The Alliance Online Catering Equipment Blog

Sirman Servino 10 Blast Chiller / Freezer

Blast Chillers are a vital piece of catering equipment in a commercial kitchen. Their ability to bring down food temperatures quickly is an essential part of maintaining food hygiene. Below are some top tips on maintaining your blast chiller…

• Check door seals on a regular basis for damage and always replace them when split. Cold air is, literally, blasted into the chamber, and any leaks will affect the units performance.
• Most service engines are called out to a freezer or blast chiller because it is not chilling food as quickly as it should. The most common reason for this is the caterer overloading the unit. Ensure the blast chiller is loaded according to the manufacturer’s instructions – paying attention to the guidelines for product volume & depth.
• It is vital that air vents (often found at a low level) are regularly cleaned and kept clear of obstructions. An often overlooked tip is to avoid placing a blast chiller or freezer near a door next to a room with a carpet. Staff walking in and out of the room will drag carpet fibres in which will cause the chiller to clog more often.
• Blast chillers/freezers will usually defrost after each cycle. If you see a build-up of ice when starting a new cycle, call a service engineer to check over the machine before the ice causes damage.
• Hotter weather is coming earlier every year. Many caterers have been caught out by leaving their refrigeration maintenance too late. Bring it forward to April at the latest to ensure your freezer can cope with summer workload.
• Temperature probes are key to maintaining food hygiene levels and good temperature control. Keep a spare probe in the kitchen in case of damage.

Blast Chillers – Buy Online

It’s New Year and your kitchen has probably taken a real pounding over the festive period so what better time to treat it to a belated Christmas present – a proper deep clean!

Just because you’re not imminently expecting a visit from Health and Safety, doesn’t mean that you don’t need to maintain decent standards of hygiene in your kitchen. Keep your work surfaces clean and clutter free. Wipe everything down regularly with antibacterial kitchen spray and wash your kitchen cloth or spongy scourer in hot soapy water, as it can harbour germs too.

Kitchen hygiene is an important element in safe cooking and kitchen maintenance. Basic kitchen hygiene skills are often common sense, whilst sensible food preparation and good practice are valuable and necessary addition to your daily routines.

Here on Alliance Online we supply a huge range of kitchen cleaning products ranging from everyday products like washing up liquids to cleaners and sanitisers and specialist cleaning chemicals – such as drain cleaners and kettle de-scalers.

Kitchen Cleaning Chemicals and Kitchen Hygiene – View the Full Range

First catering news post of the new year. Here we take a look at some stories from the industry involving caterers, pubs, bars and restaurants. Feel free to leave your thoughts using the comments section at the end of the post.

DIRTY KITCHEN FINES ‘UNFAIR’

When villagers of Ightham near Sevenoaks, Kent were cut off by heavy snowfalls in early February 2009, they descended on their local pub the 15th century George & Dragon.

Normally the pub would expect 15 to 20 diners on a Monday, but it was inundated, serving 117, although service was affected as staff, including licensees Mark and Fiona Harris, who live off-site, were unable to get to work because the roads were impassible.

Being busy with only skeleton staff exhausted by the end of shifts, the normal ‘clean up’ was postponed but then the pub received a surprise visit from a “zealous” Environmental Health Officer who returned a few days later to say the licensees would be prosecuted.

“The kitchen was in a bit of a mess,” admitted Fiona Harris. “But there were no serious health issues and there were no customer complaints.”

But the Harris’ were each fined nearly £11,000 almost the maximum for a first offence by Sevenoaks Magistrates, for failing to comply with general hygiene requirements and EU regulations.

Annoyed villagers say the couple have been “victimised” and the fines were unfair. They have offered to help raise funds to pay the legal costs of an appeal.

→ continue reading: Catering News – January ’10

We posted a preview of the e-mail earlier in the week – you can now view it online here: January Promotions Email

Use the link below to register your email address on our list and we’ll send you the occasional email like this straight to your inbox!