Can a Local Authority be Environmentally Friendly and Ensure its School Kitchens are Clean?

Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers

The possibility of schoolchildren suffering from illnesses transmitted by the food prepared in a school's canteen must be every kitchen manager's nightmare, particularly as people become more willing to use legal action to get compensation.

It is therefore reasonable for contracts and kitchen managers to regularly review the specialist companies they use to carry out any deep cleaning of school kitchens.

Recently a local council that had responsibility for more than 50 schools in a mix of buildings varying from those built in the 1920s through to newly constructed purpose built facilities.

The council had begun to have concerns about the standard of service from the company that had been undertaking their kitchen cleaning to date. The company were often unreliable and their results were described as somewhat 'variable'.

Its catering services manager thereefore invited other specialist cleaning companies to bid for the work. The company eventually chosen had impressed the manager for a number of reasons.

The manager said it had demonstrated its professionalism by surveying every site, including providing photographic records in order to be able to provide the Council with a very specific, tailored quote showing options and costs for various different types of cleans including high level, extract system or complete kitchen deep cleans using techniques that included steam cleaning as well as cleaning using specialist chemical cleaners that were safe to use near food.

Having awarded the contract the manager also mentioned that there were concerns about the risks of using chemical cleaners and also that the council did its best to use environmentally services, such as steam, but wanted to be sure that, if the company used steam cleaning, it could provide some evidence that it would be equally effective.

The cleaning company contacted every site and organised access and job specifics to ensure it could provide the evidence and was given the go-ahead to start the job.

The cleaning company began its programme of steam cleaning every one of the council's 50 school kitchens, carefully taking before and after photographs at each site and leaving every site in immaculate condition at the end.

It then provided dated reports of the steam cleaning work done with certificates of inspection from its own managers. It also provided suggestions for a future regular programme of deep cleaning and maintenance.

The council's catering manager said the cleaning company had integrated with the council at all levels: "It really has been painless. They have taken this task off my desk and managed it perfectly on our behalf."

He said he had also been impressed by the level of training of the cleaning company's staff, its attention to risk assessments and health and safety issues and the fact that it sent its own managers to inspect each site to make sure each had been thoroughly and properly cleaned before signing it off.

The whole process provided peace of mind for parents and council officers, knwing that everyone had done their absolute best to ensure school meals were cooked in the cleanest and most germ free environment possible, using a pure, environmentally friendly technique, and they had the evidence to prove it if challenged.


------

When councils want to ensure its school kitchens are hygienic but they want to be environmentally friendly, writes Ali Withers, perhaps they should consider steam cleaning.