If you run a professional kitchen, you are probably aware of all the different hazards to both health and safety of your customers and employees. There are knives, fires, and raw food all in an open environment and if you don’t know how to maintain a safe working area these things can become a problem. Luckily, there are ways to secure your kitchen and make sure everything that comes out of it is food safe and was prepared carefully.
Food Safety
One of the first things to worry about when running a kitchen is cross contamination. You can prevent cross contamination of foods in prep areas by using color coordinated cutting boards so everyone knows which materials go on which board. This can help reduce the chance of someone cutting vegetables on the same board another employee cut raw chicken and contaminating the food. You can also invest in labels for your storage shelves. Because certain foods need to be stored above or below other foods to prevent drippings from contaminating other items, having your shelves labeled can help to ensure that employees are returning items to the correct places.
Worker Safety
Knives might be one of the biggest hazards of working in a kitchen, especially for employees who do not have extensive experience using professional knives. The easiest way to reduce this risk is to invest in cut gloves. These gloves are cut resistant and employees can wear them on the hand they are holding the knife with to prevent lacerating their hands or fingers. One way to prevent accidents from fire on the ovens is to make sure every new employee participants in an extensive training about how to operate the ovens and what to do in the even of an accident. There should be an emergency station nearby any oven so if an employee is burned, they can quickly treat the wound.
