7 Healthy Practices for Restaurants
Health regulations surrounding restaurants and food service outlets are stringent and for a good reason.
The upkeep of a hygienic work area is extremely important. Part of this concern is the safe transport of your produce from your suppliers to your restaurant.
We have put together a simplified list of 7 healthy practices (required by regulation) you should do to ensure you maintain a clean restaurant, quality produce, and safe transportation of goods.
1. Clean kitchen
One of the key ways to keep your food fresh and less likely of contracting or harbouring bacteria is to have a clean, sanitised kitchen. Ensure you keep your kitchen free of vermin, grime, dirt, etc. Also, make sure that all cooking utensils are washed thoroughly and maintained. Developing a rigid sanitary checklist is a great way to ensure staff are educated on what cleaning duties are required.
2. Wash hands
We all know that if we don’t wash our hands before we eat we’re running a higher risk of making ourselves sick. That’s because germ and bacteria thrive in unhygienic environments. So be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before handling any food or kitchen utensils whatsoever.
3. Avoid cross-contamination
If you just cut up raw chicken on a cutting board, do not start cutting up fresh tomatoes immediately afterwards. Cross-contamination can lead to food poisoning such as salmonella. Hygienic practice would dictate that you have colour coded chopping boards for different purposes. ie. Green is for Vegetables and fruit and Red is for meats and seafood. The same should be practiced with your knives.
4. Store food appropriately
Certain food items will grow bacteria if not kept at the correct temperature. Be sure that you’re keeping those foods in a controlled temperature environments. For freight, these temperatures are 5 degrees or under and 60 degrees and over.
5. Keep your hair covered
So that there is no risk of it falling into meals you’re preparing. Not only is it a health code violation, but it’s also disastrous for customer retention.
6. If in Doubt, Throw it out!
Yes, wasted food is wasted money. But a suspect steak going into the bin is cheaper than a lawsuit, or the downtime as a result of a failed health inspection.
If it’s hit the floor, if it smells ‘funny’, if the colour is just not quite right, GET RID OF IT!!
7. Use a good freight company
A good freight company will be open about their sanitary practices. If you’re unsure, ask about the measures they take to keep produce hygienic during transit and storage.
While there are plenty more health practices out there for restaurants, these 7 stand out to us as some of the most important to avoid compromising the health of you, your employees, your customers, or your business.
If there are other health codes that you think should be discussed, please share with us in the comments below.
* Image source: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net