FOODSERVICE UPDATES
  • Home
  • Trends
    • Commodities
  • Recipes
    • Featured Recipe
    • Appetizers
    • Beef
    • Breakfast
    • Burgers
    • Desserts & Snacks
    • Handhelds
    • Pasta & Rice
    • Pizza
    • Plant Based
    • Pork
    • Poultry
    • Salads
    • Seafood
    • Sides
    • Soups & Sauces
  • Digital Media
  • Technology
  • Safety
  • Management Tips
  • Human Resources
  • Healthcare
  • Marketplace
  • Free Newsletter
  • Contact Us

Keep it clean

3/28/2025

 
cleaning
For people who are new to foodservice work, the terms cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting can sound almost interchangeable. But knowing the difference between them – and which to do where and when – plays a key role in preventing contamination and foodborne illness. It can also ensure your business complies with health codes during its next inspection. Is your team clear about the distinctions?
Cleaning is the first step. Using soap or detergent and water, it removes visible dirt, grease and food particles from floors, walls, equipment exteriors and non-food contact surfaces. This process makes surfaces look tidy but does not eliminate bacteria or viruses.
Sanitizing follows cleaning for food-contact surfaces like prep tables, cutting boards and utensils. Using food-safe chemical sanitizers or heat, this process reduces bacteria to safe levels, preventing cross-contamination. Items should always be cleaned before sanitizing.
Disinfecting is needed for high-touch, non-food areas such as restrooms, garbage bins, doorknobs and employee break rooms. Disinfectants kill most bacteria and viruses but are typically too strong for food-contact surfaces and shouldn’t be used on them.
To maintain food safety, clean first, then sanitize or disinfect where needed using clearly labeled solutions.

Make your staff norovirus-aware

2/7/2022

 
norovirus
While Covid variants continue to be front-of-mind for restaurant operators, it can be easy to forget about the other seasonal illnesses that can impact a restaurant, particularly norovirus (which, although it can strike at any time of year, is known as the “winter vomiting bug” for a reason). Norovirus causes more foodborne illnesses than all bacterial pathogens combined. You can prevent its spread in your restaurant by having a food safety plan that considers your entire facility, including restrooms, your dining room and supply areas in addition to your kitchen. Reinforce with employees the need to wash hands even more frequently than usual with soap and water, and keep stations well stocked with soap and paper towels. Conduct training with staff on cleaning and sanitizing surfaces, including the proper solutions to use, as well as the amounts, applications and schedule of use. Finally, schedule frequent restroom cleanings and give staff a refresher on what procedures must be used when cleaning up after someone has been ill in your facility.

​Put sanitation on display

11/8/2021

 
sanitation
Cleaning was once something restaurant employees tried to keep hidden behind the scenes. But now, your guests take comfort in knowing what you do to keep your facility clean and limit the spread of illness. What’s more, they are more likely to be watching what your team does to maintain safety between guests and during the course of a busy shift. Make your cleaning procedures a continuous part of your training and empower employees to take responsibility for safety within your business, knowing they have your backing. Wherever possible, employ digital tools to keep track of cleaning tasks that might be overlooked during a busy period and to provide regular alerts to staff about tasks that need to be completed.

​Wipe up right

7/12/2021

 
wipe
Cleaning tools such as sponges and wiping cloths can become contaminated with bacterial pathogens and harbor these contaminants for more than two weeks, according to a recent study by researchers at the Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. The researchers found that E. coli, Salmonella and S. aureus survived for up to 16 days in sponges and 13 days on microfiber towels washed in sterile water – and that sanitizing solution is ineffective at sterilizing these tools after four hours. Are you replacing sanitizing solution frequently enough in your kitchen?

Should you rotate your sanitizer?

6/14/2021

 
sanitizer
​If you’re having problems with food safety and contamination, could your sanitizer be to blame? While microorganisms may develop resistance to sanitizer, but chances are better that your challenges are due to other issues around your facility. According to a Food Safety Magazine report, it’s more important to focus on following each step of the cleaning process, addressing problems with poorly designed equipment with crevices that can harbor microorganisms, applying your sanitizer over the entire surface, and being aware of biofilms that can form on surfaces and encase a microorganism (and require a different kind of treatment).

