Commercial kitchen planning: health and safety issues in kitchen workflow design

Commercial kitchen planning involves the design of correct workflows to support operations in a professional kitchen.

With the design of commercial kitchen appliances focusing more and more on health and safety, it is time to look at commercial kitchen planning as another way of achieving adequate safety for workers and of protecting the health of customers.

Commercial kitchen planning involves space design. You will decide the layout of the kitchen spaces, how you will arrange appliances, set up spaces and implement procedures. Most planners only consider taste and quality of food and the economics, but when designing the workflow in a commercial kitchen, you need in-depth knowledge of kitchen appliances and of the processes that involve people and materials.

To ensure safety you should:

• Allow enough room for each and every process, especially during food preparation when personnel comes into contact with knives and other sharp kitchen utensils, glass, hand-operated electrical devices, hot liquids.
• Consider the ‘actions-appliances-space’ combination: interaction should be as smooth as possible since any “unnatural” movement by workers raises the risk of accidents and injuries.

To ensure health you should:

• Leave enough space for thorough cleaning.
• Keep hazardous areas separated: most cross-contamination occurs through avoidable contact between food and contaminating agents
• Keep food safety appliances at the center of the flow: blast chiller and freezers are central to food preservation. Their placement should be friendly to the flow and foster economy of movement.

A performance-oriented approach to commercial kitchen planning means to clearly plan all actions workers need to do, and helps you reduce unnecessary foot traffic and straining. What are the implications in a health and safety perspective?

Safety:

• Working in a standing position on a regular basis can cause health problems to the personnel. Should you consider areas in the kitchen or nearby where people can relax and “de-stress”?
• Reducing foot traffic means to increase the repetitiveness of interactions between a single employee and specific appliances. By choosing the most appropriate appliances and equipment and arranging them correctly, the workflow will be efficient.

Health:

• Limiting foot traffic means having all needed materials within reach without affecting the ability to perform basic tasks, avoiding surface contamination.
• The configuration of each workstation should consider the actions involved in preparing/cooking food, but also the ones involving food preservation: the placement of chilling or freezing appliances should be friendly to the flow.

Connected appliances, that are specifically designed to enhance food safety and ergonomics can save you time, space and issues. With our extensive experience in the market, we can provide a complete business solution for restaurants, supporting your requested kitchen workflow design with a wide range of products and a broad knowledge of kitchen-related issues.