Your commercial refrigerator is one of the hardest-working appliances your business will have. There’s no disrupting this. If you rely on your refrigerator, then you will appreciate the work it does and the benefits it offers your household.
Whether you’re running a restaurant, cafe, ice cream shop, or convenience store, your refrigerator is more than just a piece of equipment. It directly impacts your sales, food safety, and the quality of your products. Understanding its importance will motivate you to maintain it properly.
And while it’s highly likely you have the rules in place for how to ensure you don’t affect the functionality of this integral appliance, it’s also important to know what not to do and why. Sharing these commercial refrigerator safety tips with everyone who uses or accesses your refrigerator will help ensure it continues to operate efficiently and safely.
Here Are the 5 Commercial Refrigerator Safety Tips:
1. No Leaving Doors Open
Pretty simple, but it’s often one of the most frequently flaunted mistakes in the workplace. Especially if you’re loading and unloading it; that act of opening the door with your hands can be tricky if you’re carrying something, and sometimes people leave the door open for this reason or simply because they’re too lazy to close it properly.
And while it might seem harmless for a few minutes, leaving the door open increases the temperature, which can impact the quality and safety of anything stored in it. It also significantly increases energy usage and puts unnecessary strain on the system, potentially leading to a shorter lifespan for your refrigerator.
2. No Overloading
Overloading the shelves means that they don’t have the space to circulate cool air properly, leading to uneven internal temperatures. This can lead to food safety issues as US food safety guidelines require products to be kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Overloading means this won’t be possible due to blocked vents or no room for airflow. So always leave space in between products to allow for adequate flow around the entire refrigerator.
3. No Ignoring Unusual Sounds
This isn’t your car, where you turn the radio up to ignore dodgy sounds that sound expensive. With your commercial refrigerator, you need to address any changes in functionality immediately to avoid additional damage or food safety concerns. Suppose your unit starts rattling, humming, buzzing, or making any other sounds. You need to book a walk in cooler repair to identify the problem and get it fixed immediately. The last thing you want is to make your customers ill due to your unit not being able to store products at safe temperatures or spoiling thousands of dollars’ worth of stock due to neglecting repairs.
4. No Hot Food
Again, common sense, but do not put hot food in your refrigerator to cool down, whether it’s your store’s drinks fridge or your restaurant’s walk-in cooler for ingredients. Do not add anything hot to your appliance, as this raises the internal temperature and can impact the legal standard of keeping food chilled correctly.
5. Not Cleaning Coils
Neglecting to clean the condenser coils is a costly mistake. For commercial kitchens, this is one of the key commercial refrigerator safety tips to remember. Dirty condenser coils cause your refrigerator to work harder, increase wear and tear, and energy usage too. And in commercial kitchens where grease and dust can build up quickly, you need to be proactive in cleaning the build at least every 3 months for maximum efficiency.
