It’s one thing to scrape off leftover food from a plate that’s been used in serving, but pots and pans with baked-on food take time and more than a little elbow grease to get completely clean.
Anyone using the manual three-compartment sink method to wash pots and pans know first-hand the pain points that come with the task. Not only are baked-on or burned foods and grease hard to get off, but the pots and pans themselves are bulky and heavy, making them hard to handle. The whole process is time consuming and ties up valuable labor resources.
Some operators might try to improve productivity by running pots and pans through a standard commercial dishwasher. But if the dish machine they’ve selected isn’t designed to handle pots and pans, the ware may not fit or end result might not be as clean as you would like.
Using a commercial dishwasher has many benefits over washing pots and pans by hand. One of the biggest is the time savings. Rather than spending hours scrubbing away at baked on foods, the dishwasher cycles through a cleaning in a matter of minutes. Without the human element involved in handwashing, operators are guaranteed consistent sanitization, and the high heat and a stronger force of water from the dish machine provide a better clean.
There are, of course, pot and pan dishwashers specifically designed for the job. These are great in operations like bakeries or retail where someone is dedicated to washing prepware three or more hours per day. But options are also available with other types of commercial dishwashers to provide effective pot and pan washing. This provides greater flexibility to achieve the cleanliness and sanitization level necessary for the wide variety of ware in many foodservice operations, with less reliance on hand washing.
For over a decade, Hobart has been adding NSF rated pot and pan cycles to its commercial dishwashers, starting with the AM series door type models. This rating is now available on all of Hobart’s commercial dishwashers, including the prep washer. rack conveyor and flight type. Dishmachines with the pot and pan rating have an adjustable cycle length, allowing pots and pans to go through a longer, extended cycles.
Hobart’s dish machines are designed with pots and pans in mind, having taller openings to allow for the larger prepware cleaned during pot and pan cycles. There are also racks specifically designed to hold and run several sheet pans at a time.
All of Hobart’s machines with the pot and pan mode are NSF certified. This means that the equipment has gone through stringent testing in order to meet specific requirements that ensure a high level of food safety and cleaning performance. NSF International is a third-party organization that certifies equipment used in foodservice operations. The rating lets operators and inspectors know that the equipment is designed to high standards that meet the FDA food code.
In order to receive the NSF rating for pots and pans, each Hobart dish machine is tested for both washability and sanitization. The pot and pan test includes running a rack of steam pans coated with baked on pie filling through the pot and pan cycle, and having them come out completely clean. Tests also include running ware through the cycle with thermal couples to test the heat for proper sanitization.
“We wanted to provide an extra level of washability and sanitizing with our commercial dishwashers because we felt there were a number of applications where this might dramatically improve productivity, such as a bar or quickservice restaurant where there was a need to wash a few things that have been used for baking food,” said Joel Hipp, Hobart Engineering Manager. “Achieving the NSF rating is just one way Hobart guarantees that the pot and pan mode is true to its claims of cleanliness.”
For more information on Hobart NSF pot and pan rated commercial dishwashers visit www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers