Avoid Ants in Pants: 5 Ways to Keep Pests Out a Restaurant
Although restaurants are known for excellent food and customer service, they aren’t safe from pests that most people encounter in residential areas. Therefore, it is part of the management’s job to look out for common problems, such as cockroaches, rodents, or flies, to keep customers safe from any health risks brought about by these pests.
Since a restaurant is full of food, it’s an ideal breeding ground for pests due to the abundance of sustenance. In effect, pests target the location by hiding in crevices or spaces usually untouched. Therefore, it could be the space under the stove where all the fluids leak into or the countertops where most foods lie during the day. But how do you keep pests from coming over and stealing the restaurant’s thunder? Here are a few tips that might help you out.
1. Avoid Food Spoilage
Food spoilage is a common health hazard in the food industry. However, it is also the most effective way to gather pests to feed on the rotten products. Therefore, restaurants need to ensure that their products are always fresh or have a few days left before expiration.
During the delivery of the food items, the restaurant management should ensure that the expiration dates are at least a few weeks from the delivery date to ensure that the products will be consumed before they go bad. Another thing to remember is to keep rotting food items from fresh ones to prevent expedited spoilage.
2. Ensure Proper Ventilation
Pests are fond of hot and humid environments. In restaurants, the best way to keep a kitchen cool and dry is by opening the vents and keeping them wide to let the cool air in and the warm air out of the building. Although promoting ventilation wouldn’t do much at first, people will notice that there will be fewer pests as they cannot handle how cool and dry the kitchen is—opposite to the environment where they thrive and survive.
3. Never Leave Crumbs
Crumbs are the leading cause of pests finding their way into the kitchen. By leaving pieces of food on the ground, people are only promoting to the pests that they have a tremendous amount of food in storage that the pests can be attracted to. Therefore, to not lure any pests in the kitchen area, never give them a reason to come over and enjoy their stay.
4. Keep Doors and Windows Closed
Various entrances and exits to the kitchen are the pests’ key to infiltrating the restaurant. However, closing them before the day ends prevents unwanted pests from coming from the outside to the inside while no one is around. In a way, windows and doors are the cheapest pest control products available in the market today.
5. Maintain the Dumpster’s Cleanliness
Besides leftovers and crumbs, unkempt dumpsters also invite pests over. If the restaurant shares a dumpster with other establishments, it’s best to coordinate with the other managers to make sure that everyone plays their part in keeping the dumpster clean and uninviting to pests. In effect, all establishments in the community would benefit from the move and will not suffer from pests in the future.
Conclusion
The presence of pests in restaurants is an inexcusable violation of every country’s health code. As the creatures pose a significant risk to humans, contaminating a batch of food is a massive mistake that most restaurants do not make. Therefore, ensuring the customers’ safety should be every management’s priority among food quality and good customer service.
Clean & Green Pest Managers is a commercial pest control company based in Sydney. We specialise in pest management, using only organic pest control methods to keep everyone in the household or commercial premises safe during the extermination. Let us help you keep the pests away from your restaurant today. Visit our website and book an appointment right away.