FEW TIPS FOR THE HYGIENE CHECKLIST FOR RESTAURANTS

A restaurant whether big or small needs to keep hygiene checklist. A proper hygiene checklist not only helps with authorities but also helps one to find favor in the eyes of customers. A proper implementation of hygiene aspects of checklist helps to maintain quality of service, good brand image and credibility. A proper implemented hygiene checklist keeps staff, managers, auditors and customers happy. Paying attention to hygiene will help restaurants to stay on top of their game for a very long time. 

Here are few simple tips I would like to share on hygiene maintenance whether it is small or big restaurants.

Staff Hygiene:
· Clean clothing (uniforms are highly encouraged), masks, proper gloves, hair nets for the staffs should be provided. It’s best to limit employees wearing jewelries like necklace, bracelets, earrings etc. However, plain wedding bands are allowed.
· Good personal hygiene aspects like proper and frequent hand washing, trimmed nails, regular change of soiled clothes and gloves and their monitoring can help a lot in maintaining staff hygiene.

Equipment Sanitization:
· Train your staffs to clean and sanitize the equipment periodically. It will not only help to ensure safety and quality of food but also the equipment will be working with maximum efficiency when there is not build up.
· Wash preparation and lining areas. Clean equipment inside and outside regularly clean trash cans. Change sponges, brushes, mops or any cleaning materials and detergents periodically and keep it away from food handling areas.

Make a Hygiene Checklist:
· It can be a sheet of paper for whole restaurant if it small or couple of list for each area if it is big restaurant. Make sure it is in local language or official language of the country whichever is more applicable to your restaurant staff. You would not want a checklist only half of your staff understands.

· It is suggested to use tick boxes list with some space for notes when non-conformities occur. Some basic parameters found in checklist are date, time, area name of the personnel who conducted the check, name of the person who verified. The checklist is simple way of what, when, how something should be done in simplest possible way.