In the food and restaurant trades, 10% of work accidents are because of a slip, reveals the INRS. Because the consequences of a fall can be serious, you can discover some tips to follow to minimize the risks and protect yourself via our article about restaurant kitchen safety: how to reduce slips, trips, and falls?
The employer must all ensure the safety and health protection of his employees. Each owner must set up a detailed plan for employees’ and guests’ safety guarantees.
Restaurants can optimize the protection of their teams. The most essential thing is choosing suitable equipment.
Non-slip floors are crucial. It prevents employees from slipping during service.
Devices for draining water from the floor are also essential. It allows the use of squeegees during cleaning that can cause serious slippery accidents.
Pay attention to the stairs. It can be accident-prone!
An anti-slip system on the ground and a guardrail to prevent falls are essential.
Kitchen shoes with slip resistance are ideal in this case.
Table of Contents
- How to Prevent Falls and Slips?
- 10 Items Every Restaurant Should Have To Prevent Workplace Accidents
- Falls with Potentially Serious Consequences
- The Risks of Falling in the Restaurant Business
- For the Employer in a Restaurant, What Steps to Take?
- For the Catering Company, How to Protect the Employees?
- Individual Protection Measures
- Conclusions
How to Prevent Falls and Slips?
A suitable soil
The type of flooring in your business is one of the key factors that increase the risk of falls and slips in the workplace. Indeed, a smooth, greasy, or wet surface makes the ground slippery. It becomes difficult to circulate and move.
The choice of floor covering is essential. The slip threshold must be compatible with the activity and consider the dynamic friction coefficient, the rate of exposure to pollutants inherent, and the experimental standard for classifying the premises.
To ensure optimal working conditions, it is imperative that you, as an employer, ensure that the floors in your kitchens, your laboratory, or your point of sale are always clean and dry.
Organization of space and premises
The aim is to limit the risk of serious injury during a fall. The fall itself is complex to avoid. It is why a suitable environment and collective protective equipment are essential.
Thus, in the event of a fall or slip, the employee does not risk hitting his head or causing injury by catching up with a sharp or harmful element. The law does not provide for specific provisions aimed at preventing collisions, falls, and slips in the workplace.
However, the general standards of Article L. 4121-1 require the employer to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and protect the health of its employees.
The risks associated with the activity of the company must be assessed so that measures can be taken according to these risks. The design of workplaces and buildings contributes directly to the prevention of all restaurant risks and must consider falls, slips, and other types of accidents.
Compliant equipment
Besides collective protective equipment, the employer must also ensure the individual protection of his employees. Even if your industrial floor equipment is designed to be non-slip, it is still preferable to equip your employees with non-slip safety shoes. Non-slip shoes should be comfortable and suitable for the activity you are doing. There are three resistance classes.
Educate employees
Training is essential. Each of your employees must be made aware of the risks of slips and falls. Training can be organized regularly (at the level of training every quarter) to inform your employees about the right actions to adopt and risky situations to avoid.
Besides, the most important information, such as the speed at which movements must be made, must be visible to all employees through warning signs.
10 Items Every Restaurant Should Have To Prevent Workplace Accidents
Grease traps
Reducing the hot oil content and cleaning the fryers poses a risk of burns. Grease traps and other fryer equipment can reduce this risk. You can look for these items when buying a deep fryer to improve your frying safety.
- The fryers equipped with lifting baskets automatically reduce food into hot oil or withdraw them once the cooking
- Fryer splash guard
Non-slip shoes
You probably already know that slips, trips, and falls are the most common injuries in restaurants.
Sturdy footwear will prevent slipping, injury, and also protect your employees’ feet and ankles from falling objects or splashes that can cause skin burns. These good non-slip shoes are crucial for all employees.
Floor mats
Take the non-slip mats one step further to prevent slips and falls. Features to look for are:
- Large holes for drainage and traction
- Grip or suction cup
- Thick and durable rubber
- Tangle or cut to size to cover any work surface
The anti-fatigue mats have a dual purpose. They are more comfortable for kitchen staff who stand for hours during working.
Gloves and hand cover
The hands of your staff are essential to keeping the kitchen running smoothly. It also puts them in the crosshairs of injuries. Please leep the kitchen safe with hand protection clothing and have staff use it. Gloves, mittens, or pot holders are ideal to reach ovens or to check food on the hot stove. Cut-prevention gloves will protect hands when cutting.
