Keep your kitchen clean, hygienic and safe
Protecting customers from an outbreak of food poisoning and keeping staff safe while they’re at work are vital. Barry Osborn, from TWO Services, explains why daily cleaning and a little help from the professionals is the key to success.
From correctly cleaning utensils to storing food, there are a number of things that contribute to a clean and safe kitchen. Here’s a guide to help you achieve them all.
Hygiene and cleaning training
All kitchen staff, whether its front or back of house, should be trained on cleaning and hygiene practices. Having rigorous food safety standards across the industry is vital. And failure to follow them is like playing roulette with peoples’ safety.
Hand washing is an essential part of the cleaning and hygiene practice. Hands should be washed before preparing food and extra care should be given after handling raw food.
Kitchen staff should complete basic Food Safety (Level 1) to Advanced Food Safety & Hygiene for supervisors and managers (levels 3 and 4), so they have the knowledge to comply with food safety legislation, promote good food hygiene practices and contribute towards an effective HACCP food safety management system.
Daily cleaning
Use a clean, dry cloth when cleaning, and ensure you’re using the correct products recommended by the manufacturer. Remember not to use steel wool, bleach or caustic chemicals which can damage the finish and increase the risk of corrosion.
Utensils should, where possible, be washed in a dishwasher and surfaces should be kept tidy so they are easier to keep clean.
Regularly clean the things that people touch in the kitchen, such as; work surfaces, taps, door handles, and switches. Clean up spills as soon as they happen, especially if it’s raw meat or eggs. And don’t forget about your walls. Tiles should be wiped down in the same way as your work surfaces as they can harbour germs too.
Ovens are the workhorse of a kitchen. Drip trays or drains can collect a dangerous build-up of combustible oils and grease, which presents a fire hazard. Remove pieces of food which have escaped the trays and clean food residues and oils properly.
Storing food correctly
Organising your kitchen so you have separate chopping boards for the preparation of meat, fish and vegetables, are all simple but important aspects to get right. And with the rise in allergies to things such as dairy and nuts, policies for avoiding cross contamination of ingredients are more stringent than ever.
Don’t overlook your refrigeration, it’s a vital element of food safety. Store raw food away from cooked and ready-to-eat food, and make sure it’s labelled correctly with a use by date. Go through your fridges each month, remove food which is no longer suitable, and wash and disinfect thoroughly.
In a hot kitchen, the refrigeration units work hard to keep food chilled. If fridges are not maintaining the temperature they should, report it as soon as you can. If a problem is picked up early, it could mean a new door seal rather than a whole new chiller.
Ductwork
Not all dirt is visible, so don’t assume your ductwork and extraction systems are clean just because you can’t see them. If deposits of grease are allowed to accumulate in extract ductwork, a flash flame or high temperature may cause deposits to ignite.
The flames can then spread rapidly, igniting flammable materials at various points along the ductwork path, potentially spreading to other parts of the building. In fact, a spokesman for the Fire Authority said: “uncleaned grease in extract ventilation systems present probably the greatest potential fire risk in buildings with catering facilities.”
One way to greatly reduce the risk of fire is by sticking to a regular cleaning programme and getting your ductwork cleaned by an accredited organisation to TR/19 standards.
Deep cleans for your kitchen
Following the guidance above is essential, but there will be limits to the level of deep cleaning that can be done. To ensure heavy equipment such as ovens and ductwork are cleaned properly, you’ll need to invest in deep cleans, at a minimum of every 6 months.
It isn’t as expensive or as disruptive as you might think. At TWO Services we can deep clean kitchens overnight so there’s no disruption to your food service. And it doesn’t cost any more than daytime. We also offer bespoke cleaning regimes where we tailor our approach to suit your finances and your schedule – it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Maintenance checks
Poorly maintained equipment can increase the risk of breaching health & safety regulations, so maintenance is vital. Regular maintenance checks will help to protect your equipment, nip problems in the bud and avoid costly breakdowns.
Why TWO Services
Our staff are trained to work with access equipment and clean at high levels, and can move and dismantle heavy equipment to clean hard to reach areas not dealt with on a daily basis. We’ll clean and degrease every inch of your ovens, refrigeration, storage, racking, equipment, counter tops, ceilings, walls and floors, giving you a hygienic baseline to maintain with good daily cleaning.
We work to the highest standards using an integrated management system. We’re accredited to BS EN ISO 9001: 2015, BS EN ISO 14001: 2015 (environmental) and OHSAS 18001: 2007 (health and safety). All our work is carried out in accordance with the European, Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regulations (in all cases, the latest issue applies) and COSHH. We provide certificates of hygiene after each clean.
If you would like more advice or information, call us on 0800 22 44 33 or visit www.two-services.com
