Redesigning a Commercial Kitchen Workspace to Improve Productivity and Health and Safety
Posted on: 6 July 2020
Your kitchen staff must carry out many sequential processes with high efficiency in your commercial kitchen. But if they're instead creating traffic bottlenecks in front of kitchen appliances, a redesign of your kitchen space can make the difference between delivering food hot or cold to your patrons.
The following workspace design and kitchen appliance placement concepts can improve your commercial kitchen's workflow and health and safety.
1. Appliance Placement and Traffic Flow
If your kitchen staff is always bumping into each other, appliance placement can improve productivity and safe food handling practices in your kitchen. The placement of appliances has the most impact on how kitchen staff moves throughout the space.
While the chef and assistants will mostly command the stove and oven station, all staff access the commercial freezer and refrigerator. And it's where traffic congestion is the highest. You can minimize traffic congestion and the cross-contamination of foods by placing:
- fresh food prep stations across from the freezers and refrigerators
- cooked food prep stations across from the oven and cooking area.
2. Workspace and Kitchen Appliance Size
The rule of thumb for commercial kitchen size is five feet for every seat in the dining room. Within the kitchen, the appliance-to-workspace ratio should also be considered. Larger appliances properly laid out can accommodate a smoother workflow. For example, a large three-door refrigerator or horizontally spaced cooking range can significantly improve workflow.
The new three-door fridge models are designed to save space by stacking compartments lengthwise, but they are not the most practical in a busy kitchen. In contrast, many used stainless steel three door commercial freezers and fridges lay doors side by side. These older models allow multiple person access at the same time.
3. Compartmentalization to Avoid Contamination
Making more space for larger and separated commercial kitchen appliances improves food preparation health and safety in several ways. By keeping the commercial freezer and fridge separate, you can avoid meat juices from the freezer dripping onto fresh food. Within the fridge, separate compartments further reduce food contamination risk. Similarly, meat juices from the range will not drip onto an oven placed beside instead of below the range.
Additionally, a three-door commercial fridge allows foods to be separated into more separate zones. You can improve cooling and retention by opening doors for the food as needed. Plus, odors do not spread among foods.
If you opt for a stainless steel three door freezer, fridge, or cooking range, you have the added protection of a non-porous material that prevents contamination. Since stainless does not absorb bacteria, it's the safe choice for your redesigned commercial kitchen. Learn more by contacting used stainless steel three-door commercial freezer suppliers.
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