How To Clean Your Restaurant Refrigerator The Right Way

Over time, the freezer for your restaurant can collect all kinds of food items that are never used, from containers of old dressing, to fruit, to unlabeled meats. All of these things can occupy precious refrigerator space and can lead to bacteria. In the restaurant game, you cannot afford to keep a fridge dirty and cluttered. Not only will your refrigerator collect more bacteria, but it will also consume more power in order to operate, and shorten its own life.

Cleaning out your refrigerator seems dreadful, but you can easily clean and organize yours in the following steps.

Unplug your refrigerator.

Before you begin, unplug your refrigerator to prevent the risk of electrocution.

Empty every compartment of all items.

From door compartments, to food crispers, to the area way in the back of the appliance, take everything out. The best time to clean the fridge is right before you are going to receive new shipments of food and dinnerware like disposable plastic cups with lids. If you have food that you would like to save put these food items in a container for now.

Get rid of expired food items.

There are certain perishables that can get lost in the mix. These items are pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten for a number of years. If you think a certain food item is spoiled, do not keep it, or you may get a customer very sick if you use it next time. Check for expiration dates and other indicators on disposable plastic cups with lids of when the food was last used and determine whether it can be saved or tossed in the garbage.

Clean the inside of the refrigerator.

To completely clean your fridge, you will need warm water with soap and a sponge. It is also important to wear rubber or latex cleaning gloves to help you clean every surface without coming into contact with any contaminants or stains on any shelves or sidings. Use the coarse side of the sponge to remove any stubborn, hard stains that aren’t coming off with regular scrubbing. After scrubbing every part of the fridge, rinse it out with clean water.

Clean the condenser.

Dust can also be problematic to refrigerators, as it can get into a condenser, which causes it to clog fresh air input. This can cause your energy bills to increase, so to reverse this, remove the protective grill on your refrigerator. Get a brush to remove dirt and dust from the coils and fan unit inside. Then, use a vacuum with a hose attachment to suck all the dust up. Put the grill back on when you are done.

Clean the top and bottom of the refrigerator.

The area around your refrigerator also must be cleaned. Use cleaning products to clean the floor underneath and around your unit. If yours has one or more casters, be sure to pull them out of the wall in order to get to the walls and floor behind and underneath the refrigerator. There will unquestionably be dust on top of your fridge, as well, so be sure that you don’t forget to dust, either.

Restock shelves in an organized way.

In an organized fridge, produce, butter, and condiments go on the top shelf, and they are ready-to-eat. Beneath the top shelf goes raw meats and seafoods. Underneath that is ground meat that is in safe containers. On the bottom goes raw poultry, as they have juices that could trickle down to food that sits below it. Apply labels to new containers for dates of when certain foods expire.