Everyone who owns or oversees a restaurant should prioritize sanitation above all else. Eateries that fail to offer patrons a sanitary dining experience typically don’t last long and often find themselves on the receiving ends of lawsuits and hefty fines.

Additionally, in the age of instant feedback, a single bad review can do irreparable damage to a fledgling restaurant’s reputation. As such, every restaurateur should strive for impeccable sanitation. When working to keep your establishment safe and sanitary, take care to avoid the following problems.

Unsafe Buffet Displays
If your restaurant has a buffet display that contains hot food, it’s in your best interest to keep it warm. When allowed to sit at room temperature, certain foods spoil and become dangerous to consume. In the interest of storing these entrees at a safe temperature, invest in a self-warming buffet table from a dependable hot food merchandiser. This will provide both you and your patrons with peace of mind, curb food-borne illness and reduce unnecessary waste.

Unbussed Tables
Fast food restaurants and casual dining establishments generally aren’t as meticulous about bussing tables as their four-star contemporaries. Although a lot of diners tend to give the aforementioned eateries a free pass on this issue, unbussed tables are notorious for spreading germs and assorted bacteria. The longer a table goes unbussed, the more dangerous it’s likely to become. No matter what type of restaurant you oversee, promptly bussed tables are an absolute necessity. For best results, have at least one busboy on duty at all times.

Dirty Food Prep Tools
Unsurprisingly, dirty kitchens are synonymous with food-borne illness. When preparation tools and food storage areas aren’t consistently cleaned, bacteria can spread like wildfire. As such, all the counters, grills and cutting boards in your kitchen need to be cleaned multiple times throughout the workday.

Although your kitchen staff may view this as cumbersome, cleanliness in the kitchen is among the foremost tenets of restaurant sanitation. To drive this point home, impose strict penalties on chefs and kitchen workers who shrug off their cleaning duties.

Anyone who works in food service should be well-versed in proper sanitation. Whenever sanitation becomes an afterthought, people get sick and restaurants suffer severe consequences. To prevent lackluster sanitation from rearing its head at your restaurant, invest in self-warming buffet tables, never allow a table to go unbussed and be meticulous about cleanliness in the kitchen.