The Importance of Kitchen Uniforms & Staying Hygienic

When serving members of the public, businesses have a responsibility to ensure that the products and services they provide are of a high standard. This is especially true when it comes to food service, which inherently brings risks to customers. Kitchen uniforms, thankfully, can help to make sure kitchens stay hygienic while attracting customers at the same time.

 

Read on to learn just some of the reasons why clean kitchen uniforms are essential and how our restaurant linen hire services at Stalbridge Linen Services can help.

Hygienic Practices

Arguably the most important part of wearing a uniform in any food preparation room is how it contributes to keeping an environment hygienic. Several aspects of kitchens can become unhygienic should they be left unchecked, which includes the uniform that staff wear.

 

In this section, learn how uniforms are essential to keeping hygienic practices, and how they need to be monitored themselves.

Keeping Uniforms in The Kitchen

While it may not be popular knowledge, it is a requirement for any kitchen staff to remove their uniform before going outside of their food preparation area, whether this be an apron or the entire uniform itself. This precaution helps to prevent outside bacteria from entering the environment, lowering the hygiene standards of the workplace.

Hair

One culprit for instantly running the reputation of a restaurant is a customer finding hair in their food. It’s a known nightmare for business owners,  so to prevent the chances of this happening a strict uniform can help immensely. Long hair should always be tied back, with beards covered by nets. Hats will require staff to tuck their hair away while also discouraging them from absentmindedly playing with strands during service.

Jewellery and Accessories

Enforcing a work uniform for your staff can have beneficial knock-on effects on food safety that you might not even notice. While it is widely accepted that jewellery should not be worn during food service, staff who wear their clothing to work can often forget to remove the pieces they are wearing. By getting into a routine with a strict uniform, your staff will be better equipped to remember to remove any jewellery, watches or other inappropriate accessories they might be wearing.

Legal Requirements

As seasoned restaurant owners know, there are a variety of rules and regulations set by the government that need to be followed to avoid legal action. Beyond food storage temperatures and proper signage, uniforms are likewise subject to scrutiny. It’s essential to check the rules surrounding uniforms and food safety where you are based, to ensure you cannot be held responsible for any law-breaking or endangerment.

Benefits for The Team

Besides hygienic reasons to opt to ensure kitchen uniforms are clean, other benefits for your employees should not be overlooked. Read on to find out just some advantages.

Fosters Team Spirit

Having identical clothing to one another helps create a sense of belonging for all staff members within a team. This creates an environment that encourages a sense of team spirit, preventing arguments between employees.

Unifies The Team

Just like with school uniform days, it can be an uncomfortable experience wearing your own clothes to your workplace, especially if you know it doesn’t look like what everyone else wears. Luckily, having a cohesive uniform for every member of staff can help to stop these worries. Providing a uniform equally to your employees ensures no one needs to feel embarrassed or underdressed when working.

Provides Comfort

Restrictive clothing while working in hot environments is never comfortable. This is especially true for chefs, who work long hours near hot stoves, creating discomfort caused by sweat and chaffing. Providing the right uniforms can help the staff regulate their temperature, promoting workplace happiness and comfort while retaining the range of movement.

Customer Experience

Appealing to customers and enticing them to return is an essential part of creating a successful business. Learn how you can appeal to your customers with clean kitchen uniforms in this section.

Professionalism

When customers arrive at your restaurant, it’s essential to make a good impression even in the subtleties of proper restaurant linens. This is how the reputation of a company grows, recommending more and more potential customers to come try the place.

Hygienic Environment

While presenting a professional appearance is key, a hygienic environment shouldn’t be devalued in the process. Customers are constantly on the lookout for good hygiene, particularly when a business is certified with a food hygiene rating of 5 by the Food Standards Agency. To achieve this high rating, making sure the legal requirements for hygienic uniforms are adhered to is essential.

One-Off Events

On some occasions, you may need to hire more staff for large events. During these, it’s important to keep the staff you employ all in the same clothing, to continue creating a professional atmosphere and a cohesive appearance for your customers. Having a clean stock of freshly washed uniforms available is essential to achieving this, particularly on short notice. Opt for catering linen hire, for example, to easily source the required uniforms.

Functional Advantages

Why are kitchen uniforms so popular in restaurants and similar establishments? It’s because they provide functional purposes as well as hygienic ones. Read on to find out some benefits of kitchen linens.

Storage

When working with food and drinks, on-person equipment is often needed. For example, staff might be required to carry a pad and pen for taking orders, as well as a corkscrew for providing prosecco to tables. These cannot be held in hands at all times, and are at risk of getting lost should they be put down.

 

Aprons with pockets are thankfully available, saving the day. Make sure your staff are equipped with pockets on their uniform to keep the necessary tools on hand yet safely out of the way.

Safety

It isn’t just your customers that you have a responsibility to keep safe, but your staff too. That’s why equipping your staff with proper hygienic uniforms is essential. Many uniforms are specifically designed to protect the wearer from the dangers of the kitchen, from being burnt to accidentally cutting themselves. Chefs' whites, for example, may look deceptively thin, however, the barrier the sleeves create can prevent employees from accidentally injuring themselves.

How We Can Help

When it comes to accessing clean clothing for your staff, our team at Stalbridge Linen Services are experts. Read on to find out more about what we do and how we can help you.

Kitchen Linen Hire

Kitchens can deceptively require a lot more linen than you might think. Luckily, we have you covered at Stalbridge Linen Services, with a variety of products available within our kitchen linen hire services. We provide high-quality linen rentals, from chef uniform hire to hired oven cloths and tea towels.

 

If you have multiple needs when it comes to organising your business, we have a range of other services and products which may be able to help. For example, our hotel linen is available for rental, making your combined restaurant and hotel run as smoothly as possible.

Getting In Touch

If you’re interested in our products for hire at Stalbridge Linen Services, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team today to learn more about us. You can do so by visiting our website contact page, as well as making a quote enquiry.