Necessary Restaurant Safety Features

Restaurants can be very dangerous places to work. They’re prone to cuts, falls, and even burns. Make sure your restaurant is stocked up on all the necessary safety equipment to keep your employees safe.

What Safety Features Do Restaurants Need?

Picture it: you’ve just opened your dream restaurant. You have everything you need. Or do you? Far too often, restaurant owners fail to consider the important safety features they need. Yeah, you might’ve secured all the cooking equipment and silverware, but there are still some things you’ll need. No restaurant is complete until it has all the necessary safety equipment. Keep reading to learn about important safety equipment you can’t do without.

Safety Equipment List

When creating your safety checklist, it’s important not to forget anything. It helps to group equipment into categories. They’re easy to remember that way. For example, it may help to make a list of all of the PPE your restaurant will need. PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment. PPE is equipment that you wear in order to protect yourself from workplace hazards.

The type of PPE you require will vary depending on your needs. Some common forms of PPE are face masks, eyewear, footwear, and gloves. Face masks can prevent the spread of diseases. They may also protect workers from dangerous inhalants. Footwear is very important in the restaurant industry. Safe, non-slip work shoes protect workers from dangerous falls. Restaurants are known for having wet, slippery floors. Not only is the floor hazardous, but falling onto a hot stove or sharp objects can cause serious injuries. Basically, you want to avoid slipping in a restaurant.

Gloves are also hugely important for restaurant safety. There are many different kinds of gloves that can be considered PPE. Disposable gloves are common among workers who handle food. These gloves are worn in order to protect customers. Even though workers are washing their hands, it helps to have an added barrier against contamination.

Once you’ve secured all of the PPE necessary for your restaurant, you can move on to other categories. It may also help to divide these categories further, by paying attention to the equipment you’ll need for the dining area versus the kitchen.

Equipment for Restaurant

When selecting equipment for your restaurant, be sure to include noise-canceling products from a trusted company like Singer Safety. Restaurants can be very noisy, both in the dining area as well as the back of the house. Both areas should be outfitted with noise-canceling equipment.

Noise is surprisingly hazardous to your health. Noise pollution can have serious long-term health consequences. It can damage your hearing if you’re exposed to enough loud noises throughout the years. In addition to hearing loss, noise pollution can harm other parts of your body. Excess noise can cause stress, high blood pressure, and even worsen cardiovascular problems. Employees of restaurants find themselves exposed to a great deal of noise, so it’s important to keep them safe at work.

In the dining area, noise from customers can get pretty loud. Absorb some of this noise with modular acoustic screens. These screens are made from quilted fiberglass, making them great at absorbing sound. These structures can be arranged in any way to absorb noise. If you’re looking for a more subtle way to lower the volume in your dining area, try installing ceiling baffles.

Ceiling baffles are pieces of sound-absorbing equipment meant to hang from the ceiling. They’re particularly useful in areas with large, open ceilings. In the restaurant industry, it can be difficult to reduce noise in the dining area without taking up too much space. Ceiling baffles are great because they only take up space you wouldn’t use otherwise. They’re also much more visually appealing than some other noise-reducing products. Ceiling baffles reduce the noise from chatty dining areas without impacting the look or space of your restaurant.

Restaurant Kitchen Equipment

The equipment you’ll need for your kitchen will vary from the ones you need for the dining area. For the kitchen, it’s very important that you have fire safety equipment. Obviously fire safety is important for the entire restaurant, but fires are more likely in the kitchen.

Fire Safety Equipment

Fire safety equipment includes a range of products. Your kitchen isn’t complete without fire extinguishers, fire blankets, and smoke alarms. Fire blankets are very important, as they can smother fires. They’re great to have in case there is an issue with your fire extinguisher.

Vinyl Strip Doors

Sometimes, restaurant owners fail to consider safety equipment for their freezers. Freezers are not exempt from requiring safety equipment, even if it looks a little different. Vinyl strip doors are the most common equipment for walk-in freezers. They’re long pieces of vinyl suspended from the ceiling. They hang in the doorway to serve as a barrier.

Vinyl strip doors are used in kitchens because they help insulate the freezer. They’re an easy way to add additional insulation to your freezer. They can also prevent dust or other particles from traveling into the freezer. Since they’re often clear, they are safer than other doorway barriers. Employees can easily see through them and know what’s on the other side. This way, they’re less likely to run into objects or other people.

Slip Prevention

Slips and falls can be very dangerous in a kitchen. As an employer, it’s your duty to try to prevent falls as best you can. One way is by requiring non-slip footwear among employees. Wet floor signs are another great way to warn people about slippery areas.

You can prevent a lot of falls just by installing non-slip floor mats in your kitchen. They’re very simple products that can prevent a lot of injuries. Alongside non-slip footwear, they’re very effective at keeping employees safe from falls or slips.

Necessary Safety Equipment

Your restaurant should invest in equipment like PPE to protect employees directly from disease, chemicals, and more. PPE can even keep customers safe as well. You can’t forget to include equipment like acoustic screens or ceiling baffles to prevent noise pollution.

When selecting equipment for your kitchen, you should consider fire safety, freezer safety, and fall prevention. For fire safety, check out Singer Safety’s fire blankets and extinguisher covers. For the freezer, use vinyl strip doors for some added insulation as well as increased visibility.