Behind the scenes in the kitchen, chefs will be handling the ingredients and dressing diners’ plates by hand. Here, too, direct hand contact with the foodstuffs can be kept to a minimum by wearing gloves and by using utensils as far as possible.
There are now various touch-free kitchen aids on the market to reduce hand contact when preparing food. These include an automated frying arm called Flippy and a robot named Picnic that is designed for topping pizzas.
But some hand contact between chefs and foodstuffs is inevitable which means frequent hand washing and regular sanitising needs to be practised. And hand washing is also important for the diner who will be consuming the finished product.
So good hand hygiene facilities need to be made available to customers and staff at all times.
The choice of soap is important for kitchen workers since they will be washing their hands frequently to minimise the cross-contamination risks and to remove pungent smells from their skin. Tork offers a range of soaps expressly designed for kitchen staff.
Tork Odour-Control has been designed to eliminate pungent food smells such as fish and garlic while also being kind to the hands, even with frequent use. And Tork Antimicrobial Hand Washing Liquid Soap has a gentle action while also being highly effective against viruses and bacteria including Covid-19, SARS and HIV.
Diners will need to visit the washrooms to clean their own hands, but these facilities in themselves pose infection risks. Diners will be coming into contact with taps, door handles and washroom dispensers – all of which will have been touched by other customers before them.
Some toilet paper dispensers such as jumbo toilet rolls oblige the washroom user to insert a hand inside the
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cross-contamination risks. The Tork SmartOne is a good alternative because it gives out one sheet of paper at a time from a nozzle at the front, removing the need for the user to insert a hand inside to access the paper.
The Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser also minimises hand contact because it gives out towels one at a time to ensure that each customer only touches the paper they use. Paper towels can also act as a barrier between the hands and fixtures such as taps and door handles.
Restaurant owners can further help to improve customer safety by designing and equipping washrooms that minimise the level of hand contact required. Automatic taps and sensor-operated flush systems will help to keep customers safe, for example, while partitions in place of outer doors will prevent the issue of contaminated door handles.
Reducing the amount of hand contact we have with food, tableware and other restaurant surfaces makes good sense during the flu season - and “touch-free” systems appear to be catching on.
According to a report from Square for Restaurant, 35% of restaurants have recently invested in kitchen automation technology while a further 41% plan to do so soon. One in four consumers consider contactless technology to be critical to their dining experience.
So restaurants should do their best to make customers feel safe from cross-contamination by reducing the need for hand contact, and by providing hygienic and touch-free systems in the restaurant and the washroom.
dispenser to find the end of the roll, and this poses obvious
www.tork.co.uk/restaurantworkflow TOMORROW’S FM | 33
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