Is your restroom ready?

6/14/2021

 
restroom
Even before the pandemic, restaurant guests would make assumptions about the state of the restrooms and what they might indicate about the restaurant’s commitment to food health and safety. Now that guests are all the more aware of cleaning and sanitation practices, as well as the ways in which viruses can spread, it’s important that your restaurant presents you well. If your restaurant has high-traffic periods, make sure you have larger dispensers that help ensure you won’t get caught short on soap and hand towels. Replace air dryers. Finally, develop a clear checklist of maintenance tasks and have your staff check restrooms at regular intervals.

​Streamline food safety between guests

5/24/2021

 
safety
As restaurants welcome guests back into their dining rooms, operators are likely to have to stretch to accommodate the demand, making it easier for safety to fall through the cracks. Using digital checklists can help you uphold your safety standards and avoid a pile-up of risks throughout a shift. If your servers are using tablets to take orders, add a digital food safety app that provides a quick, easy-to-reference rundown of the cleaning and sanitation tasks that need to be done between guests – such as wiping down tables, chairs and any tabletop items.

​COVID skin care to minimize infection

2/22/2021

 
hand care
While more frequent handwashing and use of alcohol-based sanitizers may be keeping bacteria at bay in your restaurant, they may also wreak havoc on skin during the winter months. Dry, cracked, itchy, flaky or even bleeding skin can result – and increase the risk of infection. While washing with lukewarm water and using moisturizers can help, the use of ointments or creams isn’t practical when preparing food. Encourage your staff to take extra care of their skin when they are away from work. The American Academy of Dermatology Association advises moisturizing immediately after washing hands and using a squeezable, fragrance-free, mineral oil- or petrolatum-based cream or ointment. Doing so is especially important after applying alcohol-based sanitizers, which can be more drying for skin.

Five steps to cutting contamination

2/15/2021

 
cleaning
​Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting have taken on new importance in restaurants – and have even become a selling point in the past year. At a time when we’re battling the spread of not only COVID-19 but also seasonal viruses, make sure your team isn’t cutting corners on keeping your restaurant safe. The National Restaurant Association advises restaurants take a five-step approach: First, remove any crumbs and spills with an absorbent, disposable towel or cloth. Then, with a new disposable wipe, use a surface-safe cleaning solution to dissolve any residue. Next, rinse the surface with water (the presence of leftover cleaning chemicals will prevent the sanitizer from working). Sanitizing is the critical next step in preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses – and restaurants often use a quaternary- or chlorine-based sanitizer for the job, along with a foodservice wipe (using a disposable one will prolong the life of the solution). Finally, allow time for air drying. Sanitizers generally need 60 seconds of contact to kill germs on the surface. Allowing a few extra seconds of drying time can make a difference to your safety. Knowing how often to clean and sanitize is important too: StateFoodSafety.com advises cleaning and sanitizing equipment and food contact surfaces after handling meat, after changing the food being prepared, after four hours of constant use and after taking a break.

