When you are out in the market catering and serving your food to your customers, your desire is to create a resounding impression through quality services. And it doesn’t really matter if you have experienced professional chefs or amateur cooks looking to earn an extra buck, your job as an owner is to inspire people through your culinary journey.
That being said, as an owner of the business, your job is to ensure that your staff is on their toes during rush-hours, performing their day-to-day tasks with ease, while maintaining a professional attitude. Along the lines, you also need to regularly check and balance if your backroom staff is complying with the standard safety rules.
So how do you start? And what strategy do you think is best for your restaurant? Think about all these jargon in detail, research, and implement on them wisely. And while you are here, take a look at some of our tips for developing a sane uniform policy for your institution.
Uniforms in the right way!
Setting up a restaurant and crafting policies for the betterment of your workers is an uplifting task that demands your care and attention from the forward. And while you would want your staff and employees to feel relaxed throughout their working hours, their job is to maintain the demands set by the FDA.
While we agree that employee custom waitstaff uniforms should be designed and manufactured from quality materials, your staff can still play their part right by following in the right direction and guidelines that you recommend. Some of these areas ensure that you reduce the threats of possible accidents, injuries, and even negative reviews.
Fingernails
Time and time again, it has been advised over the years that sous chefs and staff don’t wear fingernails when they are working with the food. One of the probable reasons is based on the fact that fingernails have contaminants that can tamper with the safety and quality of the food.
Unless the staff is wearing protective gloves, you should put forth a policy that disallows the staff to wear fingernails to work. Create a policy and state very carefully that nails should be cleaned, trimmed, and cut with no rough edges. Artificial fingernails that make the hands look big are also not allowed in the restaurant setups and should always be avoided.
Hand gloves
Disposable hand gloves should be deemed mandatory in the kitchen, and all the staff working should wear them religiously. While creating a safety policy, provide your staff with stacks of disposable hand gloves so that they wear them and dispose of the old ones simultaneously.
Give your staff the proper guidelines and information about the benefits of wearing hand gloves, and ask them to wash their hands properly before putting on the gloves. If you are open with the idea of providing multi-used gloves, your staff should properly wash, maintain, and reuse them with ease and convenience. In a case of any small injury like cuts, sores, and even rashes, cover the infected area with a bandage for protection.
Hair Caps
If you have ever been to a restaurant where there is an open kitchen, you may have seen the chefs and supporting staff wearing hair caps. These hair caps are specifically designated to the staff dealing with the preparation of the food. Employees working with the food carry a potential threat of contaminating the food.
As per the laws and rules designated by the FDA, they are bound to wear some sort of hair protection, hair caps, restraints, or anything else that keeps the hair away from the food. Another interesting thing to mention over here is the fact that hair caps are not for the staff dealing with the customers, cashiers, and backroom storage staff, etc.
Jewelry and accessories
Any type of jewelry or accessories that may tamper with the food preparation should be avoided at all costs. Hand rings that contain diamonds and stones should not be worn when preparing the food. Similarly, bracelets, anklets, and other accessories should be avoided at all costs.
This is one of the standard laws shared by the FDA, and if you are following their guidelines properly, you may want to create a policy similar to this.
Overall hygiene
As a general rule, maintaining adequate hygiene should be the priority of each staff. You can stop the pathogens coming from hair and skin by applying standard rules and regulations. Before preparing the food, chef and other employees should wear protective hair caps, gloves, and wash their hands frequently.
In some cases, wearing a face mask is also obligatory. But that depends on your guidelines and policy.