Designing a safer kitchen

Store Equipment & Design, March, 2000 by Howard Reill

From sinks to floors, there's a lot to consider

Supermarket kitchens can be designed to do many things, like speed production, minimize cost and maximize space. No matter what the layout, savvy designers always craft their kitchens to do one thing more: maintain all-important food safety

The first thing to do is analyze the menu, according to consultant Arlene Spiegel, FCSI, food and beverage practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York.

"Go through a HACCP process for all items on the menu," she said. "This will yield a 'blue print for the number of refrigeration, nearing and shelf-stable spaces and equipment needed in order to put the food out safely." At that point, she said, the HACCP process needs to be applied. Only then should specs on the equipment be made.

"Start with the flow of the food, from start to finish," said Mike Magner, corporate sanitarian for Price Chopper, Schenectady, N.Y. "You try to design it for efficiency first of all. You want the preparation area to be near the cooler so you don't have to walk it all the way across the room. You want to avoid cross-contamination of raw and ready-to-eat foods."

In designing the 6,000-foot open kitchen for the Mustard Seed Market and cafein Solon, Ohio, Joe Peterlin, project designer at SS Kemp, Cleveland, installed reach-in coolers at the point of use in every work area. This cuts the number of trips to the walk-in while ensuring proper temperature for batch ingredients being held at workstations.

Price Chopper stores routinely have anywhere from five to nine separate kitchens for departments like bagel shop, bakery, sushi and seafood. "We try to keep each one self-contained, with everything they need tight there," Magner said.

Clean floors help keep bacteria proliferation down, and, to help ensure effectiveness of floor washing, Price Chopper relies on mobile equipment. "If we can buy something with wheels, we do so. If it doesn't have wheels, we see if we can get it custom-made with wheels," Magner said. "You want ovens, fryers, tables and storage racks mobile so you can move them away from walls for cleaning around and under them."

Peterlin said the Mustard Seed kitchen installation included numerous hose-down stations, with "pitched drains all over," a challenge for flooring contractors, but a big help in maintaining sanitary conditions.

Once the equipment needs have been identified, stations must be organized efficiently. For example, Spiegel said, "all saut[acute{e}]e items are together, all the broiler items are together and baked good items are together and all pantry, or salad, items are together." This not only maximizes labor by reducing the need for movement within the kitchen, but also helps prevent cross-contamination.

Functions should move in a single direction, without backtracking. Each station should also have its own waste disposal area; trash receptacles should have self-closing lids.

Another important component of kitchen design is handsinks. Spiegel recommended electronic sensors, so employees don't have to touch the faucets. "If you have to put on a faucet or touch anything with your hands, they're already dirty," she said.

Magner called the placement of handwashing sinks the number one design issue in maintaining food safety "When you start out with the flow of the food, you need to know where the most potential problems are for hand contact," he said. "If you're preparing raw chicken, you want a handwashing facility right next to that area. If you're doing a salad bar prep, you want that prep area to have its own handwashing sink. We do put a lot of handwashing facilities in our prep areas.

Here are some other factors to consider:

* Utilities. Primary among these is water flow. The single greatest threat to water safety is back flow through a cross-connection, a link through which soil from drains, sewers or waste pipes can enter the potable water supply. Back flow prevention devices, such as vacuum breakers, should be in place.

* Ventilation. Removing smoke and grease from the air before it can settle on equipment, prep counters, floors and even hands is vital. Operators must make sure their systems and installation comply with local ordinances. For example, many areas around the country restrict exhausts vented outside from retail or other operations.

* Equipment. Specing only UL- or NSF-approved equipment is a good way to start. Other things to watch include making sure food contact surfaces are constructed of nontoxic materials that impart no smell, color or taste to the food and are corrosion-resistant and nonabsorbent. Internal edges and corners should be rounded off, waste and waste liquid should be easily removed and dean-in-place equipment must be self-draining and capable of complete evacuation to get rid of all cleaning solution.

* Dry storage. All materials should be easy to dean. There should be no steam pipes, ventilation ducts, water lines or other conduits within storage areas. Outside doorways should be closed off with solid or screened self-closing doors to deter insects.