Advice for re-opening food service establishments

Is your food service business re-opening to the public soon?

We’ve prepared some quick tips for you to follow to ensure the water serving your business premises is clean and safe for employees and customers on re-opening.

• Submit a meter reading
• Ensure the cleanliness of your equipment
• Examine drains for blockages
• Check toilets are still flushing
• Think about what you put down the sink

Whether your business has been open or closed during the lockdown, your business water consumption will likely have dropped. With the change in consumption, harmful bacteria could have formed in your water system, and drains could have become blocked over time. Here is a handy checklist of what you can do to ensure you maintain the highest standards of hygiene and water quality for the re-opening of your business.

Submit a meter reading

To help ensure your next water bill is up-to-date and based on actual consumption your business should be submitting regular meter readings to your water retailer. We make it easy to submit regular meter readings online, to ensure our customer’s bills stay up-to-date and they only pay for what they use. Taking regular meter readings can also highlight irregular spikes in water usage, which could indicate a leak. Early leak detection is crucial to finding a fixing a leak, reducing physical damage and costs incurred. Read more about leak detection here.

Ensure the cleanliness of your equipment

Clean your equipment according to the manufacturer's grease management instructions. Any excess grease left in the system could have hardened since you closed your premises, encouraging the growth of bacteria, bad odors, blockages, and pests.

Examine drains for blockages

It is possible that kitchen drains have dried up, causing waste to stick to the pipes creating damaging blockages. To fix this, flush your drains with water and check your sink for blockages that could have formed over the lockdown period. And remember, don’t dispose of any fats, oil and grease down sinks or drains if you want to avoid a catastrophic fatberg. More information on how you can protect your business from the effects of fatbergs can be found in our blog, ‘The war on FOG – how your business can prevent fatbergs’

Check toilets are still flushing

Before opening your doors to the public, flush your customer toilets several times to check that the system is still flowing and is free of obstructions.

Think about what you put down the sink

Campaigns, such as #ThinkSink, have been created to help the public and businesses understand the importance of disposing of FOG in the right way. Food scraps and cooled fats should be collected and disposed of into bins or preferably food waste recycling containers. A sink strainer can help prevent food scraps from going down the sink and many sewage companies provide fat traps free of charge. When food outlets reopen to the public, the sudden increase in flow could lead to blockages in the sewer. You can help by using sink strainers and training staff members to avoid putting any kitchen and food waste down the drain.