All food service establishments must maintain certain standards of cleanliness. Part of this comes through regularly cleaning your commercial walk-in coolers in Eugene, OR.

Over time, it’s easy to build up collections of foods that are long past their expiration date, especially if your coolers aren’t particularly organized. The longer these foods hang around in your refrigerator, the more they can become a safety hazard, in that they harbor bacteria. This is especially true if any old food spills out into the refrigerator and does not get wiped up right away.

Here are a few steps to take to help you clean and organize your fridge to ensure you maintain the best standards of cleanliness possible in your restaurant or other commercial operation:

• Always unplug the unit first: You should never start cleaning with the unit still on. Eliminate the possibility of electrocution by unplugging the refrigerator before you get to work.
• Empty every shelf and drawer: Take everything out and put it in coolers with ice or other cold containers where the food will be safe during your cooling process. The best time to do this is right before you receive a new shipment of food, so your fridge is as clear as it’s going to get. Throw away anything that’s expired or has otherwise gone bad—even if it’s not clearly past its expiration date, you should get rid of it if you have any reason to suspect they’re compromised. Your motto should be “when in doubt, throw it out.”
• Wipe down the entire interior: Using a mixture of warm water and soap, take a sponge and thoroughly clean the inside of your refrigerator. You can also use microfiber mitts or cloths to scrub down the hard-to-reach spaces without worrying about leaving behind any debris. Toothbrushes can also be of assistance in tight corners—the bristles are just flexible and strong enough to do the trick. Once you’ve finished scrubbing the entire interior of the refrigerator, rinse it out with clean water.
• Disinfect: Once you’ve finished cleaning with soap and water, you should disinfect all the surfaces with a food-safe sanitizer. This will kill off any remaining bacteria or mold and will offer some additional protection for some time after you place your food items back inside the refrigerator. You don’t need to use as much sanitizer as you probably think you do—a little spread throughout the equipment should go a long way.
• Clean other parts while you’re at it: Once you’ve finished the inside of the fridge, clean some of the other parts, including the condenser and coils, as well as the top, sides and underneath sections of the refrigerator or freezer.
• Restock: Restock your items, but make sure you keep them organized so you don’t have to worry about items getting lost and going bad once again.

For more information about how you can better clean out your commercial refrigeration in Eugene, OR, contact the experts at American Refrigeration Inc. today.