Out With The Old, In With The New – Here Are Some Foodservice Fixes, Just For You. 

October is spooky season and this month, we wanted to share some foodservice scaries and how to avoid them! We want to make your dinnerware, flatware, glassware, and everything in between boo-tiful.

Metal Marked Plates

  • Problem: Electrons transfer from sliding plates across stainless-steel prep tables. 

    • Solution: Polish your stainless-steel tables with Stainless Steel polish – this will help remove excess metal on the table.
    • Quick Fix: Bar Keepers Friend on the plate’s top and bottom. This will help remove the metal transfer from your glaze, thereby eliminating transfer from the foot of one plate to the top of the next when they are stacked.

Chipped Dinnerware

  • Problem: Rim chips on dinnerware.

    • Reason #1: Plates might be stacked too high on your shelving!
    • Quick Fix: 
      • Create more room on storage shelves to allow for more clearance for dinnerware. Store dinnerware in multiple stacks to limit height and potential chipping.
    • Reason #2: Plates are banged against a waste container to remove excess food in ware washing prior to rinsing.
      • Quick Fix:
        • Discontinue banging plates. Use a Tablecraft Spatula to remove excess food.

Worn Glaze on Ceramic Dinnerware

  • Problem: Glaze is wearing off your dinnerware. 
    • Reason: Purchase more dinnerware. The more worn down the item is, the more bacteria grow in the plate due to the protective nature of the glaze rubbing off. Good news – you purchased STRONG dinnerware! The vessel has stood the test of time and outlived its expected lifespan, but unfortunately – the glaze has not! 
    • Quick Fix: Up your par levels and throw the worn item(s) away ASAP! 

Foggy Plastic Glasses

  • Problem: Plastic glasses are coming out of warewashing foggy. 
    • Reason: The chemicals in your dish tank are off – adjust to the proper settings, and you should be all good! 
    • Quick Fix: Adjust chemicals in warewashing! 

Glass Breakage – Thermal Shock

  • Problem: Your glasses are breaking and cracking sometimes even having the shams (bottom of the glass) fall right off.
    • Reason: When glass goes from too hot to too cold, too fast it causes a thermal shock.  Glass needs time to cool! If you put hot glassware, fresh from warewashing, back into service immediately by using it for cold beverages/adding ice to it, it will damage your glasses. 
    • Quick Fix: Up your par levels! Increasing your glassware levels will ensure that hot glasses are not immediately returned to service and go from hot to cold too quickly without a cooling period.  

Glass Breakage – Mechanical Shock

  • Problem: Glasses are breaking left and right!, and you are following the rules with regard to thermal shock.  So what could it be? 
    • Reason: Mechanical shock occurs when glass is stressed creating micro-fractures and areas of weakness.  
    • Quick Fix Do not use your glasses to bus flatware and do not stack glasses that are not made to be stacked.  Further, you should up your par levels, ASAP because mechanical shock can make thermal shock more exaggerated, resulting in double scaries!

Cracking Wood Boards

  • Problem: Wood boards are cracked, warped, or splitting.
    • Reason: This usually means that operators are leaving the boards under a heat source. Whether that means storing wood boards on Combi ovens or leaving them under heat lamps – wood has a lot of moisture, and heat will make any water evaporate in the wood. 
    • Quick Fix: To prevent this, do not put wood under any heat source for long periods and oil the boards frequently with a foodsafe Mineral Oil. 

Stained Melamine Dinnerware

  • Problem: Stained or discolored melamine.
    • Reason: Melamine is porous; acidic or very-bright foods can stain items over time. 
    • Quick Fix: Dip It – This product will help restore color in your melamine. Dip your stained melamine dinnerware in this product; it should help remove stains and bring some life back into the product! Note: Dip It will not work on hard-to-remove stains such as marinara sauce and beets. 

Dull Cutlery

  • Problem: Knives are VERY dull, taking longer to slice through food or your BOH staff are having more knife injuries.  
    • Reason: Knives must be sharpened regularly and honed daily. This is the only way to ensure that your knives are restored to their original form after each use. 
    • Quick Fix: Hone your knife or start fresh with new knives. 

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