| By :
Alison Withers
Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers Thorough daily cleaning is important in a commercial kitchen but a thorough annual deep clean is still recommended to deal with the build-up of dirt and grease in hard to reach areas. For the more stubborn deposit steam cleaning is a very effective part of such a programme. Some commercial cleaning companies offer steam cleaning as part of its kitchen deep cleaning service, but if Restaurant and hotel managers are considering using such services it makes sense to ensure that the company has good health and safety practices in place. While as far as possible most catering services will want the annual clean to be carried out without disrupting the daily work flow they still need to ensure that during the process their own staff are not put at undue risk. The issues that need to be checked is revealed in a case study from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE closed down a commercial cleaning company after discovering that its equipment was less than satisfactory. Its inspection found evidence of faulty wiring that could deliver a shock through the equipemnt's metal parts, corrosion and buckled safety bars. It advises that flexible cables should be routed away from the work area, and not across paths where they might get caught and pulled, or run over and damaged. The same applies to any extension cable to be used. There should also be a residual current device (RCD), or an earth monitoring device in the electrical supply to the cleaner to detect dangerous failures and cut off the supply. Regular checks should be made for any signs of damage to the plug, splits or cuts in the cable sheath, or any slippage of the cable in the cable grip at either end. It should not be possible to see the brown, blue or green and yellow coloured wires inside. Checks should also be made for loos or broken covers over electrical parts. They could result in a shock if water gets into the wrong parts of the cleaner. While ensuring its own equipment is in proper safe working order is the responsibility of the company it does no harm to ensure that it has a good risk management and maintenance programme in place. If the company is to carry out cleaning using steam in a busy working environment the contracting company will want to be sure that its own employees will not be put at risk of tripping as a result of trailing wires, shocks (water and electricity do not mix!) and scalding because of the high temperature of the steam, especially when the equipment is delivering a high pressure jet of steam. There is nothing wrong with asking to see evidence of risk assessment and management and of regular equipment maintenance before awarding a contract to a commercial cleaning company. If everything is in order there are several benefits from a steam clean. It is particularly effective to thoroughly clean the grease and dirt build-up on floors and walls and around the feet of work tables, cookers and other equipment. Steam penetrates deep into flooring so that the heat and pressure extracts as much grease as possible and it leaves floors almost dry.
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