There is little doubt that cleanliness and compliance with health codes are both important parts of running a restaurant. It only takes one negative experience to alienate a customer, their family, and their friends, after all. That's why it's so important for all of your employees to be dedicated to maintaining a safe and clean environment.

In order to facilitate that, we've put together this list of four of the most common ways restaurants violate the health code, often without realizing it.

1. Poorly Maintained Equipment: One of the most common problems that restaurants face comes from their equipment being poorly maintained. Not only do your industrial meat tenderizer and meat cutting machine need to be properly cleaned and maintained, but so do common nonfood tools like your mop and other cleaning supplies.


2. Poorly Maintained Facilities: If you're a cook, it can be easy to let your mind become stuck in the kitchen. Unfortunately, no matter how clean your industrial meat tenderizer and oven are, you can still be cited for violations through the rest of your facility. Poorly storing tools, not disposing of garbage in a reasonable amount of time, and other maintenance problems play as large a part in this as a poorly maintained spiral dough mixer machine or electric meat cutter.


3. Unsanitary Surfaces (Food or Otherwise): Whether or not food comes into contact with a surface, it is still vitally important that it be clean. There are different regulations depending on whether it is a food surface or not -- for instance, the pH and the concentration of cleaning chemicals on a food surface are much more important than on nonfood surfaces. That is because many small items can be cleaned with a solution of one tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water. Larger tools, however, will be damaged by the bleach.


4. Availability of Dedicated Hand washing Sinks: One of the most common reasons a restaurant is cited for health inspection violations is because of their lack of a dedicated hand washing sink. While many restaurants will have the sink available, it's important that the sink is used for the purpose of hand washing and that there are ample soap and towels nearby.

Your restaurant's reputation relies on complying with your local health code and maintaining the cleanest and safest restaurant possible. By avoiding the common mistakes above, you can help to ensure that your restaurant is well protected.