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For customer retention and an overall spectacular dining experience, your restaurant must remain pristine for the public. Luckily, there are several procedures you can put in place to ensure that dining at your establishment is delightful. Listed below are five tips for keeping an uncontaminated environment at your restaurant.
1. Disinfect All Areas After Use
A vital practice for restaurant cleaning is disinfecting all areas after a guest uses it. This disinfection includes cleaning not only the table but also the chairs, booths, menus, and floors around where the table sits.
As the table and surrounding sections become accessible to clean, it’s best to sanitize as swiftly as possible. Cleaning as soon as possible eliminates germs and bacteria developing or expanding and makes a more suitable first impression.
Additionally, commonly touched surfaces and objects need to be sanitized and wiped down faithfully. These include:
- Door knobs and handles
- Light switches
- Surfaces in waiting areas
- Computers or machines used to collect payments
- Host stations
- Frequently used pens and pencils
- High chairs or booster seats
- Restaurant bar surfaces
Keeping these locations and items disinfected will make your restaurant look and feel cleaner and more put together.
2. Properly Sterilize Tableware and Cooking Equipment
Correctly sterilizing dishes, utensils, and cooking equipment is crucial for healthy food consumption and preparation. This consists of appropriately washing cutting boards, pots, pans, steamers, mixers, and anything else used to make or take in food.
The importance of doing this can’t be understated because failure to sterilize or not doing so correctly could have unwanted outcomes. Examples include creating sickness or not being able to pass an inspection.
In addition to cleaning and sterilizing cooking equipment, remember to clean significant appliances, such as: properly.
- Toasters and conventional ovens
- Sinks
- Microwaves
- Electric or gas grills
- Counters for food preparation
- Ice makers or machines (when ice is removed)
- Refrigerators and freezers
- Deep fryers
Cleaning these appliances correctly and accurately will ensure safer restaurant conditions.
3. Keep Bathrooms Neat and Tidy
Although a bathroom is not a space for food consumption, it is still a restaurant component and can impact your customer’s overall impression. Provisioning a dirty restroom with soap, toilet paper, or paper towels is inconvenient and agitating. However, a clean, stocked, and good-smelling restroom will leave a more impressive mark.
Be sure that whoever is cleaning your restrooms properly disinfects the following:
- Toilets
- Sinks
- Door and sink handles
- Stall and soap dispenser handles
- Countertops
- Floors
After taking care of those areas, to enhance the bathroom even more, have streakless mirrors and remove the trash as needed (so that it is never overflowing). Doing so and creating a positive impression on a guest can go a long way.
4. Ensure Employees Follow Health Codes and Safety Protocols
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Every restaurant, regardless of location, must adhere to health codes. However, the health codes vary by state. To ensure a restaurant has no violations, it’s paramount that you are up to date on the health codes for your location.
Health codes are meant to be guidelines for the following procedures:
- Handling and preparing food (including food handlers permits)
- Sanitizing and disinfecting restaurant areas
- Garbage removal
- Holding hot food
- Pest control
- Storing food
- Using kitchen equipment
- Hygiene of employees
Proper knowledge of these guidelines can be passed on to your cooks, servers, bartenders, hosts, and any other workers. When everyone is on the same page, the rules and regulations can be easily practiced.
5. Establish a Cleaning Routine
Perhaps the most crucial method for maintaining an immaculate environment is establishing a cleaning routine. Whether you use a professional service or have your workers do it, a cleaning system is highly valued.
This system is best utilized if workers are scheduled to regularly:
- Sweep and mop the floor (or vacuum if needed)
- Wash windows
- Wash restaurant linens, including aprons, curtains, cleaning rags and napkins.
- Dust, exceptionally high areas or shelves, and light fixtures
- Clean the soda fountain at the end of the day
- Water any live plants
- Take out all trash
Incorporating this cleaning routine and the tips listed above is the type of upkeep that will keep your restaurant functioning smoothly.
Also Read: Sleeping Heaven: 3 Elements of a Relaxing Bedroom
To have a pristine restaurant environment and impress your customers, it’s essential to disinfect all areas after use and properly sanitize cooking equipment, appliances, and dishes. It’s also beneficial to keep bathrooms clean, have you and your employees updated on health codes, and establish a cleaning routine. Utilizing these tips will result in a neat place to eat.
