In the restaurant industry, certain situations can either make or break a dining establishment’s success. Chances are, you’ve probably walked into a restaurant that didn’t seem the cleanest, or you’ve heard horror stories of people slipping on the floor and getting thousands of dollars out of it. Whether you’re a new restaurant owner or you just want to make sure you’re staying on top of industry safety standards, take a look at these important tips for health and safety in restaurants.
Announce Your Whereabouts
A lot of restaurant owners don’t realize how important it is for employees to announce their whereabouts to ensure their own safety. To put it simply, make sure all employees know to announce their location as they move about the kitchen. For example, if you’re walking around the corner, you should call out “corner” to avoid collisions, especially if you’re carrying food. Employees should yell out “hot” when carrying hot items, “behind” when walking behind someone—these cues can mean the difference between an injury occurring or not.
Hold Equipment and Food Safety Training
Though all restaurant employees are required to complete general food safety training, you should hold your own training for your restaurant. Whenever you hire a new server, cook, or chef, make sure to train them on your restaurant’s specific equipment and food safety rules. If you serve a lot of chicken, for example, make sure everyone knows how to properly handle it. If you use a lot of hot pans, everyone should know the proper way to handle, clean, and navigate around them. General food safety certificates are vital, but holding restaurant-specific training is just as important.
Prevent Common Injuries
Slips and falls are some of the biggest hazards and most common injuries in restaurants for both patrons and employees. There’s more to preventing slips and falls than requiring your employees to wear slip-resistant shoes. Instead, one of the best things you can do is to install slip-resistant flooring. This type of flooring has many different benefits—avoiding unnecessary injuries is just one of them.
Create Effective Work Zones
When it comes to your kitchen, you need to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to maximize safety and avoid tension and chaos. In the simplest sense, creating work zones does just that. Make sure your kitchen has separate zones for cleaning, cutting, baking, frying, cooking, plating, and serving. When your employees work within these zones, there should be no chance of cross contamination.
