Learn the important tips on how to stay safe in your hotel or restaurant kitchen.

A survey finds that over 61.5% of kitchen workers have recorded slips and falls in the kitchen at work about once or twice per year. This is, however, the least scary survey on dangerous things that have happened to kitchen workers while they were at work.

No matter how professional a chef or kitchen staff might be, it is important to have rules and regulations safeguarding everyone in the kitchen in order to avoid casualties. Many accidents can occur in the restaurant or hotel kitchen and it is the duty of the manager to prevent these situations by laying down ground rules at work. 

If you would like to learn how to stay safe while working in a food service kitchen, here are important tips to take note of when working in a commercial kitchen in order to protect the workers and everyone working around the kitchen. 

10 Tips on How to stay safe in the kitchen in your hotel or restaurant

1- Keep the kitchen clean always 

Commercial kitchens need more attention when it comes to cleanliness because as opposed to your kitchen at home, your cleanliness is not essential to you alone but to the many other people that come to your restaurant or hotel. Read this to learn about food safety and hygiene in your hotel or restaurant kitchen.

It is important to keep the kitchen clean at all times to maintain a safe environment for workers and staff. 

2-Use sharp knives always and keep them in a safe place

To avoid getting injured, ensure all knives are sharpened and kept in a safe place. Blunt knives have the tendency to cause injuries, cuts, and incidents. This article about how to stay safe when handling knives in the kitchen gives a detailed explanation of kitchen knife safety. 

3-Use the right type of knife always

Every knife has its use or purpose. Do not use a chef’s knife to slice onions or pepper, you might end up hurting yourself. Do not use a bread knife to slice yam, it can lead to injury or worse, it will end up stuck in the yam. 

Learn the different types of knives and what they are used for. Also, ensure that your chefs know the different purposes of each knife to maintain safety in the kitchen. 

If the handle of the knife has broken or damaged, get a new one to avoid injuries when using it. 

4-Clean the floor or surfaces immediately after a spill

Water or liquid substances like oil, milk, or liquid detergent can cause slip-and-fall accidents in the kitchen if they are not cleaned up after a spill. 

5-Store heavy food items carefully and safely

Heavy food items like sacks of rice, beans, tubers, etc., should be kept together in the store. Ensure to stack them correctly to avoid food items falling on any of the workers. 

Assign some staff to the duty of managing and supervising the storeroom to ensure everything is well arranged and supervised.  

Also, stock up on items and appliances that will make work easier and faster for employees.

6-An employee should not carry weight above their own

Another tip on how to stay safe and avoid incident in the kitchen is ensuring every employee assigned to move food ingredients or kitchen items from one place to the other, carry only what they are strong enough to carry. This will prevent injury and falls when transporting items.

7-Utilize machinery for heavy lifting

When goods or food items are too heavy to carry, let the organization provide machinery like carts, wheelbarrows, or trucks to transport them from one place to the other instead of making employees do all the hard work that can result in accidents. 

8-Wear kitchen-appropriate clothes when working

Every worker in the kitchen must wear appropriate clothing. From the Head chef to the non-cooking staff. Appropriate clothing should include but not limited to:

• Head covering gears like a hair net.
• Aprons
• Appropriate shoes
• White clothes 
• Oven mitts
• Gloves
• Overalls
• Short sleeve clothes

9-Always use oven mitts and kitchen napkins

Ensure your cooking staff protect their hands from burns or scalding with oven mitts or kitchen napkins. If they need to touch hot surfaces, bring out the tray from the oven, bring down pots from the fire, hold pot handles while cooking, or touch pot lids, ensure they use a clean napkin. 

10-Stay far from hot oil when frying

When frying, ensure to keep a safe distance from the oil to avoid it splashing on you. Especially when frying fish, meat, chicken, turkey, etc.

Extra tips

Always keep burner and oven tops clean to prevent fire from grease

Leftover grease or dirt on burners, grills, or oven tops can be a fire hazard. Prevent fire outbreaks in your kitchen by ensuring the dirt, grease, or food drops on the cooker tops are cleaned immediately after use. 

Ensure to do a final check around the kitchen before workers close for the day

• Assign a worker or let it be your duty as a manager to check for cookers or gas that might have been left on. 
• Check for fridges or freezers that were not well closed during the course of the day’s work. 
• Check for electrical appliances that were left on
• Turn off the general light from the main switch
• Clean and wipe all floors and surfaces to protect the kitchen from pests, accidental falls, or a dirty environment.
• Check if the food items and ingredients are well arranged in the store and there is no chance of anyone falling off. 

Conclusion 

A commercial kitchen should be a safe space for the workers and staff and not an accident waiting to happen. The manager or supervisor in charge of the kitchen can make it a safe space for workers by ensuring they follow these rules, come up with other rules and regulations that work for them, and ensure everyone adheres to them.