How Your Kitchen Could Help to Tackle Environmental (Man-made) Hazards

The kitchen is the most hazardous space in the home, with fire, slipping, falling, and sharp object injury risks never too far away. Now, you can imagine how much more hazardous a busy commercial kitchen is, with the employees always being exposed to hundreds of hazards like used cooking oil spills.

However, nothing has to go wrong if you prepare well, and prevent the occurrence of these hazards. By doing simple things such as preventing the spillage of waste vegetable oil, you can stop man-made hazards.

Keep reading to see how to prevent the common hazards in a commercial kitchen.

Prevent chemical hazards in the kitchen

Different types of chemicals are widely used in the kitchen and if they are not handled properly, they can pose serious risks. For instance, you will have bleach, baking soda, ammonia, and white vinegar to name but just a few.

These are superb cleaning agents, but without knowing how to use them, someone can be in serious danger. For instance, if you want to service the grease trap, and you make the mistake of mixing bleach and white vinegar, they form a toxic gas that can even kill.

To tackle the environmental hazards that might come from the misuse of these chemicals, you should sensitize your kitchen employees about how to use them. For instance, they should never use any household chemical before reading the instructions.

Most importantly, they should make sure that none of the chemicals ever find their way into the food, as that could cause serious harm to your clients.

Have a fire sensitization program

Fire breakouts are a serious threat to commercial kitchens, simply because there are so many flammable things around.

These kitchens run on combustible fuels, gases, and liquids that can catch fire so easily, and spread it to the rest of the kitchen.

The only remedy to fire hazards is to prevent them from happening in the first place. To help with this, frequent equipment inspection is recommended.  

The kitchen equipment are culprits for causing fire breakouts. While they are solidly built, they can develop leaks, and faults in many places. If this happens, the equipment could start a fire in your kitchen, and spread it fast.

It is also vital that your kitchen employees never leave any of the kitchen equipment running without someone overseeing it.

Following the instructions for cooking oil fryers on how long to let the used oil cool down, before transferring it to other containers helps prevent burning risks.

Keep the fire suppression equipment in easy to reach places and teach all employees how to use them. Conducting frequent workshops can impart important safety skills in the employees.

Avoiding biohazards in the kitchen

There is a serious risk of biohazards in the kitchen, mostly in the form of microbes like yeast and bacteria affecting the food.

These microbes can come from anywhere, but they are all indicative of a badly kept kitchen. Lack of thorough cleaning, not using the right chemicals, for instance, white vinegar to kill mold, and poor food storage can cause these risks.

Another common source of bacteria is the grease trap. Usually installed outside the kitchen close to where the sinks are, the grease trap captures the fats, oils, and grease, while allowing the water to flow out.

Due to neglect, the grease in the tank starts to rot, of course due to microorganism activity. This leads to the release of noxious gases which permeate your kitchen.

But the bad odor is the least of your worries, because getting rid of the rotten-egg stench is easier. What you have to worry about is the microbes in the grease trap finding their way into your food. You could face strict public health inspections or closure of your business.

In addition to keeping the kitchen all the time, the food should be stored under the recommended temperature and humidity levels.

Also, store fryer oil in tightly-lidded containers to keep microbes out. Used fryer oil makes a good breeding ground for bacteria.

Mold is a common food contaminant, so you should keep an eye on the entire facility, especially if it is in a high humidity place. Usually, mold grows in the hidden spaces such as under the sinks. 

With moisture, nutrients and warmth, the mold will mature fast and spread spores to other places to start new fungus colonies. Kill it at the source.

Reducing the risks of scalding and burning

Kitchen employees are in close contact with open fires, and boiling liquids such as water, soups, oils, and many more. They are also exposed to hot fryer oil.

Therefore, it just takes a single mistake, a slip and fall from spilled cooking oil and one could land in a boiling pot.

To prevent such risks, it is vital to do the following:

Free up space in the kitchen

There needs to be enough space for the kitchen people to move around, without bumping into each other all the time.

If after unboxing things like food, fats, and oils, remove the empty boxes to free up some space. If something is not being used immediately, it should be removed.

Manage the used fryer oil

In fast food restaurants, used fryer oil can accumulate fast, so you need to have a way to manage it. First, none of the cooking oil should be disposed down the sink. If that happens, it will go to block the plumbing system, requiring frequent checking of the FOG trap.

Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cooling the fryer oil. When it is cooled down properly, transfer it to the designated containers to await collection.

Do not overcrowd the kitchen with people

You need a chef, sous chef, lead line chef and the rest of the support staff, including the dishwashers. However, make sure there is enough space for all of them. 

An overcrowded kitchen is a dangerous space with all the sharp cutlery, open flames, and boiling liquids.

Conclusion

The modern commercial kitchen is rife with man-made hazards. However, with proper consultation regarding the management of fryer oil, grease trap maintenance, fire prevention and other services that we offer at Grand Natural, you can keep your employees, and business pretty safe.

So, do not hesitate to get in touch with us today. We offer complete restaurant facility management solutions so that you can have peace of mind.

We want to help you free your time and mind from grease trap, fire, cooking oil, and other worries. Concentrate on running the business, while we handle the dirty work for you, efficiently and cleanly.