Do You Know How to Handle Glassware, China and Flatware to Prolong Their Service Life?

Libbey has a fantastic guide on how best to handle glassware, china and flatware. The guide gives information on how to prevent thermal and mechanical shock. Here is a summary of that guide. It is great for anyone who handles these items including church kitchens, hotels and even people in their own kitchen or bar.

Maximize the Service life of Glassware

• Keep an adequate supply of glasses on hand so that recently washed items won’t go directly into service
• Check the dishwasher temperature twice daily to make sure it’s at the appropriate level
• Replace worn glass washer brushes.
• Don’t pick up glasses in bouquets (more than 1 glass in each hand)
• Don’t put cold water or ice into a hot or even warm glass
• Bus glasses directly into racks or at least use bus trays with separate flatware baskets.
• Don’t put flatware into glasses
• Remove severely abraded glasses from service
• Always use an ice scoop
• Don’t stack glasses
• Pre-heat glasses with hot water before pouring hot drinks
• Don’t let glasses come in contact with the beer tap – it could cause minute abrasion and while it may not be apparent to the naked eye, it weakens the glass and will make the glassware more susceptible to breakage
• Avoid glass to glass contact at all times including storage in overhead racks
• Always handle glasses gently and quietly
• Always use the correct racks for stemware and tumblers
• Always let glasses reach room temperature before washing

Maximize the Service Life of China

• Don’t overload bus boxes and dish racks
• Don’t pile heavy items on lighter items
• Keep adequate supplies of china on hand to prevent recently washed items from going directly into service
• Always remove scraps carefully with rubber scraper or water spray
• Don’t use abrasive pads or other dishes to remove food scraps
• Replace worn rubber and plastic china scrapers
• Remove severely abraded china from service
• Don’t carry more dishes than you can safely handle
• Never load loose, mixed items into the dishwasher – load like items on each rack
• Never overload lowerator storage – stack china to the proper level
• Never stack dishes more than 16 inches high

Maximize the Service Life of Flatware

• Keep adequate supplies of flatware for rush periods
• Check the dishwasher temp daily and use only higher temperatures for flatware
• Never allow flatware to remain soiled overnight

• Presoak, thoroughly wash and dry flatware immediately after using
• Never load flatware into aluminum, copper or copper alloy containers for presoaking, use only plastic or stainless steel
• Always dissolve liquid and powder presoak compounds completely before adding flatware
• Never presoak flatware for longer than 15 minutes – change the presoak solution frequently
• Always wash flatware in vertical positions in temperatures above 135 degrees F. Rinse in clean water at 180 degrees F.
• Always use a nonabrasive, noncorrosive cleaning agent and a water softener or wetting agent.
• Always store flatware in a dry area away from cooking fumes and corrosive materials
• Remove corroded flatware from service

Just by following these tips, you can lengthen the service life of your glassware, china and flatware. This will help reduce your costs since you won’t have to replace these items as frequently. To get the Libby manual that you can download and print for your workstations to remind your staff how to handle these items, click here.

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