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Read more5 Tips to Keep School Kitchen Cooking Equipment Clean
By Vulcan Equipment
Kitchen cooking equipment in K-12 schools is subject to A LOT of wear and tear. You’re already off to a great start if you’re working with durable and efficient Vulcan equipment, including tilt skillets, braising pans, combi ovens, convection ovens, griddles, flat top grills, steamers, kettles, and range stovetops. High-quality stainless steel exteriors and components, embossed markings, simple cool-to-touch control panels and removable burners are intentional features that school kitchen staff find lasts for years of reliable operation.
However, there’s something else you can do to protect your kitchen equipment investment: Commit to proper care and cleaning. To that end, we’ve prepared this handy guide to cleaning your school cooking equipment.
BEST PRACTICES FOR CARE AND CLEANING SCHOOL COOKING EQUIPMENT
Frequency Matters
One of the most important rules of thumb for maintaining your cooking equipment is developing a continuous cleaning process. Adopting a proactive daily approach to cleaning prevents build-up from spillovers and food debris over time. This not only makes cleaning easier, but also facilitates optimal performance while reducing the risk of deferred and potentially costly maintenance needs.
Sanitize Second
And then there’s the safety aspect. Cleaning is a prerequisite to sanitizing food-contact surfaces. Heavy soils can decrease the efficacy of sanitizing chemicals. Governed by local health departments, school kitchens must adhere to the same guidelines as all restaurants and cooking establishments. Keeping up with effective routine cleaning every meal shift ensures compliance.
Think Wash, Not Scrape
The best part? Cleaning commercial cooking equipment is a simple process if done regularly. All it takes is softened water, a chloride-free detergent, and pressure—either from water spray or scrubbing with a cloth or sponge.
Avoid using abrasives like steel pads, wire brushes or scrapers, which can damage surfaces.
No Standing Water
Also, be sure to wipe off all standing water to mitigate unintentional chlorine exposure, mechanical abrasion, and hard water deposit build-up. These things can cause rust and corrosion—even to stainless steel.
All Hands On Deck
Finally, establish clear expectations for cleaning your commercial cooking equipment to make sure all members of your kitchen team are on the same page.
CLEANING + TRAINING = PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE
Cleaning and care of kitchen equipment truly starts at installation. Important details such as leveling surfaces, or completing a burn-off procedure help prevent food and grease from building up more quickly than is reasonable.
Even though schools often have dedicated maintenance staff capable of replacing existing equipment, we partnered with Hobart Service to provide you peace of mind with our Free New Equipment Checkout Program for newly installed Vulcan appliances at no additional cost. Yep, Free. Schools also benefit from the warranty period reset to start on the day of the Checkout. The appointment gives school maintenance staff assurance that technical power or fuel connection requirements are met, provides in-person training as a head start for preventative maintenance, and answers staff questions about cooking from the professional contacts who will be ready when service support is eventually needed.
Kitchen staff additionally prevent costly repairs or service issues by following cleaning best practices detailed in manufacturer operation manuals. For the convenience of the operator, Vulcan has started producing video instructions demonstrating the operation manual documentation. The videos are easily found on the Vulcan YouTube channel or per category in the Product Resources on vulcanequipment.com.
In general, training staff that basic cleaning practices can ease each cleaning session for every operator on any piece of equipment. It's easy to prevent buildup by wiping up spills and splatters as soon as they happen, and scheduling regular intervals of washing with clean water and detergent can preserve cooking performance efficiency and lessen wear and tear damage.
WHY CHOOSE VULCAN FOR YOUR SCHOOL COOKING EQUIPMENT?
Vulcan cooking equipment is designed with care, maintenance, and ease-of-use in mind. Easy-cleaning features include all-stainless steel exteriors (even on heated holding cabinets), coved corners on braising pans and steamers, rounded ellipsoidal bottoms on kettles, auto-cleaning and sprayable combi oven cavities, large diameter drain and dishwasher safe components like drip trays and oven doors.
And remember, routinely cleaning your K-12 kitchen cooking equipment not only supports efficient cooking operation, but also extends the life of your equipment. Follow these best practices to keep your Vulcan equipment performing its best for years to come.
Sustainable Catering: Streamlining Your Catering Operations
Throwing away food, wasting energy and contributing disposable waste never felt good but the foodservice industry had accepted it was just something that had to be done. However, in recent years, a greater focus has been placed on improving the sustainability of foodservice operations. Businesses are realizing how much their practices are impacting the environment negatively and many customers appreciate seeing businesses working to decrease their carbon footprint. Becoming more sustainable may seem costly or difficult, but there are small, surprisingly inexpensive ways to make a big difference
Use Energy-Efficient Equipment
Many state governments, local governments, and utilities offer rebates for foodservice equipment that is deemed energy efficient. Jaime Soltero Jr., owner of Tamale Boy, was able to purchase Cambro UPCH400 units at a big discount thanks to the rebate offered by the Energy Trust of Oregon.
