Slick Spots and Basic Kitchen Safety

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The kitchen can be a hazardous place if you neglect simple and commonsensical safety practices. Practical advice like keeping your knife sharp and proper lighting can seem simple at first, but you can bet they are very important for the efficiency of your kitchen workflow.

Did you know that a huge amount of money is spent on injuries each month in kitchens all over the world? Most of these injuries were from fractures, dislocation, contusions, crushing and other slip and fall related injuries.

Slips and falls are of course caused and facilitated by spillages and unattended slick spots.

This article will point out practical ways to combat injuries cause by wet spots.

CAYG – clean as you go

You can read a longer discussion of the CAYG principle in the stewarding category of this blog. However, for our discussion here, allow me to give you a summary.

The clean as you go principle is just putting everything in its rightful place. So if you see a slick spot or you spill something, mop it right away so you can avoid trips and falls from happening.

Isolate the slick spot

When the slick spot is too large to mop immediately, then put some sort of cordon in place. The cordon is very effective to isolate large spillages, but it can also hamper the workflow traffic of your kitchen.
Nonetheless, it calls attention to the spillage and can give the custodian, or your staff, a clue as to where to start mopping when they get around to it.

Use warning signs

The least effective technique you can use to combat slips and falls is to use warning signs. Put a sign with a screaming, red “Warning: Wet Floor!” to alert the custodian or your co-workers of the slick spot. This is easier than cordoning off the spill, but it is less efficient because people may ignore it and it’s not immediately apparent which part of the floor is wet or not.

To conclude

Wet spots or slick spots due to spillages can cause injury if we do not take action immediately. I hope this article helped you get a bit of insight on kitchen safety. We can never be too arrogant to think that we are safe in our element if we neglect the basics of safety.

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