The following article ran in the November 1946 issue, when Pest Management Professional was named Pests. (View a PDF of the original article.)
By John G. Vogel, President Vogel-Ritt, Inc.
The American is becoming increasingly conscious of sanitation.
He is particularly fussy about his food—how it is prepared, how it is served and where he is going to eat it.
In other words, is the food good, fresh and tasty?
Are the dishes clean?
Are the surroundings inviting and sanitary?
There are many factors which contribute to sanitary conditions in a food establishment. Foremost of these is the cleanliness of the employees, not only from the standpoint of their health condition, but also their habits in keeping themselves clean—body and clothes. Some cities insist on periodic physical examinations of all persons employed in eating establishments. These people handle and serve the food and, therefore, their cleanliness is vital. Your customers are critical of your employees and their appearance can make or break the operator of a restaurant.
Keep your dishes clean. Not only your serving dishes, but your cooking utensils. Your customers inspect the dishes and one little lipstick mark on a drinking glass or a speck of food on a fork is evidence to them that you do not take dishwashing seriously.
It is not too much work to ask those serving your foods and drinks to carry a clean napkin and wipe over each dish before it is placed before the customer. In this manner if a bit of food has adhered to the dish during the washing process, it will be discovered before the customer can criticize. Many times the mark on a dish or silverware is only a soap stain and wiping the dish before serving will remove it. If you have dirty dishes it is best that you know it before the customer.
Remember, too, that although the public may not be invited to inspect your kitchen, there are many trades-people and salesmen who do have access, and every one of these is as critical, if not more, than the city or federal inspector who visits you now and then. These salesmen and tradespeople are potential customers and advertisers, and what they find in the kitchen has a great deal of bearing on whether they enter through the front door when looking for a place to eat, and also what they tell their friends.
Keep your washrooms clean. Keep them well supplied with soap and towels. Inspect your washrooms, not once a day, but once every hour. You never know what condition the last party left it in, and here again is something that is better for you to discover than the customer.
Garbage disposal is important. Duncan Hines, author of several books including “Adventures in Good Eating,” says that when he inspects a restaurant he first goes to the rear of the building and observes how the garbage is disposed of. If this condition is unsatisfactory he goes no further. Garbage should be placed in covered cans and disposed of at least once each day. The can should be cleaned with hot water and disinfected at least once each day. The garbage can presents an ideal culture for the development of bacteria. It is also the haven for flies and very attractive to rats and mice. Your care in this matter will have a great deal to do with the insect and rodent problem which is present to some degree in all food establishments. To what degree depends a great deal on your care in matters heretofore mentioned. It has been said that Man is only interested in that which he can see. Maybe he can’t see bacteria, but he can sure see those carriers of bacteria: namely, insects and rodents. That brings us to the subject in which you should be vitally interested, Pest Control.
Don’t buy an exterminating product, make one application and satisfy your conscience that you have done all that is possible to correct your insect and rodent conditions. You must be constantly on the alert to this problem. All of the matters we have mentioned have a bearing on how successful you will be in controlling these menaces to not only health, but to your Cash Register. Of course you are not—and do not want to be a “Jack of All Trades,” and you cannot expect to have the knowledge, and wherewithal to be your own Sanitation Engineer. You don’t have to. At a reasonable cost you can obtain the services of a reliable exterminating company to arrange an intelligent Pest Control Program consisting of periodic inspection and treatments of your establishment.
Be careful in the choice of your Pest Control Operator. Beware of the man who promises complete and lasting extermination with one treatment. Today, even with the great advances made in insect and rodent control chemicals and methods during the national emergency, it is not possible to give anyone lasting insurance against pests with a single application of some “magic killer.”
Place your problems in the hands of an established exterminating company in your area. Most of the better Pest Control firms are members of the National Pest Control Association*, and evidence of this membership should be your assurance that you are engaging a recognized Pest Control Operator. He operates in conformity with the ethical standards of this organization. Beware, too, of the Pest Control salesman whose major sales argument is PRICE. He is interested in getting your order. His interest may end at this point.
Before placing an order or signing a contract investigate the responsibility of the Pest Control firm to convince yourself of its reputation for carrying out its obligations. There are no bargains in good Pest Control work.
But placing an order with a Pest Control operator alone is not the complete answer to your problem. He has no magic wand and he cannot do his work effectively without your cooperation. He may prescribe a sanitary program which will aid in materially reducing the conditions which contribute to your insect and rodent infestations. He may even occasionally advise some minor structural changes which, in the long run will reduce infestations and, at the same time make your problem less costly to you. In many cases the customer takes the advice of his Pest Control Operator too lightly. If, here and there, the exterminator recommends structural changes, such as Rat Proofing, etc., they are usually inexpensive changes and may result in tenfold saving over a period of years, plus more satisfactory control in the meantime. So cooperate to the best of your ability with the man who handles your Pest Control.
To summarize, here are suggestions for your consideration which are just as vital to your success as good food, well prepared. They all deal with sanitation:
- Clean dishes and silverware.
- Clean rest rooms.
- Clean, healthy employees.
- Proper garbage disposal.
- Clean kitchen equipment and utensils.
- Efficient Pest Control Service.
Of all business failures, restaurants constitute 60%. No doubt this percentage would be far less if the restaurant operator would give more attention to sanitation.
Editors NOTE: Through the courtesy of “Restaurant Bulletin and News of Pennsylvania” we are privileged to republish this article that appeared in the August 1946 issue. Charles D. Cushing collaborated with Mr. Vogel in writing this article.
PESTS for November, 1946
* In 1999, the National Pest Control Association changed its name to the National Pest Management Association.
Photo credit: AV Dezign | www.avdezign.ca | Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
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