When you are in the catering business,
there are all sorts of different items of ware to store, wash, and if you
concerned with outside catering, transport. Wherever your business is based,
space is often at a premium, and so having boxes and crates which store easily
is important. Today, many catering boxes, such as glass containers, plate
boxes, dishwasher racks, cutlery boxes, cup containers, and more are
produced in Euro sizes which makes stacking them easy.
Euro size is 600mm x 400mm and these will
fit on to Euro size transport dollys. There are smaller and larger sizes as
well, such as 800mm x 600mm, 400mm x 300mm, and 300m x 200mm, which, as you can
see, will all fit and stack on top of one another in various combinations. So,
for example, if you have a 600mm x 400mm crate you could stack four 300mm x
200mm cutlery boxes on top of it. Stacking these containers neatly on
top of each other, you could probably go up to ten containers high without any
trouble, and even higher if you have a warehouse and a forklift truck. The only
limit would be the maximum weight that the containers could handle.
Of course, cutlery items are relatively
small compared with plates, glassware, and so on, so you can use smaller
cutlery trays and boxes. For example, in schools or canteens, you can use a
four-compartment cutlery tray to hold knives, forks, tablespoons, and dessert
spoons, and these are ideal for self-service, as users can simply pick the items
they need. You can get trays like this which are dishwasher safe, and once
cleaned they will nest one inside another, so taking up absolutely minimum
storage space.
Washing cutlery is another matter. You can
use cutlery trays or ventilated cutlery boxes. This is a matter of
preference, but dishwasher experts tend to come down on the side of baskets for
washing cutlery. When it comes to loading them, the blades of knives and the
prongs of forks should point downwards, although many people have them pointing
upwards. There are good reasons for pointing them downwards, not the least of
which is that if you are careless or clumsy when you reach into the tub to grab
them, you could easily injure your hand and bleed all over your freshly washed
cutlery.
Having blades and prongs pointing downwards
makes the cutlery easier to unload directly into the cutlery drawer or storage
container. It also means that you are not touching the parts which are going to
come into contact with the food. You should also mix cutlery up in the baskets
and not have all knives in one, spoons in another, and so on. This is because
when the cutlery is mixed, the water and detergent can circulate better for
cleaning.
