Commercial kitchens deal with bulk food items, high quantities of customer orders and have a responsibility to ensure safe food handling and storage. All of this requires a lot of planning and organisation to avoid food waste or lost profit. Whether you run a food truck, a fast-food restaurant or a school cafeteria, there are many ways to ensure safe food handling, day in and day out.
Here are our tips to maintain a profitable, safe and efficient commercial kitchen.
Food hygiene
When serving or preparing food for customers, clients and residents, you have a responsibility to ensure the food is safe. You do this by following the correct procedure for handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. Commercial kitchens will be given a food hygiene rating between 1 and 5 stars that can show the public how good or bad your food handling is, so it’s vital that you adhere to food hygiene protocols.
Food storage tips
Stock rotation
Stock rotation is an important part of any kitchen, it ensures that the items that have been in the kitchen for the longest are used first so that all food can be used up before they reach their best before date. It’s vital that everybody on your team understands the system of stock rotation in the kitchen so that you are all using the oldest food first.
Items that expire quickly such as dairy and meat products will need to be rotated correctly. When a new order gets delivered, make sure the new products are put to the back of the storage and older items are brought forward. This is a good time to double-check that all items of that product are still within their best before date.
Food labelling
Implementing a strong food labelling system will enable effective communication between staff members and help you keep track of when items need to be used by. When you prepare foods in your kitchen such as freshly baked cakes or sauces for menu items, you can no longer use the best before date that came on the original products. Labels that state when the item was made and when it needs to be used by will let everyone know if the food is safe and ensure bad food isn’t accidentally used.
Storing temperatures
Another aspect of food safety is ensuring all foods are kept at the appropriate temperature. A high-quality commercial fridge will allow you to keep foods such as meat, dairy and fresh foods below 5°C and your commercial freezer will keep frozen foods below -18°C to ensure no bacteria can grow and cause illness. Make sure not to overstock your fridge or freezer as this can lead to poor air circulation creating areas where bacteria can thrive.
Mitchell’s provides commercially applied refrigeration system services in Gloucester to keep your food business compliant, safe and hygienic. Whether you have commercial fridges, cold rooms, product-display refrigerators or walk-in freezers, we can provide assistance installing and repairing these systems. For more information, get in touch.