Kitchen stewarding and cleanliness

What is the role of a kitchen steward in cleanliness?

Service to any guest begins with providing a clean and comfortable surrounding. Whether it is the housekeeping or kitchen stewarding, the primary goal is to get a clean chit. Kitchen stewarding is a perfect sandwich between production and other services. In order to achieve cleanliness and hygiene both in the production area and other service areas, it is important to look into various aspects like training, personnel care and surface care.

Training

To avoid negligence on all grounds, training within the department is required on a regular basis at every level. This could include theory, practicals and a test to judge how effective the training has been. Topics could be on basic bacteriology, cross contamination (e.g. prohibiting smoking, spitting, nose picking, wearing jewellery), proper use of protective clothing, safety of equipment and use of chemicals.

Personnel Care

It is always necessary to follow the dos and don’ts for the kitchen personnel:

1. Washing hands is the basic requirement and failure do to this could lead to unexpected circumstances.
2. Personnel working must be healthy and show no signs of illness, if so must immediately consult the medic.
3. Covering the head with proper head wear at all times when in the kitchen.
4. No wearing ornaments in the kitchen, especially by utility workers and cooks who are in direct contact with food.
5. No eating in the kitchen.
6. Visitors to the kitchen must obtain a medically fit report and must be escorted by the department personnel at all times. This is to ensure that no food is put to risk or gets contaminated.

Surface Care

The standard of cleanliness and frequency in the kitchen will vary depending on the type of operation and the type of food being prepared. This means the standard of cleanliness in a cook-chill kitchen will be higher than a room used for peeling carrots and potatoes. Similarly, the food contact surfaces in high-risk areas will need periodic disinfection, while the areas used for low-risk food preparation a thorough cleaning would suffice.

Any area left neglected or kept unhygienic in the kitchen could turn into a source of microbiological, physical and chemical hazard. To ensure cleanliness and hygiene at all levels, one should know the operations in every section of a kitchen. Butchery section being a potential hazardous department with high chance of microbiological and physical contamination, the level of cleaning, disinfection and quality check is much higher than other areas.

Cleaning the food area helps to –

• Disrupt routes of contamination
• Ensure a pleasant, safe and attractive working environment
• Promote a favourable image and assist in marketing business
• Remove matter conducive to the growth of microorganism, by disinfection
• Remove materials that would provide food or harborage for pests and prevent early discovery of infestation
• Prevent damage to the equipment and service thereby reducing maintenance cost

Normally, three types of energy are used in the cleaning process:

Kinetic energy: Use of physical-manual, mechanical/machine and turbulence/liquid (CIP)

Thermal energy: Use of hot water

Chemical energy: Use of detergents

In any cleaning operation, two or more forms of energy are used. For example, in the washing of dishes, force applied is manual and mechanical and hot water & chemicals are also used. Hence, all the three energies are being utilised for achieving results. Effective cleaning schedule is also a must. This should be clearly written without any ambiguity to ensure that instruction to staff is easy to follow. Written schedule should specify:

• What needs to be cleaned
• The chemicals, materials and the equipment to be used
• The dilution and the contact time of the chemical
• How it needs to be cleaned (method)
• When it needs to be cleaned (frequency)
• Time necessary to clean
• Protective clothing to be worn
• Safety precaution to be taken
• Monitoring procedure (supervision)

Soiling of both surface and equipment is unavoidable. It is essential not to allow any accumulation of residues, so that food is risked to the level of contamination. To achieve this objective, it becomes necessary to have an integrated Hygiene Management which is included in HACCP plans in most food businesses. It is preferable for effective cleaning and disinfection to be considered as an essential prerequisite to the introduction of HACCP.

Pest Care

Pest is another area that needs to be monitored. Pests require food, shelter, warmth and security. In a kitchen, denial of these environmental factors and good cleaning practices will prevent their survival. Integrated pest management with weekly inspection of the kitchen areas and stores, physical and chemical treatment schedule, different steps to combat pests like placing mesh, filters, using UV pest-o-flash machine, sealing up of all crevices on the walls, corners & drains and having air curtains at all entry zones of the kitchen, stores and receiving areas are some of the measures that need to be taken.

Kitchen Design

To achieve high standards in cleanliness and disinfection, it is necessary to have the workplace well designed so that the cleaning staff can reach all areas easily. Clean and dirty areas need to be defined in order to avoid cross contamination during operation; equipment need to be of a very high standard which is certified as food safe; it must be non-toxic, non-tainting and the constituent from their surface must not migrate into food or be absorbed by the food in quantities that could endanger health. Equipment must also have adequate strength over a wide temperature range.

Most widely used material is food grade stainless steel, either 304 or more expensive 316. Equipment must be fixed and sited at least 500mm from the wall and 250mm between the floor. It is also necessary to have sufficient lights around food premises, so that employees can identify hazards and carry out tasks correctly. Suggested light is 150 lux in storerooms and 500 lux in preparation areas, so that staff can have a clear view without straining their eyes. Once these factors are put in place, it’s show time for the cleaning department.