If you work in catering, keeping everywhere clean should be a top priority.
A 2019 study by the Food Standards Agency found that almost 70% of people consider hygiene standards when choosing where to eat. Of course, even more, important than earning a customer’s trust is keeping them safe when you feed them.
With 76% of diners agreeing that ‘restaurants and food establishments should pay more attention to food hygiene’, what are the top five hygiene products that you need if you work in catering?
1. Deck Scrub
A deck scrub brush is an absolute essential if you work in a catering environment. From mud on shoes to grease from food, everything ends up on the floor. Regular mopping is necessary to keep floors clean and germ-free, but a deck scrubbing brush does a more effective job by lifting dirt and grime from the floor.
If you’ve never used one before, you’ll be horrified by the results of your first deck scrub attempt. You’re likely to lift huge clumps of dust and water that’s almost black in colour. Even more shocking, you’ll likely see similar results at the end of the very next day. It’s remarkable how quickly dirt builds up. Mop regularly during the day, and deck scrub at least once every 24 hours.
2. Hairnets
Hairnets are essential if you’re preparing or serving food. Nobody likes to find a stray hair in their burger, sandwich or soup. In a busy catering environment, your staff could go through at least 100 hairnets each day. Put these in a hairnet dispenser so that they’re easy to find.
3. Sanitiser
Clean food preparation surfaces, and tables for customer dining, with a quality hard surface sanitiser. You can wipe with a cloth to kill germs and make any surface more hygienic. A catering sanitiser is one of the most important cleaning products and can be used safely near food. Use sanitiser to keep up good hygiene, by simply spraying and wiping.
4. Degreaser
Greases and oils are particularly hard to wipe away. When sanitiser can’t do the job on its own, reach for a strong degreaser.
When you use a degreaser, you’ll see how easily fats can be wiped away. Use it for spot cleaning on the floor, or for wiping very greasy kitchen surfaces.
When you work in catering, a splash of oil can be a serious health problem. It’s not just a hygiene issue, but a potential slip hazard. With degreaser, you can act fast to clean grease and oil from any hard surface. A dash of degreaser can also help with greasy clothes before they go in the washing machine.
5. Coloured Cloths
Always make sure you have plenty of clothes, colour coded for hygienic cleaning. Use different cloths on food preparation surfaces to the ones that you use to clean walls. Customer tables should not be cleaned with cloths that you might use for doors and windows. Different clothes should be used for different types of chemicals, and thoroughly washed at regular intervals to avoid a build-up of germs. It’s important to have a plentiful supply so that you never run out. Using the wrong cloth can have serious consequences, leading to food poisoning and illness.
To run a safe catering business, you’ll need so many different hygiene products. The five in this list are amongst the most essential, taking care of most of the basics, though you’ll only do a proper job with many different cleaners and tools.
Make sure that you always have enough hygiene products, to avoid taking health risks or letting hygiene standards slip. If you work in catering, there can be no excuses for surfaces that aren’t clean and safe.
