Anyone who works in the food service industry knows, complaints about cleaning and maintenance about the fryers they use can often be heard, each and every shift. Often staffed by younger people, these establishments face greater challenges in not only providing a safer work environment, but often dealing with the loss and issues surrounding injuries related to their equipment. A question comes up, is it more cost effective to continue to do business as usual, or hire out an independent outside agent to deal with the fryers- and the answer may surprise you.
One case report that may really change the way you look at your fryer maintenance comes from Colorado. Following standard procedure for cleaning and maintenance of her employer’s fryers while cleaning the filters, she fell. The employee sustained second and third degree burns covering ten percent of her body and was hospitalized for four days, requiring extensive plastic surgery due to the scarring. Safety issues can and often do occur even in the safest of work environments- and being aware of those issues that can sometimes happen out of nowhere, it seems choosing an outside service to deal with fryer maintenance would be an easy choice.
The problem often comes in when it comes to budgets- tough economic times have businesses tightening their belts more and more, and it may not occur to many that by improving the safety of their employees- they can also save money. Hiring a Filtafry technician for weekly or biweekly maintenance can not only improve oil quality, reduce the amount of oil needed to be used and also solve that issue of disposal- but it can greatly reduce not only the risk, but the incidence of fryer related injury. Bringing in someone who is specially trained to deal with solely the fryer is certainly worth the money, and knowing that your employees are safe and able to focus on other tasks that may not pose such a risk is well worth the cost. However, take into account insurance costs, medical costs, and then also throw in the non-safety related costs of oil replacement, equipment replacement, and waste oil removal- and the answer gets a little more balanced. A Filtafry technician can safely do in one hour what would take a regular staff member sometimes up to six hours to complete- and they can do it already trained in stringent safety measures and in a way that prevents excess grease from accumulating on the floor- also reducing the risk of slip and fall incidents.
Safety is priority one at your place of business- no restaurant owner wants to have something horrible happen, as seen in the example cited above, and even from the standpoint of someone just looking to lower costs, hiring a Filtafry technician for your fryer needs seems to be a much safer and wiser choice than continued risk to regular staff. Being able to have less downtime and improve the overall safety, moral and focus of your restaurant and food service staff is certainly one of the most important things you can do.