Keeping a clean workspace is vital for workers, managers, and owners of commercial kitchens. It is the responsibility of every food service employee to practice good hygiene, but commercial kitchen employees are even more responsible since they tend to serve larger groups of patrons. Unlike typical restaurants, some commercial kitchens serve vulnerable populations to food-borne illnesses and diseases transmitted by rodents and insects. These steps can help you minimize your chances of becoming infested before calling a commercial pest control company.
Daily Cleaning and Sanitizing
You can prevent pest problems in your kitchen by keeping it clean. Moisture and food waste attract insects, rodents, and mice in commercial kitchens. A dirty kitchen is a gold mine for invaders, but you can develop a checklist to ensure everyone signs off on their work and keeps the premises clean. Pests can not only damage your building materials and supplies, but they can also contaminate every surface in your kitchen, putting employees and customers at risk of infection.
Garbage Removal
Commercial kitchens generate a significant amount of refuse every day, and improper disposal methods can leave your business vulnerable to visits from pests. Frequently dumping the trash cans can make your dumpster area less appealing to invaders. If the staff waits until a bag is complete, it’s likely to bust open when thrown in the dumpster. You can tie the bags correctly and keep them sealed when deposited by dumping them when they’re three-quarters full. Torn Bags that open attract more rodents to your property and kitchen.
Food Storage
As long as you maintain the correct temperature and sanitation procedures in your walk-in and freezer, you shouldn’t have a problem with pests. Most of your supplies are refrigerated, but unsealed goods stored at room temperature can be vulnerable to mice and insects. Keep your perishable items in sealed containers and inspect your canned goods and bottles for leaks. For example, a leaking bottle of olive oil or a puncture in a sauce container can provide food to pests.
Heavy Equipment Cleaning
Remove deep fryers, stovetop units, ovens, and other kitchen equipment periodically for deep cleaning. Roll the equipment outdoors to be scrubbed, pressure washed, and clean the equipment area in the kitchen. Built-up grease and grime under heavy equipment are attractive to pests, and the staff often neglects it because it’s difficult to clean with a broom or mop. Commercial kitchen pest control is easier to maintain when your team all contribute and care about the patrons’ health and safety.
Exterior and Interior Inspections
Rodents can squeeze into coin-sized holes to enter your building, and insects can wiggle under even more minor cracks and holes. You can scrutinize the structure and implement preventive pest control measures that keep the invaders away. Seal up any gaps in the walls and check the roof near the exhaust ports and hood system to ensure the flashing hasn’t deteriorated. Making minor repairs to the building is far less expensive than dealing with the consequences of a pest infestation. Pests can endanger the health of everyone in the building and ruin the reputation of your facility.
Following a couple of critical preventive instructions to secure your kitchen. Do your homework, Learn about various species that could pose a risk. Are there termites living in the area? Or, perhaps, do surrounding facilities have a problem with roaches and bugs? Learning about the bug population in your area will help you understand their life cycle and habits. You’ll know when to expect them to swarm and try to enter. You also need to know their reproductive habits, as most bugs reproduce quickly, but knowing their nesting habits and times of the year they commonly breed will help you prepare.
Preventative Action
In addition to being knowledgeable about common pests, there are other steps businesses can take to reduce the risk of a pest infestation.
- Store all food in sealed, pest-proof containers to keep odors in and reduce the attraction.
- Ensure that hard-to-reach places, like behind and under appliances, are clean and debris-free.
- Keep hard-to-move kitchen equipment on rollers to make it easier to clean around them.
- Ensure there is no standing water, leaking pipes, or dripping faucets.
- Replace cracked wall and floor tiles and seal gaps around fixtures or pipes.
- Watch for signs of pest activity in the kitchen, such as droppings and chew or bite marks.
Pest Control Solutions
Keeping your commercial kitchen clean can reduce your chances of dealing with an infestation, but sometimes, the location of your kitchen can affect your pest control efforts. For example, buildings near water sources and kitchens installed in older buildings face more challenges in keeping invaders away. The quality of the food you produce represents the overall condition of your kitchen. And your brand is connected to your quality. Guard it to protect your brand