In our previous articles, we talked about the ice machines should be clean and the actions to be taken for this. In this blog post, we will try to find answers to what can be done against contaminated ice and how to protect it.
Markets, healthcare facilities, restaurants, hotels, and motels always have important ice requirements for their customers and patients. While every customer passing through the door means additional income, it can also mean an increase in your responsibility if you cannot do everything possible to meet the sanitary conditions of "community" equipment such as your commercial ice machine. This is a very important issue.
While offering your customers the convenience of owning a self-service commercial ice machine, it can also raise public health concerns. Therefore; It is critical that the owner, operator, employee staff, and even customers who use the ice machine frequently are aware of how to use it safely.
Ice Machine Responsibility Concerns
It not only improperly distributes ice from commercial ice machines, it can create cross-contamination, health or disease-related health concerns, but it can also lead you to be financially responsible for any medical treatment or damage sought by the affected customer.
Just as a "slipped or fallen" customer in your workplace can easily use against you, or someone who can be sick due to an unhealthy situation that you can prevent. The truth is that many "slipping and falling" cases are rarely filed as a result of the action or situation that caused the fall; instead, they have been filed as a result of a false or complete failure to warn of a potential hazard on behalf of an employee, manager or owner.
Protecting Customers
To protect customers from a commercial ice machine contamination concern, you can start by showing the instructions for using an ice machine appropriately. This not only shows customers that they don't really care about their well-being but also provides some defense against all kinds of responsibilities. In addition, you must publish a maintenance schedule to be signed by your staff for routine inspection and cleaning of the ice machine.
Safe Instructions for Use for Commercial Ice Machine Sharing
In a commercial kitchen, commercial ice machines are almost always available. Employees must be aware of the dangers of sharing bacteria and contamination. Simple use of an ice container is the best defense, so it is not touched by anyone who stays away from contaminants or not.
In a hotel, motel, or health facility, the only convenient way to ice is to use an ice dispenser. This provides ice on demand for your customers but does not allow ice to reach it so that it does not come into contact with human beings.
Here is a list of ice-safe operating procedures for many ice machine environments:
Clean and sterilize your ice machine periodically.
Wash your hands before using food or ice.
If possible, install a dispenser and avoid using scoops on shared ice. If you need to use a ladle, never touch any part of the ladle's handle.
Wash and sterilize the ice scoop daily.
Never touch the ice with your hands!
Do not allow ice coming out of the ice bin to return to the container! In the event of Please remove all ice from the contaminated area.
Make sure the door of the ice compartment remains closed after use.
Always consider customer safety first.
We hope that the information in our article was sufficient. If you want to be more enlightened about ice and ice machine-related issues, we recommend you to follow our blog posts.