The most important health procedure to protect your restaurant from Corona crisis and to be ready to reopen your business.
There is no doubt that all kinds of different businesses have been affected by the Corona pandemic and the lockdown crisis that all countries have experienced, but one of the most business sectors that is heavily affected has been restaurants, catering and beverage sectors in general.
The chances of infection are very high in places where food is served, especially if it is crowded, and the process of serving food itself includes a lot of opportunities for transmitting the infection.
Therefore, it is the duty of the owner of any restaurant or place to serve food to continuously assess risks and apply methods and solutions to protect everyone from the outbreak of the pandemic.
The fact that many restaurants have opened does not mean that these restaurants are risk- free, and that the pandemic protection process is an ongoing process, so every administration must continuously and permanently re-evaluate the situation when it comes to the Corona pandemic.
Managing restaurants and keeping them safe under normal circumstances is very difficult, but this is getting more difficult with the spread of the Corona epidemic, now here is a set of five general tips that you can apply to keep your restaurant safe
1- Maintaining social distancing:
Social distancing is one of the most important ways to protect your customers and your staff.
Social distancing prevents infection from spreading by preventing the transmission of large respiratory particles that pass into the air from frequently infected people and spread in a short distance from the infected person.
Most air particles travel in a distance from 1 meter to 2 meters, so most books and studies recommend a distance of 2 meters to ensure protection against the virus.
Also, all books and guidelines recommend putting layers of protection and physical barriers to prevent particles from moving from person to person.
The situation of each restaurant differs from the other, so each restaurant needs to assess the risk and sources of infection and implement a plan to protect customers and staff alike.
There are many steps you can follow, such as:
Provide clear and straightforward information about social distancing through your restaurant’s social media pages and even through Emails as well. You can also place signs and indicative boards for visitors to see in very clear places.
Control the number of customers present by early booking and arranging entry according to arrival. You must also control the numbers in the bathrooms at a time to ensure the conditions of social distancing.
Re-arrange the seating areas inside and outside the place, in addition to the waiting areas to keep customers 2 meters away from each other, you can also use barriers and protection glass screens.
identify areas of high crowds of your staff and customers, such as the area in front of the cashier and the payment area, or the place where the food comes out of the kitchen, plan a one-way path to prevent overcrowding.
Reduce the contact between your employees and customers. You can put protective glass screens and physical layers of protection to reduce contacting and also maintain social distancing.
Try to avoid customers leaving their tables as much as possible, assign your staff all these outside tasks, and also tell customers that their children should follow the rules of social distancing.
Maintain the conditions of social distancing in the food preparation areas as much as possible by arranging staff attendance. This is the most difficult task because food preparation areas are always chaotic.
- Public health requirements:
apply all public health and hygiene requirements strictly, this step takes priority over all other methods of protection. In some places, public health requirements may also need to be raised and increased to the maximum to reduce the risk of infection and transmission to the surface. Ensure that catering and eating utensils are regularly and periodically cleaned and disinfected to prevent transmission from customers to staff and vice versa.
Maintain good ventilation:
In addition to surface and droplets transmission, covid 19 virus ( Novel corona) is now transmitted through air. This means that maintaining good ventilation sources with clean air is critical inside your restaurant and indoors to reduce infection concentration in the air, that means you have to open the Windows and doors, check the vents, make sure the ventilation and cooling systems are working properly.
Disinfect surfaces and keep them clean:
One of the most common points of infection transmission in restaurants and food serving places is the surfaces that carry the infection inside them, as you will need to ensure that they are cleaned and sterilized with appropriate substances periodically.
Surfaces that are touched regularly and periodically need to be cleaned regularly and this includes doorknobs as well as dishes and dining tables.
You must keep the doors open, as this reduces the chance of touching them and spreading the infection through them.
It also must ensure that the furniture and places that customers touch between each group of customers are sterilized and cleaned
Hand cleaning and disinfecting:
Provide hand sanitizer substances, so that customers can clean and places where the customer sterilize their hands before entering the restaurant and in major areas such as entrances and next to bathroom rooms and need to hold a piece of your furniture.
Emphasize the importance of cleaning and disinfecting hands with the staff and explain how to wash hands in an appropriate way.
Places most vulnerable to infection and transmission of disease:
There are many spots and places in your restaurant that are considered the most dangerous and most vulnerable to infection, and they are:
items that are frequently touched, such as door knobs and tables.
Bathrooms and handwashing rooms that many customers enter once.
Weak places around your buildings and places where insects grow;
food storage area and food disposal areas that attract various insects and pests.
Electronic payment machines.
3- Use the mobile and its applications:
Many restaurants now have their own applications that enable customers to book in advance before they attend.
This is very useful in controlling the number of customers that exist inside the restaurant on an ongoing basis.
In addition, customers leave their phone numbers and contact information through these applications to allow you to communicate with them in case of disease’s outbreak or discovery of an infection in your restaurant.
The applications also provide a set of different features such as:
avoid printed food lists and the possibility of infection transmission through them, some applications provide the ability to order through the application without the need for contacting one of the staff.
Pay by applications through special electronic payment machines.
4- Insect and pest resistance:
Insect and pest resistance is especially important in the post-Covid-19 world, in addition to being one of the factors of preserving public health.
Various pests such as mice and insects can contaminate different food ingredients and food after preparation, leading to a wide range of diseases in employees and customers alike.
Rodents do not only eat food, but also destroy it and can cause great damage to the structure and foundations of the building, in addition to damage to various electrical devices.
Insects and mice specifically destroy the reputation of your restaurant and leave a bad impression on customers and employees alike.
The outbreak of insects will increase the general cost of cleaning and sterilization of the restaurant and lead to more money losses
Excessive pest outbreaks may cause your restaurant to be completely closed by local authorities and various inspections bodies.
5- Make sure that you are ready in case of future closure:
Unfortunately, no one can expect the way the novel Coronavirus works, and for this, the curfew and full shutdown of facilities may return back, so you must make sure that you are always prepared for this scenario.
Leaving large quantities of food not well or properly stored may cause an outbreak of insects and mice, in particular that are active in the absence of humans or people in your facility.
Ensuring public health is maintained and food protected from sudden insect outbreak is extremely important before entering a full shutdown.
Using pest control and insect elimination programs is very important and helps greatly to get rid of insect outbreaks and protect your food items in case of a full shutdown.
You can contact the company to inquire about protection programs in cases of complete restaurant shutdown.