4 Tips to Plan Commercial Catering Equipment Installation

Planning a commercial catering equipment installation project is a big job – there are lots of elements to consider to get everything just right.  The starting point is planning the layout of the kitchen and where the main elements will be placed.  Here are some top tips to help you with this.

The layout options

The first thing to consider is the overall layout of the kitchen.  There are three main styles that are commonly used in commercial kitchens – island, zone and assembly line style.

With an island style, there is one main block in the centre of the kitchen with the cooking equipment in the middle.  Food preparation, storage and transition areas for serving food are located on outer walls.  Or in some cases, this is reversed.

With zone style, the kitchen is split into sections for the main jobs.  So there’s a preparation area, a cooking area, a place for the fridges and freezers and a washing and cleaning area as well as the serving area.

Assembly line layouts are ideal if you make the same food most of the time such as a pizza or sandwich café.  Here, a line is created with a conveyor belt style operation that the food moves along and receives the various ingredients or cooking stages before reaching the serving area.

Keep food preparation segregated

It is important that food preparation areas can be segregated into the different types of food to avoid cross-contamination and to make for an easy flow into the next area of the kitchen.  There should be a series of preparation areas depending on what the business does including:

• Raw meat and fish
• Vegetables
• Prepared or ready-cooked foods
• Poultry preparation
• Pastry and dessert

Environmental Health officers are very big on this segregation, so it is important to factor it in when designing the kitchen.

Have the right number of sinks

It is easy to think each kitchen needs just a single sink, but best practice is to have more than one.  There should be a sink by the fish or meat preparation area plus another by the vegetable preparation.  This keeps raw products separated from other foods. 

You will then also want to have hand washbasins with drying facilities at key intervals around the kitchen so staff can easily keep their hands clean – without using the sinks designated for the food preparation.  This reduces the risk of cross-contamination.

Maintenance and repairs

As you plan the kitchen, it is always worth remembering that you are going to need commercial catering equipment repairs at some point.  If the boiler is located in the kitchen area, you may also need boiler system repairs.  Lay out the room so that these services can be carried out quickly and without moving too many other appliances.

If you need experts in everything from boiler system servicing and commercial heating to commercial catering servicing and you are in Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Oldbury, Smethwick and Walsall or the surrounding areas, give us a call today to discuss your project!