Restaurant Kitchen Safety Tips

Use our Restaurant Kitchen Safety Tips to reduce falls and injury while keeping your kitchen clean and organized. As a restaurant owner or manager, it's up to you to provide the right tools, equipment and knowledge for your staff to keep your kitchen and everyone in it safe.

Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher

 Keeping your kitchen safe will help you reduce staff worker's compensation claims and other workplace accidents or lawsuits from customers so it's an essential area to take seriously in your restaurant. Use our tips to make your business kitchen a place everyone will love and take pride in working it.
Kitchen Floor Safety -

These commercial rubber floor mats are a must have in your kitchen and here's what we like about them:

commercial rubber floor mats image by amazon

          Heavy duty so no slipping when stepped on.
          Not too heavy to pick up and move.
          Holes in the mat allow glass and food to slip through, then easily sweep up later.
          Rubber mats prevent staff from falling on grease or water spills.
          These floor mats are anti-fatigue and reduce back and leg injuries to you and your kitchen staff.
          They're easily cleaned by rolling up and placing in the commercial dish machine at the end of the day.
     Kitchen Safety Tip 1: Get your kitchen staff in the habit starting at their interview that cleaning is essential for safety, cleanliness, reducing injuries, reducing food borne illness and improving customer relations. The sooner they know that cleaning is expected the better. 

Commercial Mop Bucket with Wringer image by amazon

Sweep the floors at least after every shift and more often for spills and mess. Use commercial mop and buckets to clean your floors as soon as spills happen and you'll have a safer kitchen.   
   Kitchen Safety Tip 2: Use only one mop for kitchen spills and another for your restaurant dining areas and yet another one for those dirty bathroom floors. Never use the same mop for bathrooms and customer areas, that's just gross, right?
      This bucket is a heavy duty material that holds a lot of cleaning water, rolls on casters for easy moving around the kitchen floors and the wringer will keep your mop damp. Keep it clean after each use by dumping out the used water, rinsing it out and storing near your mop sink so anyone can use it with a quick lesson for any kitchen floor mess.

Simple Green Heavy Duty Cleaner

 Add Simple Green concentrated heavy duty cleaner to your bucket dilute 1:3 for a degreaser and general cleaner on all your restaurant floors. It's non-toxic, has no odor, works amazing and will help you to have clean, non slip floors. I prefer cleaners that don't make my restaurant smell like bleach or pine. I want everyone to smell the amazing food aromas we're preparing and that's the main reason I think you'll like the Simple Green cleaner for most of your surfaces. It's concentrated too so a little can go a long way.
   Kitchen Safety Tip 3: I always use products first myself so that I can show or teach my staff how to properly use them - this saves you time and money in the long run.

Commercial Mop Handle with Steel Head by amazon

Commercial Mop Handle and Steel Head is the only type of mop we use in our restaurant and why you'll like it too:
     Lightweight to reduce injuries to your staff when they clean (and yes, you'll want the dishwasher or cooks to do the nightly kitchen floor mopping unless you have a cleaning company come in nightly).
     Longlasting
     Easily replace the mop head and not the entire mop when the old mop head gets worn out.

universal replacement mop head

     Our mop handle above uses this universal replacement mop head with a thick and heavy headband that inserts into the steel head. You may want to do what I like and that is to use one type of mop head for the kitchen floors and a different color one (say white) for your entry, bar or dining floors and yet another color (maybe the same blue mop head with red threads) for the bathrooms. Just make sure to teach your staff which mop head is for which task or have the three mops hanging with a sign for each area. When you see someone using a mop, make sure they're using the right one for the right task!
     Kitchen Safety Tip 4: After use, clean the mop head out in a clean bucket of water, rinse thoroughly and hang on the mop handle upside down to dry. This reduces bacteria,  mold and a stinky mop head!

Wet Floor Caution Signs are essential for your restaurant safety and they should be used not only in the kitchen but, anywhere that the floors are wet from anything spilled or cleaned.  Staff and customers are familiar with the bright yellow signs that help everyone know there's danger below so caution should be taken. Store your signs near your mop sink area so everyone knows where to get one when needed.
 
 Kitchen Safety Tip 5:
     Reduce Fires and Stop them Fast!!!

Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher

     If fire strikes your restaurant, you'll be out of business and your staff will all be out of work. Teach fire safety to everyone that works for you and practice fire drills often. Fire extinguishers should be next to every stove, oven, microwave and electrical appliance in your restaurant. We also have them in the bar, server area and banquet rooms.
Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher - these portable fire extinguishers are a must have item in your restaurant. Your staff will be stressed enough if a fire starts so make it as easy as possible for them to put out any type of fire from any source without searching for the right fire extinguisher. We had a fire in our office after a manager threw out a hot ashtray in the garbage and left the office. Good thing our bartender was taking garbage out to the back and smelled smoke - then he knew to reach for the fire extinguisher and reduce more damage. We never know when emergencies will happen so be prepared and get a few fire extinguishers now.

Clean the Exhaust Fans Hood System - these fans above your grills and stoves need frequent cleaning to get the layers of built up grease off and to prevent kitchen grease fires. We have ours professionally cleaned at least twice a year and monthly we clean them ourselves. If your business uses the fryer almost consistently, you'll need to clean your own hood system much more often since that grease builds up fast. There's always some down time when the kitchen staff can be wiping down the stoves, scraping off excess build up and maintaining shiny surfaces. It's worth it to your business to reduce the chance of fires and to keep this area clean. 

Kitchen Knife Safety -
     Here's an area of utmost importance for kitchen safety.
     If you or your staff aren't careful, you'll see plenty of cuts and scrapes from knives and improper use in the kitchen.  Teach your staff the proper use of knives:
     Always carry a knife at the side with the tip facing the floor.
     Always have the staff shout 'Knife' when they're walking with a knife to alert everyone to stay clear.
     Store knives properly in their case or a knife rack.
     Wash knives by hand.
     Never place a knife in a buspan full of other dirty dishes so the dishwasher won't reach down and grab it and get cut.

Kitchen Pantry Safety - another area that you should be concerned about for safety is the pantry. Make sure to store food properly. Cleaning supplies are never to be near your food. Recently in the news, a server mixed iced tea using a chemical cleaner and served it to a customer! That customer is now probably a part or whole owner of that business considering she'll probably file a lawsuit. 
     Kitchen Safety Tip 6: Label all shelves so the staff knows where to put things back and check it yourself often to reduce accidents and keep your kitchen, staff and customers safe with proper food storage.

You'll also want to make sure that all dry pantry items are securely contained with lids that work to prevent bugs and mice from getting into your food supply.

Your restaurant kitchen is the main breadwinner for your business and should always be neat, tidy, organized and super clean and safe for everyone!  We've shared our favorite kitchen safety tips and products that we use and love and that you need if you really are serious and want a successful restaurant. Take a look around your own space now and determine what you need to be doing to make it the show place it should be. Would you tour your customers through it right now? I would and do any time someone wants to see it so don't be afraid to offer tours of your kitchen if you're proud of it and hopefully with these restaurant kitchen safety tips, you will be too.

Cheers until next time!