensure optimal performance and keep your...
Getting Your Commercial Kitchen Up and Running
Getting your commercial kitchen up and running. Serving Ware If there's nothing to serve the food on, there's no restaurant. You'll need tons of cutlery, plate ware, bowls, ramekins, cups, and glasses. Consider the number of tables you can fit in your restaurant and...
Cooking Equipment You Need Today!
If you've ever attempted to purchase cooking equipment for a new kitchen or tried to improve the quality of tools in your current kitchen you've found that stocking up on high-quality kitchen essentials is much more complicated than it should be. Nowadays everywhere...
Cooking Equipment Disasters You Can Avoid
Cooking equipment disasters you can avoid through proper safety procedure and careful proceeding. Kitchens are the heart of the home, but they’re also home to a lot of cooking equipment that can pose safety hazards. Cooking fires top the list of things that can go...
Why You Should Maintain Restaurant Supplies Religiously
Excellent quality and well-functioning restaurant supplies are the backbones of a restaurant’s success. While you may be able to operate a restaurant without regular equipment maintenance in the short run, the long-term effects will add up. Decreasing equipment...
What Restaurant Supplies Does Your Café Need?
What restaurant supplies does your café need? Our Pro's Do It All: Provide, Install & Maintain From soda fountains to most any frozen beverage machine, we offer a fantastic variety of beverage equipment and restaurant supplies. Tipton Equipment is one of the few...
Three Benefits of Using Used Kitchen Equipment
Three benefits of using used kitchen equipment are more straightforward than you would think. SavingsUsed kitchen equipment will save you thousands in, starting a restaurant. High restaurant failure rate leads to restaurant kitchen equipment only being in service for...
Kitchen Equipment Spotlight: How to Maintain a Commercial Freezer
Your commercial freezers are a vital part of your restaurant operation. They hold the food and supplies you’ve bought to keep them at their freshest until you need them. Unfortunately, when a freezer malfunctions, you can lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars’...
How to Run a Successful Event & Party Room
Do you have a large space in your restaurant set aside for special events and parties? Does it get reserved as often as you wished?If you’re like most restaurant owners or managers, the answers are yes and no. You probably have a space – almost everyone is expected to...
Philadelphia Outlaws Cashless: What it Means to You
In early March, Philadelphia became the first city in the U.S. to forbid restaurants from refusing cash payments. As of July 1, all Philadelphia restaurants will have to accept cash payments and cannot charge cash-paying customers more than non-cash ones. Several...
Types of Insurance Your Restaurant Needs
No one gets into the restaurant business thinking about insurance and paperwork, but it’s still an important part of doing business. Insurance helps protect you from natural disaster, theft, employee injuries, and liability. Many times you can get insurance discounts...
Control COGS in Your Restaurant
Restaurants are known for having razor-thin margins, but you can improve your profits if you have a good handle on your costs. That doesn’t mean you have to skimp on restaurant supplies, but it does mean you can be strategic about what you spend. Do you know your cost...
Roast: What’s Wrong With The Honeymooner’s Kitchen? Kitchen Supplies
Welcome to our new series, “Roast and Toast”! Each month we’ll feature one kitchen that we love and one that… well, could use improvements. The kitchens we feature can come from anywhere – TV, films, popular culture, you name it. We’ll talk about what we love and what...