Knife sharpeners
A sharp knife is more protective than a dull knife. Dull blades slip mid-slice and can cause lacerations. Keep knives sharp and make sure they are tidy. Blocks, cabinets, knife posts, and magnetic strips allow knives to be safely stored and sharpened. However, they may vary in terms of use and hygiene.
Protection devices
A safe way to prevent injury is to keep the body parts away from kitchen sharpen items. So, protections are vital:
- Some grilles offer built-in protection bars
- Splash guards prevent hot oil from getting stuck in clothes and skin
- Guards on slicing tools keep the blades out of reach
It is also important to train employees in the proper use and maintenance of all safety equipment.
Fire suppression
An advanced fire suppression system is necessary. When triggered, the system can shut off gas lines and spray extinguishing agents automatically.
Cart and basket
Equipment and food preparation can be bulky, putting workers at back injury. With any movement in the kitchen, the staff should have a process for communicating. A clear announcement of intention and movement can be the key to avoiding slips, trips, and falls.
Food and waste storage containers
From food preparation to cleaning, professional kitchens require several containers for different uses.
- Ingredient boxes
- Boxes and food storage containers with lids
- Food storage
- Vegetable boxes
- The rubbish bins
- Buckets for broken glasses
Documented security policy
A kitchen fully equipped with safety item is useless when the staff does not know about it or the way to use it correctly. To optimize staff safety, please create a safety policy through document.
- Specify all safety item, its location, and correct methodology. It should also include a first aid kit. Keep the manuals for safety equipment.
- Make workers aware of hygiene and safety protocols.
- Provide evacuation plans and express the place of emergency exits.
- Describe the communication expectations, as well as any security processes.
Do you have a security policy? You may save money on business insurance.
Falls with Potentially Serious Consequences
According to the INRS, walk-drops are the second most common cause of a work accident. On their own, they represent 13% of accidents recorded in French companies or over 80,000 cases per year.
Often perceived as benign, falls can cause serious injuries, permanent disabilities, and even death. However, the severity of the injuries depends on the circumstances of the accident. The damage can be consequent to direct contact with the ground. It is also because the person tries to catch up with the closest support.
Besides, hazardous elements in the work environment increase the potential severity of a fall. Finally, even when the victim does not fall, she can suffer because of lumbago, sprains, bruises, wounds, or fractures because of the imbalance.
The Risks of Falling in the Restaurant Business
According to the specialists in professional catering businesses, over 1,680,000 days are lost per year because of risks in catering. And that 41% of accidents are linked to falls. It is a considerable figure!
Many accidents result from falling stairs, slips in the kitchen or the dining room. Improving the working conditions of employees and preventing accidents and occupational diseases represents a major challenge for an entire sector of activity.
For the Employer in a Restaurant, What Steps to Take?
The employer must all ensure the safety and health protection of his employees. With this in mind, they are obliged to take measures to prevent occupational risks and to make the teams aware of these risks.
The Decree number 2001-1016 of 5 November 2001 provides that the employer transcribes and updates the results of the assessment of the risks to the health and safety of workers in a single document. It has been a legal obligation since November 7, 2002. This single document must comprise:
- An inventory of the risks identified in each of the work units;
- A classification of these risks;
- Proposals for actions to be implemented.
Denote that we must update this single document every year. Likewise, in the event of a major arrangement, you can change the safety or working conditions. Employees, staff representatives, the labor inspector as well as occupational medicine can consult it.
For the Catering Company, How to Protect the Employees?
Companies can optimize the protection of their teams by choosing suitable equipment. First, non-slip floors prevent employees from slipping during service. Well thought out, these coatings now combine aesthetics and safety.
In the kitchen, devices for draining water from the floor are also essential or slight slopes, allowing the use of squeegees during cleaning. Also, pay attention to the stairs, it can be accident-prone! An anti-slip system on the ground and a guardrail to prevent falls are essential.
Individual Protection Measures
For the catering employees, you can opt for different personal protection devices. For example, choose a standard kitchen outfit. Kitchen shoes are also essential as they provide both comforts throughout the service and foot support.
Some of these shoes also come with non-slip soles and most protection against the risk of burns and other injuries thanks to a resistant shell. A quality kitchen jacket and trousers are also a first bulwark against the various risks incurred daily in the restaurant industry.
Conclusions
Restaurant trades can be physically demanding: sharp tools, repetitive movements, heavy equipment, hot surfaces, spills, and a rushed work environment. They put employees at risk of injury.
Make safety part of your culture, whether it is a quarterly training session or a quick safety tip added to team meetings. Then, take advantage of the onboarding of new employees to train new members of your team in safety procedures. The best way to stop dangerous habits is to prevent them.