Food safety experts can help design kitchens to reduce risks

No matter how much time and care a chef takes preparing a meal, no matter how beautiful it looks on the plate, one splash of one drop of dirty dish water can turn the delectable into the deadly.
- Plan the flow. The flow of your prep area should make sense for efficiency, as well as food safety. This will save time, money and reduce risk.
- Purchase equipment that’s easy to clean, with minimal nooks and crannies. This is important for all equipment that you use in your kitchen, including mixers, fryers, ice cream machines and meat slicers.
- Consider even the smallest details — like the amount of tile grout used. The less tile grout, the less risk for chipping. Chipping — and cracks or holes in walls and floors — result in bacteria growth. Always use a non-porous grout material that doesn’t allow bacteria to grow.
- Ensure that your floors have drains so they can be deep cleaned regularly.
- Ensure that your hot water tanks hold a sufficient amount of hot water. If they don’t hold enough hot water to get you through your busiest rush period of washing and sanitizing dishes, you either need to get a booster or a larger hot water tank. Hot water is critical to proper washing and sanitizing dishes, equipment and hands.
- Consider the placement of your sinks. Kitchen sinks must never be in an area where there’s potential for contaminated water to splash on consumables, clean dishes, or anything else it could contaminate. In tight areas, a barrier may need to be installed between the sink and a prep area.
- Install multiple sinks for washing dishes, produce, poultry, hands, etc.
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Color-coded cutting boards help ensure that fresh produce is not cross-contaminated with pathogens from raw meat, fish or poultry. To increase compliance with such food safety policies and procedures employers must provide continuing education and training for food handlers.
- Designate allergy-friendly equipment, such as fryers, that are not used for any common allergens, including breaded products, fish or shellfish, or foods containing nuts.
- Use different shaped or different colored plates to serve allergy-friendly meals.
- Purchase or make your own allergy kits, complete with color-coded chopping boards and pans and utensils, which are kept clean, covered and stored away from flours and other potential allergens. Purple is widely used and recognized to designate allergy-friendly equipment.
- Wash and sanitize allergy equipment and surfaces between each use.
- Make certain areas that are impossible to reach for cleaning are sealed tightly. It is impossible for anyone to clean a quarter-inch gap between a wall and a counter space that the contractor neglected to close. This will eventually become an insect or rodent haven, which is obviously a food safety hazard.
- Design separate storage space for common food allergens such as flours, nuts, etc., to avoid cross-contact with other foods.
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