Sanitation in restaurants is vital to ensure the success and reputation of the business. If the word gets out that your restaurant’s cleanliness is not up to par, then you’ll probably witness a sharp decline in customers and maybe even fall victim to permanent closure. This article will give you a couple of ideas on how to maintain sanitation in restaurants to ensure that your business remains operational. 

Firstly, the primary thing you should remember when surveying restaurant cleanliness is: If you wouldn’t eat there, why should your customers? If you’re looking at a piece of equipment with scuffs and stains, would you feel comfortable knowing that your food has been on there? No? So, don’t subject your customers to it. 

Ensure that your staff complies with the rules

• Grooming

You wouldn’t want your restaurant to feel totalitarian, but there are some rules that you must enforce with your staff. For example, they must be presentable in all manners. If your servers look as though they don’t care about their appearance, that gives your customers the impression that they don’t care about anything else in your restaurant either. This could include the food, the maintenance of cleanliness, etc. Your customer’s imagination will run wild. So, it will be beneficial to you to ensure that they have no reason to. 

To remedy this possibility, ensure that the hair of your staff is tidy to prevent hair from falling into the food. Hair loss is natural, but it’s not very welcome in food. Some customers won’t mind as much and simply remove the rogue hair without a word. But others will, and they won’t hesitate to tell you what they think. 

• Uniforms

Spills are an occupational hazard in the food industry. So, it is unfair to expect your servers’ uniforms to stay as clean as when they came out of the washing machine. However, if your servers are walking through the door with food stains and liquid spills all over their uniform that is clearly from the night before, they’re not going to leave a good impression on your guests. Your servers should walk through the door looking clean and fresh, as old food on uniforms can breed bacteria that can be transferred once touched. 

You are not exempt from the rules as the owner of the business. If anything, your presentability as a boss influences the perception of your business even more than how your servers present themselves. 

• No bad habits

It may sound disgusting, but there are more adults with bad personal hygiene habits than you think. Your servers may be accustomed to wiping their noses with their hands, scratching themselves anywhere they need to without thought, running their fingers through their hair from boredom, touching their face, or coughing and sneezing without a tissue. But these habits can be very badly received by your guests, so it is important to ensure that your servers aren’t doing these things in public, to maintain restaurant cleanliness. 

If you do notice these habits, you should ensure to encourage hand washing and sanitation at all times. You will never completely eradicate the presence of germs, but you can reduce the spread of them.

Keep your equipment up to standard

• Large equipment

Sanitation in restaurants isn’t easy. But it can be made easier by keeping on top of equipment maintenance and ensuring that you treat your equipment as it is supposed to be treated. For example, your larger appliances like your catering ovens, need to be professionally deep cleaned at least once every six months. This is to ensure that the oven continues working as it should and to make sure that bacteria growth is discouraged. The 6-month marker is considered feasible, as the cleaning of the ovens will impact the operating times of your business. 

Additionally, your potable water tank should be checked bi-yearly to ensure that it isn’t secretly experiencing deterioration. Water tank deterioration is a natural process that occurs as a result of the metals in the lining rotting and falling apart. This isn’t something that can be avoided, but you can catch it early if you’re keeping an eye on it. Deterioration can breed algae and sediment build-up, which can affect the quality of your water and inadvertently compromise your restaurant’s cleanliness. To prolong the lifespan of your potable water tank, you should have a professional install water tank lining to slow the rate of deterioration.

Furthermore, if you decide your equipment is beyond repair, you should ensure to purchase a new, high-quality piece of equipment to keep your business running smoothly. Creeds Direct is a perfect place to start!

• Small equipment

The health of your small items is just as important as that of your large equipment. You should ensure that your glasses, cutlery, and tableware are all washed to exceptional standards to ensure that no little bits of food residue remains on them. The last thing your guests want to see on their fork is somebody else’s old food. Again, if you wouldn’t use it, why should your guests? Sanitation in restaurants is reliant on your equipment being up-to-standard, so don’t let old food or liquids gather on your equipment. 

On appliances like coffee machines, it can be difficult to determine whether there is stagnant liquid in the machine that could be breeding bacteria. You should ensure to regularly deep-clean your old appliances with boiling water to kill any bacteria that might be lingering. 

Sometimes, it is necessary to temporarily close your business for “essential maintenance”. You will only need to do this for a day or two, and you may encounter some disappointed customers. But it is almost guaranteed that the customers you want in your restaurant will be thankful that you’re taking the time to ensure that your equipment is as clean as can be and ensure that your customers’ health is taken care of. 

We hope you will employ these tips in your restaurant, as there is nothing worse than walking into an establishment only to find there is an air of filth in the atmosphere.