Follow This Cleaning Process At Your Restaurant

Maintaining a clean and sanitary restaurant should be a priority for any business owner in the food industry, but unfortunately for some, this hasn’t always been taken seriously. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, keeping a clean restaurant has just become more important than ever, meaning every nook and cranny of your restaurant needs to be properly cleaned and sanitized to keep your employees and patrons safe. Stay up to date on the best cleaning practices as you begin to implement new sanitation protocols for your business.

Dining area

This particular section of the restaurant needs a deep and thorough cleaning daily, as well as a detailed cleaning every hour, at the very least. Customers and a large number of the staff will be walking throughout this area all day – touching menus, door handles, chairs, tables, the list goes on. When you’re putting together your cleaning list for the dining area, make sure you prioritize sanitizing high touch areas – door knobs, bar and table counter tops, back of the chairs, and any condiment bottles that are left on the table. While cleaning, be sure to use towels that are only used in the dining room, as you don’t want to use the same towel in multiple areas at the risk of cross contamination. When using cleaning products, stick to the directions on the product label so you can feel confident your restaurant is being properly sanitized.

Kitchen

The kitchen is a place that cleanliness should always be top priority, not just during the middle of a pandemic. When multiple staff members are coming and going, inventory isn’t being kept up properly, and sanitization isn’t practiced regularly, then the kitchen can be highly susceptible to many types of pollutants, possibilities for contamination – all putting your business at risk.

In order to maintain a clean restaurant kitchen, employees should be sanitizing any piece of equipment and surface that’s been used to prepare food. This task needs to be done between every meal to reduce the possibility of cross contamination. Washing the dishes and utensils is obviously always a must, but be sure to use sanitizing and disinfecting products that are recommended by your local health department. On a weekly basis, go through your refrigerator to take inventory and discard any food items that have gone bad – these items can create bacteria that can lead to contamination throughout the entire kitchen.

Bathrooms

Everyone knows a clean and sanitized restroom is definitely preferred, but unfortunately this is an area that too often doesn’t fully get the attention it needs. With patrons and employees constantly using the same bathrooms, coupled with the lack of cleaning, bacteria has a high chance of being spread throughout your entire restaurant – and a positive case for COVID could shut down operations. Every hour, you’ll want to disinfect the door knobs, sink faucet and handles, and the handle on the paper towel dispenser. Further, scrub and sanitize the toilet bowl, the area surrounding the toilet, and the area surrounding the sink faucet to make sure your facility looks its best while also keeping everyone safe.

With guests heading back out in search of a change of scenery and a delicious meal, it’s more than likely you’ll be experiencing quite a bit of foot traffic through your restaurant. Ensuring a germ-free establishment where they can safely enjoy a meal will go a long way in building trust with your customers so they’re sure to come back – the goal of any business owner.