CLEANING DUTIES: bring it to the DISHWASHING MACHINES

In this modern age and time, dining out has become a norm, or rather almost a necessity. Hedging on this way of life, restaurants are opening up every day and everywhere. Delicious food and impeccable service aside, sanitation can be a bane to many restaurateurs.

According to the Food & Drug Administration Food Code (FDA), dishes must be washed and scrubbed in soapy water followed by rinsing with clean water. The last step would be to soak the dishes in water with germ-killing sanitizers with a minimum of 110 degrees Fahrenheit to eliminate all bacteria. Yet, research published in the Journal of Food Engineering repor ted that each material used to make kitchen utensils respond differently to cleaning methods. It was found that steel knives, spoons, forks and plastic trays seemed to be the best home for bacterial contaminants as compared to ceramic plates.1 Dif ferent bacteria prefer dif ferent materials to sur vive on and at times the naked eye may see the utensil as clean but there is a possibility of it carrying a food-borne disease. Some other issues affecting the manual dishwashing method in a commercial environment include:

• Not meeting hygiene standards as temperature sanitising is hard to achieve
• Less economical as hand washing uses more water and detergent
• Not dishware friendly as manual handling causes more scratches and breakages
• Non-ef fective use of kitchen space as manual wash requires more space

• More work place hazards and dif ficulties to cope with peak hours
• Dishware needs to be towel-dried, jeopardizing hygiene

With a growing pool of customers, how would the restaurant cope? To begin with, a restaurateur is already a visionary who look into long term investments; thus what about an electronically powered and smart dishwashing machine?

1 MANUAL DISHWASHING STUDY DIGS UP DIRT ON DISH CLEANLINESS. Retrieved from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/dishwash.htm

GAINING AN EDGE WITH THE WINTERHALTER DISHWASHER
Undeniably one of the earliest pioneers in the world of kitchen appliances, Karl Winterhalter was a man of mechanics, dabbling in different products and appliances before setting his specialization in kitchen equipment, more precisely commercial dishwashers. He discovered a prototype of a simple dishwashing machine at a trade fair back in 1956 and hanging to that insight, he developed and launched a rather different machine in 1957 that later proved to suit the demand of the commercial operators at the time. He continued to focus on improving the dishwashing mechanism and today, the family owned business has around 1000 employees worldwide and supply mainly from its 3 production sites which include the headquarters in Meckenbeuren on Lake Constance and factories in Endingen near the Black Forest and Rüthi in the Swiss Rhine Valley.

With products going worldwide, it is clear that the company needs to make its presence in as many parts of the world possible, living up its key principle that “customer has top priority”. Winterhalter has 38 offices with accumulative of 1000 staffs all over the world, in order to reach customers more effectively and efficiently. It has expanded to Southeast Asia with showrooms and offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam whilst its Asia counterparts are located at China, Japan and India with plans to include even more countries.

DISHWASHING SOLUTIONS WITH WINTERHALTER
About 20-35% of energy cost in the restaurant is attributed to the washing area and in today’s increasing conservation consciousness, ‘cost-saving’ is no longer confined to meaning cost of the investment but also include running costs and conservation resources. If the kitchen segment already consumes so much energy, the challenge is therefore to engineer machinery that reduces that amount of consumption at the same time provide solutions to better delegate manual labor.

As the specialist for commercial washing systems, the name Winterhalter stands for innovation and reliability in commercial kitchen for decades. A complete solution provider for warewashing machines, detergents, water treatment and accessories, hygienic cleaning results is guaranteed at any time.

New ideas continue to drive the company and apart from being the first manufacturer to offer the energy-efficient option with integrated heat-exchangers for its full range of machines, it also pioneered fully digital touch screen controls for hygiene data and error history readings in dishwashers, significantly promoting standards of HACCP compliance and serviceability in commercial dishwashers. Winterhalter’s latest UC series range of undercounter machines are the only commercial warewashers capable of telling a wine glass apart from a beer glass and wash the different items with specially customized programmes for optimum result and protection of materials.

The kitchen is a place where synchronization matters and that include the washing area. With the help of the latest training programmes, cleaning and hygiene staff will be up to speed in no time. Regular service and maintenance work can be requested at anytime and Winterhalter’s extensive network of qualified partners guarantees rapid and professional support at your door.

LEADING THE INNOVATION IN DISHWASHERS
Backed by years of experience and constant execution of inventive solutions, Winterhalter was accorded Readers’ Choice Award in the warewashing technology category at the BEST of Market 2012, presented at the Internorga trade fair in Hamburg. The award is based on the market research conducted by the three German specialist journals FirstClass, 24 Stunden Gastlichkeit and GVmanager. In a survey carried out at the end of 2011, around 2,400 decision-makers from the hotel, the gastronomy and the commercial catering industry were asked to assess 400 manufacturers of the gastronomy supply industry regarding price/performance ratio, quality and service.

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WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN INVESTING IN A DISHWASHER?

How important is a dishwasher to an F&B outlet?
It aids the achievement of industry hygiene standards.

Designed to cope with heavy duty work with a high turnover of cleaned utensils.

Keep operating cost low with new technologies in water and energy conservation.

How does a commercial dishwasher work?
Soiled dishes are pre-scrapped, arranged in a dish rack, pre-rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher. In the machine, dishes are washed with detergent water followed by a fresh water rinse. Hot water of different degrees is used for high level of sanitization. Rinse aid is added and the high rinse temperature of 85° dry dishes without the need for towels, avoiding cross contamination.

What if there isn’t enough space for a dishwasher?
Most machines are compact-designed even for back-of-house areas. Accessories such as corner roller tables and corner dryer help to maximize space.

Is it expensive to run a commercial warewasher?
It is proven that the cost of washing per item is lower in a commercial dishwasher as the wash water in the machine is reused for many cycles, saving electricity and chemicals.

Can I wash different items in the same machine?
New systems in dishwashers have made it possible to adjust factors for clean results of different wash items while protecting sensitive materials.

Can stem glasses be washed in the machine?
Yes, as new technology automatically adjusts the pressure and temperature factors to a glass-friendly level and together with the suitable water treatment system for breakage and polish-free glass washing.

What to look out for when choosing a dishwasher?
As a dishwasher normally lasts up to 8-10 years, you would choose one that suits your operation and space, that is user-friendly, low in running cost, with parts availability and after-sales-support.

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