Is Your Food Establishment Clean?

Is your restaurant, bar or hotel clean? I mean really clean. I don't mean"do you stick to all the rules and regulations?". I mean, do you andyour staff really care about cleanliness and hygiene?

Just complying with hygiene regulations will almost certainly result in youbreaking them. By meeting standards that are higher than the minimum you willprobably comply with them. But is this enough? There are two mindsets when itcomes to good hygiene practice in catering businesses. One is the "will Iavoid a fine?" school of thought. The other mindset is: "Ireally care that my customers can enjoy the highest standards of hygiene".

Hygiene Officer

Should you have a designated hygiene officer in your establishment? Somejurisdictions insist on having a person who is responsible for hygiene(depending on the size of the business). This is a double-edged sword. Thehygiene officer must have some clout, though, and have a direct route to seniormanagement. On the other hand if the hygiene officer appointment is just a sopto regulations or a way of impressing health inspectors it could actually makethings worse. Why? Because hygiene is the responsibility of everyone. All stafffrom top to bottom must ensure that they and their customers are working inclean conditions. The danger of having a hygiene officer is that the rest of thestaff may feel justified in disowning responsibility for this area. The hygieneofficer must not be the cleaner. So, unless the law says you must have a hygieneofficer, think long and hard before you go down this route. If you do, do itwell and it will pay off.

Cleanliness is Next to Succesfulness...

Why would you want to go beyond the basic standard when this costs youmoney? Just look at the successful restaurant chains: McDonalds and Pizza Huthave had their critics, but one things they have in common is that they are veryclean. The cleanliness of these establishments may not be immediately noticeableto customers, but the subliminal message sinks into the sub-conscious:"This is a place I feel it is safe to eat at" or "I am happy formy kids to eat here" - these thoughts become hard-wired at each visit (yesI know there will be exceptions, but please accept my generalization for now!).OK, so you don't want to be a McDonalds. That's fine - but you do wantcustomers, right?

Involving Staff

Anyway, there is no great cost involved in keeping things clean. What aboutencouraging more staff to eat in your kitchen, restaurant or bar. Do you chargethem? Try reducing or waiving the charge. You need to encourage the staff to eatthe food that you produce. They will not want to eat food in a dirtyestablishment. By having staff eat the food that they produce and serve, youhave already introduced mutual quality control and hygiene monitoring.

Of course, a pastoral attitude towards you customers is what you are surelylooking for. In other words, your customers are dear to you, aren't they? Well,try to endear them to your staff. Phrases like "would you eat off of thatplate", or "would you like it if restaurant staff didn't wash theirhands in the washroom" are very helpful. They personalize the effort ratherthan making it into the boss's issue.

And what of the boss? Does the boss in turn just make it into an issue withthe health inspectors? Does the boss really care about the customers or does hejust want to comply as cheaply as possibly with the rules?

Go For Quality

We sell InsectoCutor fly killers. Our customers are firmly in theformer of those two camps. They really care about their customers. I don'tmake this statement flippantly. They really do care and speak up fortheir customers. From the smallest to the largest, when you see a foodestablishment with an InsectoCutor fly killer machine, this is a virtualhallmark of cleanliness.

And why do they prefer InsectoCutor fly killers? They are not the cheapest.

Well, they are not plastic but are made of steel. They do not allow insects toexplode but are tuned very carefully to ensure the insects drop full-bodied intothe catch tray. If you want to comply - just comply - with the hygieneregulations in your area then go ahead and buy a cheap, short-life low qualityfly killer (you may still not comply!). On the other hand, if you want to keep andattract more customers and really care for those customers, I would urge you tobuy InsectoCutor fly killers.

Fly Killers are available fromArkay Hygiene. For small establishments, the F1or F2fly Killers are ideal.