In every foodservice operation, staff have to deal with tough food soil. From cheese and eggs left on plates to sugary sauces baked onto prep ware, a lot of residue does not simply slide off into the trash can. That means someone has to manually scrape and scrub dishes before they can even be washed.
Fortunately, there are solutions that can help. From good dishroom procedures to helpful features on commercial dishwashers, there are ways to cut the time and burden of pre-scrapping.
What Makes What Stick?
Why is it that some foods are so hard to get off dishes and prep ware? It's all in the chemical breakdown that occurs while cooking and cooling. High heat causes proteins and carbohydrates to form chemical bonds with metal surfaces. Another type of reaction comes when hot, moist food cools onto a dish or flatware, as the moisture can bond with the surface. While this is more likely to occur on porous surfaces, such as stoneware and earthenware, even stainless steel gets scratched up over time and food soils stick to those worn-down areas.
Common Tough-to-Clean Foods Include
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Proteins: Eggs, cheese, and other baked-on dairy products
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Carbohydrates: Oatmeal and cereals, sticky rice, roasted potatoes
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High-Sugar Items: Pie filling, tomato-based sauces
Common Procedures for Good Results
Good pre-scrapping helps ensure even the most stubborn baked-on food soils come clean in the dishmachine.
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Presoak silverware and prep ware to loosen stubborn food soils.
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Scrape non-food items into the trash and spray.
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Scrub ware as you load it into the rack.
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Load dish racks correctly with space between ware so wash and rinse water reaches everything in the rack.
Time Saving Solutions for Tough Food Soil
Even with good procedures in place, pre-scrapping can take up a lot of time in the dishroom and is often an unpleasant task for staff. Dishroom analysis shows employees may spend 30 to 60 seconds pre-scrapping each rack of dishes, and even longer on prep ware. Over a full day, that extra labor adds up fast.
Fortunately, these helpful Hobart technologies cut the time needed for pre-scrapping, and can save an hour or two per day on washing.
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Automatic Soil Removal (ASR) collects and pumps out heavy food solids during operation. ASR filters out 80% of heavy soils, which means ware with more soil can be loaded in the machine. This reduces pre-scrapping labor by up to 20%.
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Adaptive Washing on the new FT2000 Flight Type monitors the ware going in and automatically adjusts the conveyor speed to wash heavier food soils as needed. Again, more soil can go into the machine with less pre-scrapping.
- NSF Pot & Pan Rating, available on all Hobart dishmachines, certifies that the wash system is powerful enough to remove tougher food soils off any type of ware.
Investing in a dishmachine with these features saves time in the dishroom, allowing staff to focus on other tasks in your operation. It also helps improve the quality of ware you use to serve customers, which protects the reputation of your food service operation.
Visit HobartClean.com to learn more about Hobart Dishwashing products and technologies.
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