Your commercial kitchen has to be spotless and clean to provide a safe environment for your employees and your customers. The majority of your kitchen equipment will be made from stainless steel. This material is ideal for commercial kitchens as it is easy to clean, durable, and resistant to lots of bacteria. However, if not cleaned regularly, your stainless steel equipment will become corroded, and unsafe to use.
It is important to know how to clean kitchen tools and equipment in the most effective and efficient ways, to ensure you are following health and safety regulations. EJ Ultrasonics are here to provide you with their expertise on how to clean your stainless-steel foodservice equipment including the best ways to clean stainless-steel cutlery.
We will outline the best traditional methods to get your foodservice equipment looking brand new, as well as discuss a much more energy-efficient way that may surprise you.
The best way to clean stainless steel cutlery
No customer wants to sit down for a meal, then reach over to their cutlery to see smudges, water marks or other specs of dirt and grime. If your commercial kitchen doesn’t have a commercial dishwasher, then you are most likely cleaning your cutlery by hand. To ensure that your stainless-steel cutlery is spotless, it is vital to follow these methods.
1. Clean in hot water and washing up liquid
Firstly, fill your sink with hot water and add washing up liquid, or a mild detergent, and place the cutlery and other stainless-steel equipment in the sink. The hot water and soap will help remove any excess food, but you will then have to scrub the cutlery yourself to ensure all excess food is removed. Wipe off the excess food with a damp cloth to prevent scratching the chromium layer. It is important to remove the excess food quickly, as the acids and salts from the food will gradually damage the cutlery.
2. Wipe and dry with a non-abrasive cloth
After removing the excess food, leave your cutlery to drain for a couple of minutes, but try not to leave it wet for too long, as corrosion occurs when stainless steel reacts with oxygen and moisture. Therefore, drying your equipment is essential to keep it properly maintained and free from corrosion.
How to clean kitchen tools and equipment via other methods
The traditional method of using hot water and detergent does work to remove the majority of excess food and other contaminants from your stainless-steel equipment. However, the equipment can become greasy, and remnants of grease can still linger even after cleaning in detergent and hot water.
One of the best ways to clean stainless steel cutlery that is contaminated with grease is by using baking soda. Hot water and baking soda are the perfect combination for removing grease and almost every other contaminant from your food service equipment. Many use this method at home, but it works just as well in a commercial kitchen.
The first step is to fill a sink with hot water. Next, place your cutlery in the sink and then pour in baking soda and about 4 tbsp of white vinegar. The reaction of the three ingredients will take place, and will foam, removing all the grease and grime. Let your utensils soak in the sink for a few minutes and then drain your sink.
Now rinse with hot water and detergent wiping any excess solution off the utensils. All you will need to do finally is rinse with cold water and immediately dry with a non-abrasive cloth.
The benefits of an ultrasonic cleaner
Traditional methods always work but they can take up a great amount of time and effort from employees, where their efforts could be utilised in other ways. That is why our ultrasonic cleaners are one of the best alternative methods to clean your stainless-steel equipment. For precision cleaning, there is no better route to take than purchasing an automated ultrasonic cleaner which runs at a very low cost and is designed to have a smooth and continuous cleaning process, with little need for maintenance.
For a cleaner that can manage multiple stages of cleaning and can be used in an industrial setting, then a multi-stage ultrasonic cleaner is ideal for those looking for a fully automated system where parts and utensils can be moved between cleaning stages automatically.
Both of these options are more energy efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly, only using water, a mild detergent, and high-frequency sound waves to remove contaminants from your stainless-steel equipment.
Get in touch with our team at EJ Ultrasonics to know more about our ultrasonic services and the best ways to clean your stainless steel equipment in efficient and cost-effective ways.
