Have you ever thought about how a pest infestation might affect your restaurant’s operations? Pests can carry pathogens that cause diseases, which would contaminate equipment, utensils and food. This would not only compromise the cleanliness of your restaurant, but also the health of your customers, as well as employees. Whether you’re the owner, manager or a food handler in the business, maintaining a healthy commercial kitchen and food safety practices are essential for effective pest control.
In this article, we share some tips on how you can keep pests out of your kitchen.
1. Eliminate food sources
Besides shelter and breeding grounds, food and water sources are a key driving factor that lead to pest invasions. As such, restaurants are a beacon for these critters due to the easy access to food. Cockroaches and rodents, in particular, are omnivores – meaning they eat most things. Proper food storage will protect your dry goods, condiments, and other items outside the refrigerator and freezer from not only being consumed by these pests, but also from attracting more. Make sure to safely store all possible food sources in containers that are kept off the floor and 16 inches away from the nearest wall, in shelving units.
Most pests can survive for up to a month without food, but only a few weeks or days without water. Oftentimes, amidst the fast-paced world of the food and beverage business, it may be easy to overlook leaking faucets, sinks, refrigerators, or appliances. However, these water sources would pose a major attractant left unchecked.
2. Clean regularly
In order to keep pests away from your commercial kitchen, you will want to make sure that you do not attract them in the first place. This would mean creating a pest-proof daily cleaning plan to ensure your restaurant and kitchen are as clean as possible. Your daily cleaning routine should include;
- Sweeping and mopping the floors of the kitchen and dining area
- Cleaning the stove, oven, fryers, grease traps, and filter inside the dishwasher
- Cleaning and sanitising the equipment as well as utensils in each cooking preparation station (E.g., cutting boards, sinks, meat slicers, faucets, etc.)
- Wiping down the menus, condiment dispensers, tables, and chairs throughout the day
- Throwing the rubbish daily
3. Practice FIFO
First In, First Out (FIFO) strategy implies that inventory items stocked first would move out first. This would include putting items with a sooner best before date at the front, while placing items with the further dates at the back or removing them entirely when damaged with bite marks, holes or tears. In most cases, a cockroach invasion first begins with their eggs being found in pre-packed dry produce. Since most of the eggs would take 4 to 6 weeks to hatch, daily inspections would allow you to notice an infestation early on. Store all opened dried food such as flour, cereal and other dried goods in containers with tightly fitting lids to help prevent stored product pests from getting in and to help contain any infestations that do occur. Throwing out fruits or vegetables that are old and bruised will keep fruit flies away.
4. Seal entry points
Rodents are excellent climbers, with the ability to scale your building to enter attics or roofs as well as squeeze through extremely small openings. Make sure to properly seal all holes, cracks, fissures and crevices using caulk or another sealant. This would also reduce the easy migration of ants and cockroaches between any other adjoining units. Installing metal covers over pipes and drains as well as door sweeps in available gaps are the perfect deterrent to these pests. Keep doors and windows closed as much as possible to help prevent fly entry. Instead of propping doors or unscreened windows open, install self-closing doors or windows.
For more information on food safety practices and general requirements of the hospitality industry in Australia, visit the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website.
If you’re looking for commercial pest control in Melbourne, Positive Pest Solutions can help your business avoid serious damage to not only your premises, but also your reputation. Providing quality pest maintenance services, our team stays up-to-date with the latest restaurant pest control practices to ensure your complete peace of mind. Get in touch with our friendly and reliable team and find out more about how we can help you today!
