Hygiene measures for a restaurant business
Young professional cook in uniform wiping kitchen counter in kitchen after cooking
Hygiene measures for a restaurant business
Every restaurant business must meet the minimum hygiene requirements in order to provide a quality service to its customers. This not only includes the presentation of the food or the general conditions of the establishment but also proper care of spaces such as the kitchen or the bar to guarantee that all this food safety parameters are met.
Practices to achieve total food safety in a restaurant business
Sometimes it is complex to control all these aspects, so these lines can be of help with some advice oriented toward food safety in all corners of a bar or restaurant.
food preservation
It is essential to consider that food must be in a perfect state of conservation from the moment it enters until it is cooked. In addition, it is necessary to distinguish between meat, fish, or fruit to determine the conservation period, since not all of them can last the same time as fresh foods.
In the same way, to have good conservation of food, it is necessary to have conservation spaces such as industrial refrigerators or spacious freezers that allow storing large quantities to remove them in each service. It is important that these conservation spaces are close to or inside the kitchen itself and thus have better access to them for when they are going to be cooked.
Kitchen hygiene
This point is the key to every restaurant because if a kitchen works well, the restaurant space has a lot of cattle. However, it is not only important that there are good professionals in the kitchen, but that these spaces are also in perfect condition to cook food and thus achieve that juicy or crunchy point that customers ask for.
To do this, four fundamental points must be on which all kitchen hygiene revolves and which are decisive for the general results of the restaurant.
Cleaning.
Food safety standards are summarized in the maintenance of hands, surfaces, and kitchen utensils. To do this, you always have to wash your hands before and after handling raw food and every time you touch other surfaces, such as a part of the body, garbage, or money. Likewise, clean all surfaces and objects in the kitchen before and after using them, as well as wash vegetables if they are eaten raw, and keep kitchen spaces protected from insects of any kind.
Separation
This principle has to do with separating raw and cooked foods with different kitchen utensils and surfaces in order to avoid mixing them. Use different dishes or cutlery for this manipulation. Similarly, it is necessary to store these utensils and food in separate cabinets, freezers, and refrigerators to avoid direct or indirect contact between them.
Cooking.
Food safety regulations imply this section is a common denominator for raw materials such as meat, eggs or fish and thus prevent the microorganisms inside from remaining or reproducing. To do this, these foods must be cooked, especially eggs and meat, at a minimum temperature of 75 degrees Celsius. Likewise, it is also quite effective to reheat the food to finish eliminating the microorganisms that could appear while the food was cold.
Cooling.
The principle of cooling food is key to guaranteeing food safety, especially in buffet-type services. This refrigeration must be carried out as quickly as possible and defrosting slowly and never at room temperature. Other tips are to prepare meals as little in advance as possible, keep cooked food at room temperature, defrost food in the refrigerator or microwave, and place food in small containers to cool first.
Hygiene of the place
The general hygiene of the place must be consistent with the kitchen in the sense of maintaining high levels of cleanliness, even more so when there are staff coming in and out of the kitchen with plates of food. For this reason, it is essential that customer service protocols are created at the entrance of the establishment and that specific areas, such as corridors or those around the kitchen, are monitored.
You also have to consider the state of the doors or the ceiling, especially in the kitchen, as it is a space with a lot of humidity. In the same way, it is necessary to buy a door that does not allow these fumes to exit the restaurant and an extraction system that does not lead to the accumulation of vapors throughout the kitchen environment.
In addition, it is also very useful to have signs asking customers to wash their hands before and after entering the bathroom, before sitting down, and even when leaving the establishment. These standards must also be internalized by the work team to guarantee greater safety.
Work team
The work team is another of the foundations on which the proper functioning of restaurant space is based. All this gear begins with the training by the restaurateur once he has hired the professional cleaning staff, having to show the work methods and the philosophy of the company. Of course, all these people must have a food handling certificate.
In this way, a relationship of trust will be established so that workers have greater comfort while they do their homework inside the restaurant and all hygiene and cleaning protocols are respected.
In summary, the proper functioning of a catering business involves the wonderful connection of all the parts of the work team and adequate cleaning that also transmits confidence to the clients who come to the establishment and thus want to return.
