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Ingot have been awarded the contract for the Cleaning, Maintenance and Testing of the Extract Systems for all the Schools and Social Care Sites under Coventry City Council.
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Use a Commercial Cleaning Company: Ensure you Meet Your Health and Safety Requirements
Ingot Services is a Suffolk-based commercial cleaning company who provide a full range of kitchen cleaning services to customers throughout the UK including kitchen extract cleaning, deep cleaning, duct cleaning and industrial oven and equipment cleaning. We have more than 24 years experience as a commercial cleaning company, and work for schools, local authorities, restaurants, hotels and various other businesses.
Without the benefit of a commercial cleaning company, businesses can put themselves at risk of breaching health and safety laws. A kitchen which is not cleaned thoroughly enough, with deep cleaning, grease extract cleaning and air duct cleaning can lead to a host of problems such as low standards of hygiene, fires and poor air quality. This puts the business at risk from fines, invalid insurance, damage to reputation, poor health of staff or customers and in the worst case, closure.
Our commercial cleaning services will assist businesses in meeting their health and safety and hygiene obligations, by keeping kitchens spotless, healthy and safe. We will also provide business owners with the paperwork needed to satisfy insurance companies, should they ever need to claim.
Commercial Cleaning Services – click here for more information on the services we offer.
This article provides an overview of health and safety and hygiene laws affecting commercial kitchens.
Health and Safety Law in Commercial Kitchens
Employers have a duty of care to protect the health and safety of their workforce and customers. This is particularly important in a commercial kitchen, where there are many potential risks to both the people who work there as well as those who enjoy the food it produces.
Health and safety law in a commercial kitchen works to prevent fires, illness and accidents. Key safety aspects it addresses are the prevention of cuts, falls, burns and muscular skeletal injuries, minimising the risk of employee health problems as a result of poor ventilation and the prevention of fires.
Separate laws enforce hygiene in the commercial kitchen to prevent illnesses such as Salmonella, Campylobactor, E-Coli, Hepatitis A and Clostridium Botulinum, which can affect either staff or the general public. Breach of these can result in enforcement notices being served which may lead to a conviction and a hefty fine.
Preventing Accidents
A report created by the HSE in 2008/9 revealed 4.7 million working days were lost as a result of employees affected by a workplace injury. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employees to do all they can to provide a safe system of work and operate a safe working environment.
Employees may need to carry out a risk assessment to identify and correct or minimise the risks in order to keep staff safe and free of injury. This can include keeping floors and corridors clear to prevent trips and falls, keeping floors clean, dry and well-maintained, correct manual handling of heavy items to prevent muscular skeletal injury, careful handling of equipment and kitchen utensils (such as sharp knives) and taking extreme care when in close proximity to hot or harmful substances.
Maintaining Air Quality
Regulations such as Regulation 6 of the Management of Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992 require enclosed workspaces to be ventilated by a sufficient quantity of fresh and purified air.
It is the employer's responsibility to protect health of their staff by ensuring that the kitchen is well ventilated.
Ingot Services' duct cleaning service will make sure businesses maintain good air quality, by removing dust, dirt and grime which can clog the filters and stop the equipment working. Air duct cleaning also removes contaminants such as viruses, bacteria and mould which breed in air ducts, helping to prevent the spread of airborne infections.
Preventing Fires
The regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which came into effect in 2006, requires owners or employers to actively pursue and maintain fire safety and also take responsibility for staff and visitors.
Companies must carry out a fire risk safety assessment to identify any potential fire risks and hazards. They must eradicate or reduce the fire risk as far as reasonably practical and provide fire precautions.
It is vital in a commercial kitchen to have regular cleaning to prevent the build-up of combustible materials such as grease, oil, fat and grime in the grease extract system, in and around cookers and other hard to reach places where dirt accumulates.
Ingot can help a company meet its requirements with its kitchen extract cleaning service. This involves a thorough clean of the grease extract system (which consists of canopies, fans and ducts) to ensure health and safety standards are met.
Hygiene in the Commercial Kitchen
The Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene Regulations) 1995 state that all food premises must be kept spotless and sanitary, free of rubbish and all types of infestations such as cockroaches, rats and mice. It also states that all equipment must be kept clean and properly maintained.
Ingot can help a company meet their legal requirements with a deep clean service where we clean every nook and cranny in a customer's kitchen from top to bottom including walls, floors, ceilings and those hard to reach places such as underneath cookers around the seals of fridges. Equipment is also stripped back, sanitised and put back together again.
Hygiene laws also address the safe handling of raw and cooked food to avoid cross contamination, the safe storage of food, correct personal hygiene of staff, the sufficient provision of hand washing facilities in commercial kitchens and food preparation areas, smoking regulations and how staff illnesses should be dealt with.
About Ingot
Ingot Services work throughout the UK including London, Brighton, Newcastle, Coventry, Norfolk, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Wolverhampton, Ipswich, Suffolk, Essex, Newcastle, Birmingham, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Leicester and Southampton.
To ensure your workplace complies with health and safety regulations, contact us for a fast, efficient and reliable service. We provide excellent response times, highly competitive prices – and will always aim to match any quote you have received.
Call us now for a free quotation on 0800 731 7892.
