Food safety is one of the first things they teach budding chefs. After all, you can’t prepare the best dishes in the world if your customers will be too worried about food safety to eat them.
It’s more than just preventing your customers from becoming ill. If you ignore the relevant food safety standards you risk your customers having food poisoning. This will result in negative reviews, your reputation can be destroyed surprisingly quickly.
To ensure this isn’t an issue, check out the following 5 safety tips that every restaurant owner should know.
1 . Cleanliness
The most important rule in food safety is to be clean. This means washing your hands before handling food, and after you’ve handled it. You should also wash your hands after using the bathroom, taking a smoke break, or even when you use your phone.
Bacteria can be hiding anywhere. If you don’t wash your hands you’re likely to contaminate the food.
Washing your hands properly means with soap and water, it should take at least 20 seconds, and you should wash up your arms, like a surgeon.
2 . The Right Equipment
If you’re preparing food you need industrial food machinery. These machines are designed to cope with the amount of food you’re going to process. That stops them from breaking down just when you really need it.
More importantly, the right equipment makes it easier to clean your food prep tools and ensure there are no hidden corners where dampness and debris can hide. This is more effective at preventing the appearance of bacteria and mold.
3 . Watch The temperature
Chilled foods need to be kept chilled to ensure bacteria doesn’t start to grow on them. However, it is also important to keep hot food hot. In most cases it’s not advisable to reheat food, it changes the taste and increases the risk of bacteria being present.
To maintain the food safety level you need to monitor and maintain correct temperatures for all your foods.
4 . Stay Home When Unwell
Working with food means any germs you have can be easily spread around. If the bacteria or virus affecting you comes into contact with the food you can infect many other people. This is why it is especially important n the restaurant trade to stay home if you’re feeling unwell.
5 . The Right Attire
It’s essential that you wear the appropriate clothing when working in a commercial food premises, according to Loranocarter, an owner of two acclaimed Atlanta restaurants and an expert on how to make it all work.This means clean chef whites and a hair net to prevent your hair from falling into the food. Dirty clothes are more likely to harbor bacteria on food stains. This increases the risk of bacteria entering the food preparation process and the germs being spread.
Choosing the right attire can help to minimize the risk of bacteria spreading. In other words, it can help to maintain your reputation. As you should be aware, your reputation is essential to the survival of your business. You need to look after it.
