Making sure that your cook and prepware have been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized is an essential part of every commercial foodservice operation. Yet, many opportunities arise for things to go wrong, disrupting productivity and potentially jeopardizing your guest’s in-house
experience.
If you know what to look for and establish routine maintenance, these common warewashing mistakes can be easily avoided. Here are the six most common errors that can compromise your washing program, and tips to solve them.
The first mistake begins at the very beginning of the warewashing process: preparing the cookware to be washed. Not pre-washing dishes enough is actually the most common mistake amongst restaurant operations, as leftover food debris can clog dish machines and cause them to malfunction, disrupting your routine.
When food particles build up excessively inside the dishwashing machine, it can clog many key features, like the spray nozzles, pump screen, and drains, resulting in improper or insufficient washing, or even complete system failure.
This, in turn, wastes labor and product. Dishes recontaminated by food particles lodged in the water system will need to be recleaned.
Additionally, the dishwasher can sense the high soil level of improperly pre-washed dishes and will use more detergent as a result, expending dishwashing resources faster, costing you more per load.
Another common dishwashing mistake occurs when dishes are improperly and haphazardly loaded into the machine. When a rack is overcrowded with cookware, water and detergent distributed from the spray nozzles cannot reach every dish, resulting in improper washing and sanitizing.
Much like improper pre-washing, this shielding effect wastes resources, as dirty dishes require rewashing, costing you more in labor and dishwashing supplies.
Improper loading also poses a threat to the dishwasher machinery, as smaller appliances, like cutlery or other smaller utensils, can be dislodged by spray pressure and get caught in the pump or drain.
This can compromise the dishwasher, disrupting your cleaning operation until a repair team arrives. To ensure that you’ve properly loaded the dishwasher, consider the following tips: glasses, cups, bowls, or any other hollowed-out appliance should be placed upside down to prevent water from collecting in their depressions.
Plates and other flatware should be arranged neatly in the dish racks on their sides, to ensure proper rinsing and equal water distribution. Provide each dish ample space to prevent shielding by limiting the number of dishes per slot to one.
Calibrating your machine’s pressure setting is an essential part of ensuring that your cookware is being thoroughly cleaned with every wash; improper pressure setting can reduce machine effectiveness and may not satisfy health regulations.
In general, it is good practice for your machine to be set within the 15 to 25 PSI range; too low, and your dishwares may not be properly cleaned, requiring a re-wash. Too high, and your dishwares may develop water spots and require extended drying times.
Even though your service technician should check the pressure gauges every time they maintain your machine, you should check the pressure readings after each wash to ensure your machine is functioning within the recommended limits.
Of equal importance to pressure calibration is temperature calibration, since washing your dishes at the right heat setting is important to making sure they are thoroughly sanitized.
The proper setting depends on the type of machine your operation uses: most commercial dishwashers are heat-sanitizing, and require high water temperatures, or chemical-sanitizing, and require lower water temperatures.
For the former, ensure your rinse temperature is at a minimum of 180F, and your wash temperature is at a minimum of 150-160F, depending on the make and model. For the latter, ensure a minimum temperature of 120F for both cycles.
Despite being automatic, dishwashers also need routine cleaning to ensure proper functionality with every load. It’s the most important component in your warewashing program, so it’s crucial to clean it every day.
Here are a few tips to consider implementing into your dishwasher cleaning routine:
- First, drain and clear the water tank after every shift. Letting dirty water build up in the tank permits the growth of harmful bacteria and nasty odors.
- Second, thoroughly clean the wash arms, rinse arms, and pump screen. Remove each element at the end of every shift and deep clean them to prevent internal components from clogging over time.
- Finally, let the dishwasher dry at the end of each workday by propping the door open, even slightly. Damp environments are breeding grounds for the kinds of bacteria and mold that can compromise your operation and re-soil dishes.
The final common warewashing mistake is failing to routinely delime your dishwasher. Over time, water deposits limescale and mineral buildup on the walls and cleaning elements of your machine, reducing both wash effectiveness and machine lifespan with increased wear-and-tear.
When limescale builds up on heating elements, they wear out faster and cannot heat the machine to the proper temperatures to ensure thorough cleaning and sanitizing of dishware.
Rewashing dishes constantly and replacing machine parts are both costly and interrupt your cleaning operation. To prevent mineral build-up, use delimer on your machine bi-weekly to monthly, depending on the hardness of the water in your area.
Deliming can also dramatically reduce water and energy expenditures by improving machine performance.
Warewashing is the backbone of every commercial foodservice operation. Correcting these six common mistakes can ensure that your operation runs smoothly, efficiently, and properly, by cleaning dishes completely and protecting your machine.
Following these tips saves you valuable time, resources, and money by preventing re-washing, machine component failure, and extending the lifespan of your dishwasher.
Our Imperial Dade warewashing professionals are here to help. Visit us at Imperial Dade website.
