When it comes to running a restaurant, health and safety is perhaps the most important thing to address. Poor health and safety practices can result in unhappy customers or even your business being shut down! If you want your restaurant to succeed, you need your health and safety procedures to be in top shape. In this guide, we will look at some top tips for achieving this.
Hire Skilled Cooks
Food that is incorrectly or insufficiently cooked can cause all kinds of health problems. It is essential that you hire skilled cooks and kitchen staff to prepare and serve food to your customers. If in doubt, consider a potential hire’s past experience and any food hygiene qualifications they may have.
Make Sure Employees Use the Correct Equipment When Handling Food
Equipment that comes into contact with any of the following should always be kept separate from other equipment and not used to prepare or serve other food:
- Meat (especially raw meat) and shellfish
- Nuts
- Dairy
- Soy
Utensils should always be washed properly with hot water and antibacterial soap after coming into contact with food.
Store Food Correctly
Food should always be stored at the correct temperature (if in doubt, check the packaging). Meat should never be stored above other kinds of food.
Pay Attention to Use-By Dates
You should never serve food that has passed its expiry date, even if it has been frozen. Food that has reached its expiry date should be removed from storage and disposed of.
Clean Surfaces Regularly with Antibacterial Products
All surfaces, from work surfaces in the kitchen to trays to tables on the restaurant floor, should be wiped down between each use. The best way to do so is usually with a clean cloth and an antibacterial spray.
Dispose of Waste Correctly and Safely
Waste, including food waste, is one of the biggest hazards when it comes to health and safety. Waste must be stored in bins far away from any food preparation or consumption areas while you are waiting for it to be collected. If you are struggling to find storage space for large amounts of waste, such as food packaging, you may be able to use a recycling compactor to save space.
Train Employees in Health and Safety
You can know everything there is to know about health and safety yourself, but unless all other members of staff have this knowledge, your restaurant is unlikely to follow health and safety regulations. Make sure that all employees are sufficiently trained in healthy and safe working procedures—if you aren’t able to put together training programs yourself, you may well be able to outsource health and safety training.
Carry Out Regular Health and Safety Audits
Just because health and safety procedures have been defined and set up well, this doesn’t mean that standards can’t slip over time. It is important to carry out regular health and safety audits of all working operations. Don’t wait for the health inspector to do it for you—you may just end up out of business!