    subscribe to our newsletter

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Accidents
    Agriculture
    Air-circulation
    Alcohol
    Alerts
    Allergy
    Angry-customers
    Antibiotics
    Apple
    Appliance
    Assessment
    Audit
    Automation
    Back-of-the-house
    Bacteria
    Barcode
    Bbq
    Behavior
    Bending
    Benefit
    Beverages
    Blackout
    Bread
    Break
    Breakfast
    Budget
    Buffet
    Buildup
    Burns
    Centralized
    Certification
    Champion
    Checklist
    Chemicals
    Chicken
    Cleaning
    Climate-change
    Cold
    Communication
    Complaint
    Condiments
    Connections
    Contactless
    Contanmination
    Convenience
    Cooking-times
    Cooling
    Coronavirus
    Cost
    Covid
    Cross-contact
    Cross Contamination
    Crosscontamination
    Culture
    Cutting-board
    Cutting Boards
    Cybersecurity
    Delivery
    Dietary Restriction
    Digital
    Dirty
    Disaster
    Disinfecting
    Distributor
    Drains
    Dried
    Ecofriendly
    E-coli
    Ecoli
    Educate
    Eggs
    Emergency
    Employee
    Equipment
    Error
    Exterior
    Fall
    Fda
    Feedback
    Fire
    Fish
    Flood
    Flooding
    Flu
    Foodbourne
    Food-fraud
    Foodkeeper
    Food Safety
    Foodsafety
    Foodsafety8e1fcbeb2b
    Food-supply
    Foodsupply
    Foodwaste
    Freeze
    Freezer
    Freshness
    Fruit
    Garbage
    Ghost Kitchen
    Gloves
    Gluten
    Goals
    Grab-n-go
    Grabngo
    Grease
    Greens
    Grill
    Growing
    Guidelins
    HACCP
    Hair
    Hairnets
    Handling
    Handwashing
    Hazards
    Health
    Health-code
    Healthcode
    Health Plan
    Heat
    Hepatitis
    Holiday
    Hood
    Hours
    Hvac
    Hygiene
    Ice
    Icecream
    Illness
    Incentives
    Ingredients
    Inspection
    Inspections
    Interconnected
    Inventory
    Investigation
    Jewelry
    Jewlery
    Job-satisfaction
    Kitchen
    Knifes
    Labels
    Labor
    Legal
    Legislation
    Liability
    Lifting
    Log
    Maintenance
    Manage
    Management
    Marinade
    Marketing
    Mask
    Measure
    Meat-free
    Meeting
    Mental-health
    Menu
    Mercury
    Mobile
    Monitor
    Morale
    Network
    Norovirus
    Odor
    Oil
    Older Adults
    Orders
    Outdoor
    Outdoordining
    Over-extension
    Ownership
    Packaging
    Pathogens
    People
    Personalbelongings
    Pests
    Phone
    Planning
    Plant-based
    Plantbased
    Plastic
    Policy
    Portions
    Positivereinforcement
    Poultry
    Power
    Power-outage
    Ppe
    Preprepared
    Prevent-injury
    Prevention
    Produce
    Questions
    Quiz
    Recall
    Recommendation
    Records
    Recycle
    Refrigerator
    Remote
    Repeat
    Replacement
    Reporting
    Responsibility
    Restroom
    Reusable
    Review
    Rice
    Risk
    Roasting
    Robot
    Rootvegetables
    Safety
    Safety-quiz
    Safety-violations
    Safetyviolations
    Salad
    Samonella
    Sanitize
    Scheduling
    Score
    Seafood
    Senior Care
    Seniors
    Service-fee
    Sesame
    Shield
    Sick
    Sick-time
    Signage
    Slice
    Slim
    Slip
    Social-distancing
    Socialdistancing
    Soda-fountain
    Solar
    Source
    Sous-vide
    Speed-scratch
    Spices
    Spills
    Staff
    Standards
    Storage
    Storms
    Straws
    Stress
    Substitution
    Supplier
    Supply-chain
    Tabletop
    Take-out
    Takeout
    Takeoutfed487ce46
    Tamper-evident
    Tasks
    Technology
    Temperature
    Tempurature
    Thawing
    Time-off
    Tools
    Towels
    Traceability
    Tracking
    Training
    Transparency
    Trash
    Trip
    Twisting
    Uniform
    Uv
    Vaccine
    Validate
    Vegan
    Vegetables
    Ventilation
    Virus
    Volunteers
    Warm-weather
    Washing
    Waste
    Weather
    Wellbeing
    Wellness Policy

Get our Free Newsletter
Team Four Foodservice
​Recipes
Quarterly Outlook
Palette Foodservice Partners®
​
© 2025 Team Four Foodservice
  • Home
  • Trends
    • Commodities
  • Recipes
    • Featured Recipe
    • Appetizers
    • Beef
    • Breakfast
    • Burgers
    • Desserts & Snacks
    • Handhelds
    • Pasta & Rice
    • Pizza
    • Plant Based
    • Pork
    • Poultry
    • Salads
    • Seafood
    • Sides
    • Soups & Sauces
  • Digital Media
  • Technology
  • Safety
  • Management Tips
  • Human Resources
  • Healthcare
  • Marketplace
  • Free Newsletter
  • Contact Us