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Avoiding Chemical Contamination in a Commercial Kitchen

January 13, 2025
Avoiding Chemical Contamination in a Commercial Kitchen
Food Handler Certification Category Blog

Now more than ever, it’s important to be diligent when it comes to securing your commercial kitchen from potential chemical contamination. Generally speaking, the chemicals in question are for cleaning and sanitizing. While sanitation is an important step to keeping your kitchen safe, it can also lead to potential health issues if those chemicals are not properly checked and contained. For this post, we look at a few ways you can minimize the risk of possible chemical contamination in a commercial kitchen

Proper Chemical Storage is Essential

It’s important to keep a clean commercial kitchen. It’s every bit as important to make sure that once your kitchen is clean those cleaning supplies and solutions are properly secured. The idea here is to make sure that those chemicals are stored away from food items so as to avoid accidental spills or slow, often difficult to detect, leaks.

Know Your Labels

For the most part, cleaning supply manufacturers have their own labels. It is highly recommended that those chemicals remain in their provided containers. However, if a solution is made in house, it should also be properly labeled so that it’s not mistaken for something else and then inadvertently left around. Your cooking and/or cleaning staff should be overly familiar with what is in each and every cleaning supply bottle or container as well as their purpose and use requirements.

Rinse All Surfaces

After a full day of preparing meals, it’s time for a thorough cleaning of your commercial kitchen. All food should be removed or expertly covered and distanced from a surface or item that is being cleaned. This is, or should be, a daily part of your staff’s routine. 

One easy way to keep potential contamination at bay is to make sure that a surface is thoroughly cleaned and then rinsed with water. This helps to ensure that no chemical residue remains on that surface or on those necessary cooking items.

Be Sure to Ventilate

It’s an often-overlooked rule of thumb, but proper ventilation is essential. Make sure that the kitchen and the chemical storage areas are well-ventilated. This helps to prevent the potential buildup of chemical fumes. Fume hoods and exhaust fans are excellent tools when it comes to reducing one’s exposure to potentially toxic gasses or vapors. 

Proper Training Goes a Long Way

Your cooking and/or cleaning staff should be well-trained when it comes to the introduction or usage of any chemical agent in and around your commercial kitchen. Cross-contamination awareness is critical. After all, the threat of contamination begins and ends with the individual. 

Make sure that every employee that works in your commercial kitchen area is thoroughly educated when it comes to the presence of these chemicals. They should know what each solution is, how those solutions are to be used and then how they should be safely stored away. 

Sure, one can presume that people know and understand the issue but don’t leave it to presumption.  The reputation of your restaurant and health of your patrons are both on the line. A little more follow-through on these simple safety procedures can go a long way when it comes to keeping your commercial kitchen clean and free of chemical contamination. 

Most states require proper food handler training with many of them touching on how to avoid chemical contamination in a commercial kitchen. American Course Academy offers several food handler certificates including food handler training in Texas as well as Utah food handler training.

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