Start a Restaurant

estaurants have a natural challenge that just comes with the territory: cleanliness and food safety. It seems not a day goes by without another horror story in the news about contaminated food products. Restaurants get routinely shut down by the Health Department. Even if things don’t get that bad for your business, all it takes is for a delivery person to see a puddle of muck on the floor in your kitchen for a bad word-of-mouth campaign to start circulating about your establishment. The media reports cases of food poisoning on a daily basis in spite of the fact that the fast food business is flourishing.It seems fast food has become the American way and the public will go blindly forth ordering with the expectation that the food has been prepared in sanitary conditions. From bug problems to breeding bacteria, fast food restaurants especially have countless issues behind their counters. The rules are put into place and enforced by management, inspectors, the Food and Drug Administration, and so forth, are there as the minimum defense, and just the beginning. If you are the manager, awareness on your part isn’t enough; you have to be vigilant in ensuring that every employee knows and follows the rules to the letter.

One of the most common causes of food poisoning is bacteria transfer, which is due to food not being properly cooked or kept at the proper temperature. With such a demand for fast food, it is often all too easy for the employees to compromise their duties for the sake of saving time, and before they know it, they’ve served a meal that carries a nasty risk of food poisoning. The rules should be followed every time, not some of the time, as is unfortunately sometimes the case.

It is up to the management to see that the employees are properly doing their job, and, of course, effective management makes all of the difference in this endeavor. Close supervision is a necessity to help ensure that the work is being performed properly. Employees must care about their job and in return feel valued so that they will be more willing to perform their responsibilities correctly. Too often, factors like low pay, long hours, and little recognition makes employees more likely to burn out and do less than what is expected of them. Also, improper training of staff leads to improper fulfillment of job duties.

Unclean areas like counters or tables where food has been prepared can also spread bacteria and cause food poisoning. That is why it is important for employees to clean up after themselves and make sure that their work space is kept fastidiously clean. Also, food containers that haven’t been properly washed and stock that hasn’t been properly rotated are havens for bacteria. (more…)

Who doesn’t love fried foods? Fried chicken, fried fish, chicken fried steak, fried veggies; lunches and dinners are often accompanied with fried; potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, french fries, onion rings… Detail breaks often include meeting fellow officers for donuts and coffee. The tastier donuts are deep-fried- Of course!

The FDA estimates the average American eats

4.7 pounds of trans-fats each year!

The two primary reasons why doctors caution against eating fried foods are:

1. Since saturated fats are impossible to process, they clog the liver and arteries (early on causing GI issues, and over time immune disorders/diseases).

2. High heat destroys any nutritional value the food might have started with; High heat also chemically changes trans-fat oils into potential carcinogens.

Fast Food restaurants are in business to make a profit. Instead of replacing spent oil with fresh oil, they simply top off the fryers with fresh oil.

If you like fried foods that much, eat them at home, where you control the quality of the oil (coconut is very good), as well the cooking time and temperature. CAUTION: (more…)

Until recently if you lived in the UK and wanted to find out about restaurant hygiene standards from the public health authorities, you could forget it! All information was deemed “commercially confidential” and closely guarded by local councils. Now everything has changed with the Freedom of Information Act, and you can ask for the latest inspection report for any food business anywhere in the country.

At first some councils refused requests, fearing either legal action by angry restaurateurs, or that their relationships with businesses would be damaged. The Information Commissioner, a government watchdog, made a ruling in late 2005 which means that all councils should now respond to requests. There is no charge for requests on a small scale, but if you ask for reports on every restaurant in your town, expect to be advised that there will be a substantial charge!

But lets face it, who wants all the hassle of making a formal written request anyway, especially if it might trigger a charge? There is an easier way, as many councils are now publishing summary versions of inspection reports on the web. At the moment the numbers are growing rapidly, and include some large councils such as Birmingham, Bristol and now London and seaside resorts such as Weymouth and Great Yarmouth.

Most councils use symbols such as stars to give ratings, with the most common ratings being based on stars, usually five in number. A word of warning though! The councils use slightly different scoring systems, so check what they mean on each site. Generally the more stars or other symbols the better. A low number of symbols may mean the premises had some poor hygiene at the last inspection, so on a five star based scheme look for at least three stars. Of course, the rating is based on a single inspection on a particular day, so things may have changed since the last inspection, for good or worse. (more…)

Putting up a restaurant and maintaining it for daily operation requires a lot of effort coming from the owner and manager. Equal effort is also needed from the restaurant employees because their manpower is undeniably important to the related chores involved in restaurant management. As an owner or manager, it is essential that you take a look at the aspect of cleanliness and hygiene, among your employees and your restaurant space as well.

This means to say, cleanliness does prove, next to Godliness. Keep your restaurant clean and each object in it to make sure that you maintain a healthy and conducive environment both for your staff and customers. Add to this also, the impression that you will be imposing to your regular customers and even the new diners.

Maintaining a clean restaurant and surrounding is a lot of hard work but you can do more than what is expected if you properly orient your staff. From day one of employment, emphasize how important it is for them to keep everything in their path clean. This includes the area from the kitchen to the counter and the tables of each customer. To maintain the customers’ area spic-and-span, always start the day before opening the restaurant by cleaning the floor up to the ceiling. The doors, windows, fans, tables, screens and even the walls should all be checked for any necessary repair. All should be functional to the convenience both of the customers and employees. (more…)

Have you ever wondered how clean the carpet is in the restaurants where you eat? It makes you wonder how often they need to clean their carpets. Just think about how many people travel across those floors in a day and all the servers walking back and forth spilling drinks as they fill your glass. Not to mention all the plates of food they drop. Well, have you thought about how often they clean their carpet?

I know what you may be thinking… it all depends on how much business they have. I have been a commercial carpet cleaner for fourteen years, and believe me I know.

THEY DON’T CLEAN ENOUGH.

Let’s compare your house against restaurants, easy enough. The carpet manufacturers say you should clean your carpet in your house every six months for your health. Wow! I bet that was a shocker. Ok, that gives us a number to work with. Say you have four people living in your home that leave and come back five times a day. That equals twenty people a day entering your doorway. Now times that by thirty (now I’m testing your math skills). That equals six hundred people walking through you door a month. That is three thousand six hundred people in six months walking in your door. (more…)