Six New Year’s resolutions for commercial kitchens

The New Year provides an opportunity for food service businesses to reflect on current operations and set goals and improvements for the coming year. As Australia’s leading supplier of high-quality food safety products and commercial kitchen supplies, we believe there are six critical areas of consideration to achieve best practice in food safety. 

Labelling and rotation

Food labelling and rotation are critical for preventing foodborne infections. The use of food safety labels ensure that you are serving the freshest and safest food whilst reducing waste. A great resolution to set relating to this process is to get in the habit of using prepared and use by labels for all ingredients and meals. Fildes Food Safety offers an easy to read preparation label that clearly outlines this essential information at a glance.

Preventing cross-contamination

Cross-contamination is a severe concern to any food business, and it's a common source of food poisoning. The source of contamination can be anything from raw meat to dirty hands or gloves and kitchen utensils. Fildes Food Safety recommends setting the habit of using colour-coded cutting boards to minimise the risk of lingering bacteria from meat, poultry, vegetables, seafood, and other raw foods.

Food storage

Separating and storing food correctly will also help protect against cross-contamination and improve efficiency in your operation. Likewise, it is essential to keep food adequately covered, not only to retain freshness but to keep a clean and hygienic environment. Committing to auditing the condition of food storage containers regularly is a helpful objective that can ensure the absence of bacteria harbouring cracks and broken seals.

Temperature control and monitoring

Monitoring and controlling food temperature is fundamental to food safety. Using food thermometers to ensure foods are cooked and maintained at suitable temperatures is essential. A resolution relevant to this crucial area of food safety is implementing an effective process for monitoring the internal temperatures of all refrigerators and freezers within the workplace, using the range of available specialist thermometers from Fildes Food Safety. This will help to ensure that power failures or faults are quickly identified and corrected.

Workplace safety

A comprehensive workplace safety program is essential to any food service operation. Ongoing training and high-quality products which minimise the risk of injury are vital. It is a requirement for kitchens to ensure that first aid kits are placed in areas with ease of access, and a key goal to set is to ensure that this kit is constantly restocked in the event of a staff injury. All Fildes Food Safety kits are available with replenishment items by request.

Sanitation and hygiene

Protecting against bacteria involves the regular cleaning and sanitisation of all surface areas within the kitchen and restaurant and ensuring that each staff member also follows safe hand-washing and sanitising procedures. This is particularly true in the wake of Covid, which means that setting a roster such as the sanitisation of working benches in regular, close intervals is pertinent. A sanitising product such as the Smart San S-2 Surface Sanitiser is the ideal solution.

Browse the full range of Fildes Food Safety products when setting your individual kitchen goals for the New Year, or contact the team to place an order or discuss how we can help you further.