If you want to have a healthy workplace, then you need to ensure that your kitchen is hygienic and clean for both your staff and customers. When a workplace is clean, the risk of food being contaminated or spoiled will be reduced.
Fresh, tasty, and clean food will ensure that your customers enjoy a premium dining experience without becoming ill afterward. Pests, such as rats, ants, and cockroaches, are also attracted to messy spaces.
By keeping your kitchen clean and tidy, you will essentially be making it less appealing to vermin and rodents that can spread diseases.
Here, our focus will be on the steps you can take to promote a healthy and clean kitchen environment.
What should you do to maintain a clean workplace?
If you do not properly clean your kitchen regularly, then the risk of food poisoning will rise. You can even spread contagious viruses and bacteria to your loved ones, staff, or customers if you are not careful.
Many foodborne diseases can be prevented by maintaining a clean environment that is devoid of germs and spoiled or contaminated food items.
The first thing you should do in order to help promote a hygienic environment is to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before you handle raw food. You should also gingerly wash your hands after you have handled any food items.
Bacteria can easily spread across a kitchen and land on food items, cutting boards, hands, and kitchen utensils in a manner of minutes. You can also hand wash using portable sinks to further help the fight against germs and bacteria.
Studies have found that hand washing is the most effective way to reduce harmful germs and bacteria. It is important to avoid going to work if you are feeling ill. Staff should also be asked to stay home until they fully recover.
A hairnet should be worn to prevent stray hair from falling onto meals. Staff should also be asked to avoid wearing makeup, perfume, earrings, piercings, or any other item that can fall into bowls or plates or cause customers to possibly have an adverse reaction.
All meals should be served with properly cleaned utensils or tools, and waiters and waitresses can wear hygienic serving gloves as well.
What is the best way to organize a kitchen?
If you work in the restaurant business, then you will have to deal with a seemingly never-ending cycle of cooking and cleaning. However, you can make the entire process far more manageable by ensuring that your kitchen is clean, tidy, and well-organized.
Start with a clean slate, going through each item one by one. Make sure that each utensil and appliance is clean before you place them in your kitchen. It is especially important to visually inspect each kitchen product if you have opted to buy second-hand kitchenware.
Methods for Pest-Free Food Storage
Your first line of protection against food contamination is preventing insects from accessing your food. Bugs are smarter than you think and will find creative ways to try and get into your food storage cabinets and appliances.
Protecting your home or business from bugs, rats, and other pests should be a top priority, as it can be very hard to exterminate vermin once they have entered your property. Try to seal delicate and vulnerable items so that they are air-tight and childproof.
You also need to try and make your home or business as unappealing as possible so that vermin will not be attracted to it. You can use traps, chemicals, and other bug and rodent-repellent products to ward off pests.
You should avoid leaving food out in plain sight for a prolonged period of time. The good news is that you can use your freezer and refrigerator in order to keep unwelcome guests out.
Both appliances are essentially pest-proof because they are sealed tight and are too cold for bugs to survive in. They will also keep your food nice and fresh until it is time to take them out for food preparation.
Staying Safe
Waste control and management must be put on top of your to-do list if you want to protect your staff, customers, and loved ones from potentially becoming very ill. You can use phenyl in order to cover up all of the debris and refuse in your kitchen until it is time to take out the trash.
Pests, such as ants, cockroaches, raccoons, and mice, are attracted to the odors that emanate from your garbage bins. As such, you should remove your trash as soon as possible in order to avoid attracting unpleasant guests that can crash the party.
