Tips for a safer kitchen working environment

At Bettaquip, we strive to give you the best commercial kitchen layout to enable your operation to run smoothly and reduce common risks in a commercial kitchen environment.

Equipment placement in your kitchen layout is vital to reducing accidents in the kitchen while ensuring that work flow within the kitchen is efficient.

Leaving enough room to operate kitchen equipment or being able to access storage so that doors do not collide or interfere with another station can make a big difference, especially in a small commercial kitchen. Our commercial kitchen design services make each work station self contained thus avoiding unnecessary movement around the kitchen for staff.

 A well designed commercial kitchen also ensures the correct flow of operation for food safety.

1. Goods In
2. Storage
3. Food Preparation
4. Cooking
5. Serving
6. Dirties Return
7. Waste Management

A well designed commercial kitchen can also prevent cross contamination of raw and cooked foods. By separating areas appropriately your kitchen efficiency can improve, for example preventing dirty plates being brought back through food preparation / service areas.

Regardless of your current design - we are about to enter into the busiest period for kitchens across the UK (if not the world!)

Here are 5 tips you might find useful!

• Ensure that all of your employees have been given sufficient health and safety training to reduce the risks of lifting injuries and excessive reaching. Anti fatigue mats for your kitchen are often a useful addition to support employees who are standing for long periods of time. Slips often occur due to obstacles on the floor and wet surfaces. Ensure spills are cleaned up immediately.
• Some equipment can be dangerous when used incorrectly, make sure protective safety gear is accessible and in good condition and make sure employees follow safety guidelines. Burns and scalding from hot surfaces, hot water and oil are common causes of injury.
• Make sure employees are wearing suitable attire and you may want to introduce slip resistant shoes to reduce the risk of slips and falls. Stock up on plastic gloves, hairnets and aprons all help reduce food contamination issues and promote regular hand washing.
• Make sure employees understand COSHH (http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/) and ensure that they are using the correct equipment and protective clothing when using any chemicals.
• Prepare an emergency plan - this is not just accidents at work, prepare your teams to react safely to acts of god, fires and violent situations. Ensure that you can leave the kitchen and premises safely and ensure the plan is circulated to all employees.

If you are considering a new commercial kitchen installation, please give Bettaquip a call on 0845 226 3635.

ensure work flow within the kitchen is efficient