Your restaurant’s refrigerator is one of the driving life forces of your restaurant. Without it, your life would probably be in shambles! Keeping your refrigerator clean is and should be an important part of your weekly, and maybe even daily, maintenance activities. Over time, food stored in containers is going to spoil and you want to avoid having to thoroughly examine your fridge to find the mystery source of that awful smell. Below are some steps to take when cleaning and organizing your restaurant’s refrigerator:
Steps:
1. Unplug Refrigeration Units
You want to eliminate any possibility of electrocuting yourself when cleaning your fridge.
2. Empty Shelves of All Items
Remove all items from every shelf in your fridge and don’t just move the containers to one side. This makes it much easier to thoroughly clean the shelves.
3. Throw Away Expired Food
If you think a food item in the fridge is expired or spoiled, throw it away! You don’t want to risk the health of your customers. Jars and cans that are already opened should be thrown away if the date they expire is not clearly labeled.
4. Wipe Down Interior of Refrigerator
Use a sponge and warm, soapy water to clean the inside of your refrigerator. Don’t just wipe down the shelves, but also the sides the refrigerator. If you’re having trouble getting rid of dirt in the corners or tough to reach spots of the refrigerator, use a toothbrush to scrub it away.
5. Disinfect
Use sanitizer to disinfect the surfaces of the refrigerator because bacteria and mold are notorious for growing in a fridge over time.
6. Vacuum
Vacuum the condenser and coils of the refrigerator because they get clogged with dust and debris. The accumulation of dust and debris can also cause your refrigerator to use more energy to work harder than normal to run. Brush the coils and fan and then use the vacuum to suck up the dust.
7. Clean Exterior
You should clean the top and the bottom of your refrigerator. Mop underneath and dust on top of your fridge because keeping the fridge’s exterior clean is just as important as keeping the interior clean!
8. Restock Shelves
Use proper food placement procedures to load your food back in once you’ve finished cleaning. Rule of thumb when stocking a refrigerator is to place “ready-to-eat-foods” and condiments on the top shelf for easy access. Seafood and meats should follow on the lower shelves.
Keeping your refrigerator clean is a necessary evil when running your restaurant and keeping up with proper maintenance. You don’t want your customers to get sick, and you want to have the reputation of a clean restaurant with tasty food!