FOOD SAFETY AND STEAM CLEANING
What can go wrong in the restaurant washroom?
Diners tend to be hypersensitive about any cleaning or hygiene lapses when eating at a restaurant, and the same applies to a visit to the establishment’s washrooms. Jeremy Bennett, from Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at the washroom issues that could change a diner’s perception of a restaurant – and considers how to prevent these from occurring.
Most of us expect to witness high standards of cleaning and hygiene when visiting a restaurant. A mere glimpse of a dirty tablecloth, a grimy plate or food scraps on the floor will be sufficient to provoke a reaction and make us feel squeamish.
Similarly, if we were to witness a member of the kitchen staff wiping their face, scratching their nose or playing with their hair before preparing our meal, we would probably question the hygiene standards of the restaurant in general.
The same principle applies to the washroom. When visiting a restaurant toilet, we will be silently judging the ethos of the entire establishment on factors such as fingerprints on the dispensers, puddles on the floor and dirty walls.
Maintaining high standards in the restaurant washroom is more important than we might think. In a recent Essity study, it emerged that 50% of respondents keep track of public locations – including businesses – where they have had a poor washroom experience. The study also revealed that 73% of people claim that a negative experience could affect their willingness to return.
A second study of 3,000 people from six European countries uncovered the fact that 55% of diners consider clean and sanitary washrooms to be of major importance when dining out.
More than 80% said they believed a dirty restaurant washroom to be a likely reflection on standards in the kitchen. 25% were actually willing to walk out of an establishment where they had encountered a dirty washroom. So, it is vital that all restaurant washrooms are kept clean and hygienic and are pleasant to use at all times.
This can be difficult to achieve without the intrusive presence of a cleaner during service hours. However, the right choice of décor and washroom systems will go a long way towards helping to keep the premises clean.
Automatic taps and touch-free dispensers will minimise the problem of fingerprints on the fixtures, for example. Continuous flooring and wall coverings will be easier to wipe clean than tiles with grout lines. Also, automatic lighting will prevent the problem of unsightly smears on the light switches.
It can be hard to keep the floors of a restaurant washroom clean – particularly if they have been allowed to become wet. This can occur when air dryers are installed because these can create puddles on the floor when they blow water away from the hands. If visitors then tramp this water around the washroom, it will result in dirty footprints on the floor.
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Hand towels are a good alternative because they will eliminate the issue of water on the floor. However, in some restaurants these are supplied in a loose pile stacked up on the units – a situation that will lead to its own problems.
Whenever a washroom user picks up a hand towel to dry their hands, he or she will inevitably drip water on to the other towels in the pile. This will create a soggy mess while rendering the towels beneath unusable.
A smart dispensing system will create a good impression while also protecting the towels before use. For example, Tork Image Design Line units combine brushed stainless steel and a black trim in a slimline housing to create an upmarket effect. The dispensers also give out towels one at a time to control consumption and avoid creating an unsightly mess on the sink units.
Run-outs of soap and paper should be avoided at all costs because this will inevitably make a bad impression on the diner. In a busy restaurant, a high-capacity hand towel dispenser is a good solution because this will prevent run- outs and reduce the need for multiple refill checks.
The Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser caters for over 1,000 washroom visitors between refills – 600 more than most other dispensers. The towels are divided into bundles and a new bundle may be inserted into the unit at any time. The dispenser has also been designed to give out sheets of paper singly to avoid excess use.
Soap should always be available in a restaurant washroom to ensure optimum hand hygiene. Managers may choose to supply high quality liquid soaps in free-standing dispensers to create a good impression, and these work well provided the units are drip-free and that pilferage is unlikely to be an issue.
Otherwise, a sealed soap cartridge that can be clipped into place inside an enclosed dispenser will avoid any soapy spills on the sinks and ensure a long-lasting supply. For example, Tork Foam Soap comes in a non-drip cartridge that serves up to 1,650 users.
The toilet paper supply should also be continuous and seamless in a restaurant washroom. The Tork SmartOne Toilet Paper Dispenser works well because it is a lockable system designed to give out paper one sheet at a time. This helps to control consumption while also preventing the issue of loose toilet rolls or unravelled lengths of tissue littering the floor. The Tork SmartOne Twin Mini Toilet Roll System also helps to prevent run-outs because a new roll can be inserted at any time to suit the cleaner and ensure a continuous supply.
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