How to Keep Odors From Ruining Your Food

Restaurants rely on proper ventilation both to make sure that they meet health and safety standards and to maintain the quality of their food. Unpleasant odors are often the explanation for why your food doesn't taste like it should. Fortunately, when you purchase the right equipment, you'll have an easier time keeping odors under control.

The smell of overcooked or burnt foot can remain in the air, and customers will be able to smell it, which can affect how they taste their food. Besides burnt food, you must also worry about raw ingredients used to cook food. The vapors from cooking may remain in the air and eventually affect the flavor of unrelated food.

Also, as your chefs cook up dishes, the kitchen can become coated with grease, which can cause unsanitary conditions if not taken care of. The grease will also affect the quality of your food. In addition, your customers might notice the smell while eating if you aren't able to redirect offensive odors away.

Fortunately, with the right ventilation equipment, you may be able to get offensive odors under control. Ventilation hoods are essential in a commercial kitchen because they exhaust grease and gas from the kitchen. They are typically installed over appliances that generate high amounts of heat.

Ventilation hoods need grease traps to trap grease that comes from the air to reduce greasy messes in the kitchen. The trap stores the grease is so that it can later be disposed of, as you should make sure grease is kept out of the sanitary sewers or a septic system.

Your ventilation hood should also have a high-efficiency hood filter. The hood filter is the first line of defense when protecting a ventilation system from grease. The best grease filters are resistant to corrosion and are heavy-duty.

Don't allow your hood filter to become greasy, or it may affect how your food tastes. You would also have smoky air and increased temperatures in the kitchen, creating a potential fire hazard and an uncomfortable work environment for employees. Your exhaust system will also be placed under greater strain.

Along with your ventilation hood, you'll need to exhaust air to remove odors, and you'll also need makeup air to replace the air you exhaust. Otherwise, you'll create negative pressure and will have issues such as poor air quality and the back-venting of combustion gases. If you are experiencing back-venting, contact an HVAC technician.

In addition to proper ventilation, you can keep odors down through spray odor control using a charcoal/odor oxidant blend. These spray systems will not fully cut down on odors, so it's recommended that they be used in combination with an exhaust system.

The smell of your restaurant plays a strong role in the overall impression that your restaurant will make. You may want to use other methods to modify the smell of your restaurant, such as placing dumpsters far away from entry points into your restaurant. For external garbage cans, make sure to empty them frequently so they don't attract pests.

To improve the smell of your restaurant inside, and to heighten the experience as your customers enjoy their food, burn cinnamon sticks or burn scented candles that fill the restaurant with pleasant kitchen smells.

If your commercial restaurant is looking for a way to cut down on odors to improve the quality of your food and dining experience, make sure to contact us at Colonial Kitchen Fabrication & Sheet Metal. We offer a variety of commercial restaurant solutions, including exhaust hoods and ductwork.