Commercial kitchens and food preparation facilities can be incredibly hot places. This week, we thought we’d take a break from discussing food-borne illness prevention to offer advice for certified food managers to keep their kitchen employees safe and healthy in hot weather.
MN Certified Food Managers Guide to Beating the Heat During The Hot Summer Weather
Our first advice is to ensure that your ventilation system is functioning properly. We suggest that certified food managers inspect it once a year to ensure that nothing is clogging the vents and that the fans are all in good working order. Cleaning your system’s filters often is another easy way to keep it running efficiently. Many commercial vent systems have easily removable filters that can be cleaned by thorough scrubbing and a trip through your industrial dishwasher.
Next, we’d like to give you three tips with regard to your staff that will help keep them happy and healthy in a hot kitchen.
- Hydrate frequently
- Don’t overcrowd your production line
- Make sure breaks are taken away from the kitchen
On a busy day, getting adequate fluids into your staff may be hard, but it is vitally important. Strongly suggest to your employees that they drink only water. Beverages filled with sugar and caffeine can have an adverse effect as they may dehydrate rather than give the body the water it needs to stave off heat exhaustion.
Certified food managers should reevaluate staffing during especially hot weather. If multiple employees are working on the same line, assessing how many are necessary may be a good idea. Working in close quarters may raise staff members’ body temperatures, and they will dehydrate faster.
If you can’t take the heat…
Finally, the old adage, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen,” may contain a hidden nugget of advice. If any of your employees exhibit signs that the heat affects their performance or physical state, get them out of the production area. Making an ailing staff member stick it out until his normally scheduled break time may lead to heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. Make sure they get to a cool area and drink plenty of water.
Our tips aren’t the only way to stay cool under intense circumstances. We’d like your tips and procedures for keeping your staff comfortable in the kitchen. Do you have any advice that we missed that other MN-certified food managers should be aware of during hot summer weather?
