While the F&B department in the hospitality industry plays an important role – both in terms of service delivered and the revenue earned or expenses curtailed, linen management and washing plays an equally important part in F&B performance. This article discusses the various processes that go into cleaning linen and the precautions thereof.
Food & Beverage (F&B) soiled linen received by the linen department, restaurant wise, has to be sorted – white table covers and napkins; light coloured table covers and napkins; and dark coloured table covers and napkins. Care is taken that maroon napkins / dark blue napkins / dark brown napkins & table covers of these types of colours are preferably washed separately, and no light coloured linen pieces are washed in this cycle. However, this could lead to lint sticking on dark coloured napkins / table covers.
Kitchen Dusters are very heavily soiled as such and need separate treatment to get the soil & odour out, as well as to keep the interior of machines clean and to have no effect of the wash-goods charged next.
Uniforms are separated as ‘to-be-dry cleaned’ and ‘to-be-washed’. Uniforms that go for dry cleaning include black striped trousers, black coats, silk saris, polyester-wool trousers, silk shirts, suits and ties. These are segregated as bright coloured, dark coloured, colour bleeding, and white coloured garments.
A daily basis check is essential before starting the job both for wet-cleaning and dry cleaning. In wet cleaning, the areas to be checked for cleaning include the machines, the lids or the top of the machines, under the machines, the aisles, floor, counter tops, sides, pigeon holes, walls , ceiling, pipes, ducts, fans, electric panels, stair cases, offices, telephone cabin, furniture, telephones, computers and other accessories.
In dry-cleaning, the areas to be checked include machines, spotting board, glass top, vacuum area, lint trap and button trap. Other points include
1. Perchloroethylene is distilled and clear
2. The garments are segregated as per white, light coloured and dark coloured garments
3. Colour for bleeding is checked for all garments, and if colour is bleeding the garment is either rejected before purchase, or treated with care
5. The new garments, where there is no colour bleeding/buttons, zips or zari are not showing signs of softening, are accepted & test-cleared
6. Spots are removed before dry cleaning
7. In case of very big stains on the garments, a portion is checked for removal by perchloroethylene, and if stain is getting removed, the garment is dry cleaned and stain removed, often with the help of dry cleaning detergent
• Linen is to be processed clean, free of odour and stains, properly pressed and folded
• Linen is to be sorted colour wise and size wise
• Stains will be attempted for removal in case these are not getting removed in bulk wash
• Wherever white linen is present, whiteness is to be very good
• Linen is to be processed with requisite starch, free of lint, odour and stains
Washing and Dry cleaning standards for Uniforms
• Washing of cotton, polyester, cotton blends, and polyester viscose blends knitted garments, sweaters and garments
• The uniforms shirts are to be treated for collar and cuff soil removal
• Whiteness and cleanliness is to be maintained at the highest level
• All the stains will be attempted for removal by spotting, when they are not getting removed in the bulk wash
• Washing to be done such that there are no wrinkles especially for garments of blended fabrics like polyester-cotton and polyester-viscose
• In general, the garments to appear clean overall
• Colour bleeding uniforms should not be processed with other garments, or if possible, to be rejected before selection
• Dark coloured, light coloured, and white garments to be processed separately
• All uniforms must be washed damage free
Delivery of uniforms that are collected and pressed is done in 24 hour-cycle. Kitchen and kitchen stewarding uniforms are to be folded and all other uniforms to be put on hanger. These uniforms are to be stacked on hanger rods @ 10 hanger items per rack.
Either Barcode or RFID system could be used to identify uniforms.
Linen and Uniform Management
This essentially deals with Linen Control, Linen Conservation, Linen Par for F&B Service, Linen Distribution Systems, Linen Discard and Inventory.
Linen Control
A hotel with an in-house laundry must also maintain adequate linen in circulation to avoid emergency phone calls to the laundry asking for a quick supply. These emergencies increase the Laundry Department’s costs because of poor equipment utilization.
Linen control systems are available to help minimize shortages. To select the right system, the Laundry Manager must balance the cost of operating the system against the expected savings. It may be less expensive to maintain a slightly higher linen reserve than to implement a costly and complicated control system.
With time, linens wear out – about 50% through use and 50% through laundering – and must be discarded. Each laundering diminishes the linens’ tensile strength. A realistic estimate of the number of use-and-launder cycles a piece of linen can endure would be aprons 50 and table cloths/napkins 60-75.
Good practices can prevent damage to linens. Given herewith is a list of guidelines to follow to avoid damaging linens:
• To not allow damp linens lie on concrete or iron. Concrete stains are almost impossible to remove, while iron rust may cause stains and holes in the linen
• To not use good linens as cleaning rags. Cleaning solutions often contain corrosive substances that damage and stain linen
• To check carts, laundry chutes, and linen rooms for sharp points that can snag and tear linens
• To check tumblers regularly for pins, paper clips, bobby pins, and other sharp items that can cause holes
• To prevent excess bleaching by the laundry to remove stains
• To check improper levels of flat bed presses, if any, in laundry that leads to tears
• To avoid insufficient linen par in circulation leads to overuse
• The pieces that need mending should always be knotted up at the point required and sent to the Linen Room
• To take timely care of fresh stains to save the piece from getting ruined
In the hotels’ own laundry, operators who press and fold linen should also inspect the linen for damage. Torn items should go into a separate basket for delivery to the mending room.
The Laundry Department can undertake these linen conservation measures:
• Check waste paper baskets and garbage bins periodically for linens are not accidentally discarded
• Inspect the lockers, showers, and rest rooms for any linen that might be out of circulation
Linen Distribution Systems
Two types of linen distribution systems are commonly used: the quota system for guest room linen and the requisition system for F&B service.
In the Quota System, in the case of F&B linen a predetermined amount based on the number of tables and seats in the restaurant and the number of covers served would be delivered to the restaurant each day. The drawback of using the quota system for F&B Service is that it often leads to overstocking.
Under the Requisition System, F&B linens are issued from either the laundry or Housekeeping linen room after the Outlet Manager submits a requisition form.
Each individual hotel should determine quantity of linen issued to the F&B Department under the requisition system, and how it should come from Linen department. To prevent over or under-stocking, the number of weekly covers should be compared from time to time with the linen requisitioned.
Linen Discard
To get maximum use from all linens, please follow these guidelines before discarding:
• Place a separate bin labelled “Condemned / to be condemned” in the linen room and F&B outlets
• Instruct restaurant and banquet personnel to deposit torn, stained, or threadbare linens in these bins
• Place only cleaned linens (i.e. to not use these linens for wiping, etc.), although torn/ stained, in these containers
• Periodically bring the linens from these containers to the sewing room for sorting stained ones. Send them to the laundry for re-washing and return them back into the pile. Items that cannot be reclaimed or converted should be discarded and reused.
Laundry/Linen Room Supervisor along with the F&B manager or a person authorized by him/her should personally ‘condemn’ all linens which cannot be used. Each item which needs to be condemned should be screened and defined for further action and why. All these items should be stamped as “condemned’ in various places.
The Supervisor can discard worn, torn, stained, shrunk, burnt or abused linen. He/She should write down the quantity and reason/s for discard in the ‘Condemnation Register’, and discuss with the Laundry Manager to see if a problem exists.
Vijay Rodda
The author is a veteran with over four decades of experience in the chemical, textile and detergent segments. He is working as consultant for five-star laundries / commercial laundries / health-care laundries / ozone-wash in India & the Gulf.