Commercial kitchens, usually equipped with heavy-duty kitchen appliances, are large rooms used to prepare and cook food for hundreds of people daily. The constant hustle and bustle in such rooms throughout the day can make them extremely messy. Moreover, the by-products of cooking, including airborne grease, toxic fumes, and food waste, can clog and clutter the area, making a perfect environment for pathogenic bacterias to thrive in and compromise food quality.
According to a report published by the Center For Disease Control And Prevention, 50% of foodborne outbreaks are linked to restaurants and commercial kitchens due to their poor hygiene. This is why commercial establishments must comply with all food safety standards and guidelines and ensure they maintain proper hygiene, sanitation, and cleanliness inside their kitchens.
A spotless kitchen is essential for good hygiene ratings, high customer satisfaction, healthy employees, and ultimately the business’s success. Below, we discuss various cleaning tips that can help keep your commercial kitchen clean from breakfast to dinner.
Train Your Employees
Employees who work inside commercial kitchens play the most crucial role in keeping them hygienic and sanitary. If these employees are not encouraged to wipe and clean as they work, the dirt and mess will start to build up, giving rise to an environment that can promote microbial and bacterial growth. This can make your kitchen, especially your countertops, highly unhygienic.
For this reason, commercial facilities must train their employees and educate them about food safety and cleanliness. Commercial facilities can also hire commercial cleaning professionals. Still, their drawback is that they won’t be available at all times, and they can’t usually interfere when the chefs are busy cooking and preparing food.
Set Daily Cleaning Tasks
For daily light cleaning, ensure that your chefs keep their hands, surfaces, and equipment clean before, during, and after cooking. Moreover, make sure that your employees are trained to clear and remove all items, including cutlery and food wastes, from surfaces.
Also, ensure that your cleaning staff is properly sanitizing the surfaces with high-quality sanitizers. Isopropyl rubbing alcohol at a concentration of at least 70% can be used to disinfect kitchen countertops. Spray the disinfectant 12 inches away from the surface and let it dry before wiping it with a clean cloth.
To make sure your employees don’t forget daily cleaning tasks around the kitchen, create a checklist. This list should include cleaning countertops, emptying the dishwashers, sweeping the floor, taking out the garbage, and sanitizing the sink and oven. Following the checklist will help your employees reduce unhygienic practices around the kitchen.
Schedule Monthly Deep Cleans
Once in a while, deep cleans are essential to ensure your kitchen is not turning into a hygiene nightmare. Although daily cleaning tasks eliminate most of the apparent dirt, deep cleaning is essential to guarantee that no hidden stains, dirt, and grease are present in the kitchen. Moreover, monthly deep cleaning and sanitizing also ensure that the place is rid of all microbes that might have been residing in hard-to-reach areas.
A monthly deep cleaning routine should include:
- Emptying and cleaning all kitchen cabinets, shelves, and drawers.
- Deep cleaning the refrigerator, oven, and other kitchen appliances.
- Deep cleaning the kitchen floor, doors, and windows.
- Disinfecting kitchen surfaces, floors, door handles, and crockery.
Divide Duties Among Staff
The divide and conquer paradigm is the most effective way to make sure your commercial kitchen remains clean and hygienic at all times. Instead of assigning one person or cleaner all the tasks and wearing him out, you can consider dividing the duties and splitting the responsibilities.
You can designate different tasks on the daily cleaning checklist to various individuals and train them in handling that task. For example, the person responsible for cleaning the dishwasher should ensure its loading and emptying are done at a high temperature. They should also be aware of other cleaning mistakes that can risk clogging the machine, leading to ineffective cleaning and insufficient hygiene levels.
Invest In The Right Cleaning Products
Commercial kitchens are quite different from residential kitchens and, therefore, must be cleaned differently. The amount of dirt, grease, and debris commercial kitchen equipment and floors receive is almost unnatural. It requires special attention and the right equipment and products to be removed effectively.
By investing in the right and high-quality industrial degreasers and kitchen cleaning products, you can make sure that your floors, ovens, and cooking equipment are always shining and sparkling. It will also help you get a good food hygiene rating if a food inspector gives your restaurant kitchen a surprise visit.
Moreover, you should keep in mind that commercial kitchens require industrial-size cleaning equipment and powerful cleaning products, but it is essential not to get carried away with this idea. Ensure the price, quality, eco-friendliness, and sustainability of the products before purchasing. Also, ensure that you’re buying the right product for the right purpose, as there are various cleaning agents that are formulated for different purposes.
About Sunrise Industrial Cleaners
Sunrise Industrial Cleaners is an Edmonton-based company that manufactures and supplies high-quality industrial and commercial grade cleaning products. For more information about our products, visit our website or contact us here today.