“[The UPCH400] is at a lower wattage, so it’s like a lightbulb. It’s a lot of energy being saved,” said Soltero. “I think [the rebate] is a great incentive because it allows operators to control hot-held foods at the correct temperature, avoiding a lot of people getting sick if the [food’s] temperatures drop.”
Our UPCH400 is certified by Energy Star to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants caused by the inefficient use of energy. By transferring food directly into his UPCH400 units after cooking, Soltero is able to save both gas and electricity when he’s working in his food truck.
Cambro insulated transport units like the UPCH400, UPCH800, UPCH1600 and Camtherm® are designed to be energy efficient without compromising on performance. For more information about the rebates available in your state, search this Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.
Source local ingredients
Ordering ingredients from local farmers is a great way to support your community and decrease transportation emissions. When you order food locally, you can tailor your menu to each season and highlight ingredients that are special in your area. Whats more, local ingredients will arrive much fresher than those that took a road trip to get to you.
Reduce Food Waste
When food is thrown away, it emits methane a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Although food waste has become very common, it’s extremely easy to prevent!
Proper Storage: When you receive produce, take it out of cardboard boxes and immediately put it into food safe Camwear® Boxes. After cutting and preparing your ingredients, make sure everything is stored in a food safe container with a lid. For delicate produce like chopped tomatoes and pineapple, use a drain shelf or colander pan to lift food away from drippings.
Serve Smaller Portions: After a wedding, you can always find half eaten cake slices strewn about on every table. Very few people want to eat an entire cake slice in between dances. Offer pre-portioned desserts in dessert glasses to give guests a little taste that will satisfy their sugar craving without leaving a graveyard of crumbly cake behind.
Provide Eco-Friendly To-Go Containers: Encourage guests and customers to take home leftovers rather than throwing them in the trash. Most people would love to enjoy a second helping the next day and are more inclined when containers are sitting at the ready.
Find a Food Rescue Organization: The EPA offers a comprehensive guide to donating food to organization no matter where you are serving.
Reduce Use of Disposables
Many catering operators use two disposable items that can easily be replaced by reusable, sustainable items instead.
Dinnerware: If you must use disposable dinnerware, make sure it’s compostable. Although compostable plates still end up in the trash, they’re able to decompose in less than a year rather than plastic that can take centuries. Plus, items used with food can be difficult to recycle, but food remnants have no negative impact when it comes to composting.
Deli Cups: Disposable deli containers have been a staple in nearly every foodservice kitchen for decades because of their size and convenience. There was never a legitimate alternative until now. CamSquares® FreshPro Translucents are the food industry’s first commercial grade ½ qt and 1 qt reusable deli containers. CamSquares FreshPro Translucent have the advantages of deli containers without the smells, stains, leftover grease and environmental concerns.
Becoming more sustainable can seem intimidating but implementing even one of the ideas above will make an impact on the environment.
How to Ban Speed Racks from Your Walk-In
advent health
Our customers’ kitchens are our favorite place to be because they are where some of our best ideas have come from. After seeing walk-in after walk-in crammed with metal speed racks in between their shelving, we were inspired. Moving the racks in order to reach the items on your shelving is inefficient, and if you have to completely move the rack out of the walk-in, you risk disturbing the temperature of the food.
Each day, Mario Rinaldi, Food & Nutrition Services Manager at AdventHealth Palm Coast, had 6 speed racks sitting in the middle of their cooler.
“We don't want anybody going in the cooler and having to fight a speed rack. You don't like walking in a room and then having to move everything to get where you have to go,” Rinaldi.
Rinaldi first noticed a problem with their walk-in when they performed a deep clean and pulled everything out. Upon doing that, he realized that “almost every single shelving unit had rust on it, more rust than you would want on any kind of foodservice equipment or storage.”
After converting to Camshelving Premium Series®, they made the decision to order 6 Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf.
“[The Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf] eliminates the need for speed racks in the cooler. If you're gonna use a speed rack, you take an empty speed rack into the cooler, grab whatever you need on these sheet trays, and then leave,” said Rinaldi.
“There won't be any standalone carts; there won't be any rogue carts left in that cooler. Anybody going in there is going in there with purpose and going in there with whatever they need to get what they need out of there. Therefore, it makes it easier on everybody in the long run.”
After Rinaldi and his team started using their shelving, they realized they needed even more Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks for Single Shelf than they anticipated and purchased 7 more.
When you’re serving 420 meals to patients a day, plus more in AdventHealth’s café, an organized and efficiently designed kitchen makes a huge difference.