Stainless steel flatware is one of the most popular flatware choices in commercial settings. There’s a simple elegance to the stainless steel design that suits restaurants, hotels, or eateries of any description.
Regardless of which flatware you use, you must know how to care for them in a commercial setting. You will have hundreds, possibly thousands of pieces of silverware throughout your establishment and you must clean them thoroughly while ensuring you don’t damage them.
It can be challenging, but we’ve put together a guide on silverware care and how to clean stainless steel flatware. Read our tips and your items will remain in excellent condition to dazzle your guests for many years.
Handling Your Commercial Stainless Steel Tableware
The first step in the maintenance routine is understanding how to handle your commercial tableware. As a general rule, ensure you separate your items depending on what they are and what they are made from.
For instance, if you have stainless steel holloware and gold-plated utensils, you should handle both separately. Keeping the different materials away from one another will prevent any scratches or chips from happening.
This will also make life easier when you start cleaning stainless steel flatware or silverware. If everything is separated, you don’t have to worry about accidentally cleaning something the wrong way.
Cleaning Stainless Steel Flatware & Silverware
You should split the cleaning process into three parts:
- Pre-cleaning
- Cleaning
- Drying
To begin, make a clear effort to remove all flatware and silverware from tables as quickly as possible after they’ve been used. The longer you allow food or liquid to linger on your tableware, the harder it becomes to clean. You ideally want to begin the pre-cleaning cycle before any food starts to solidify and stick to the tableware.
Pre-cleaning flatware
Prior to washing your flatware, soak it in a tub of warm water. This is a critical step in silverware care as it helps get rid of certain foods or liquids with a high acidity content. The acidity in these foods can corrode silver-plated metal or cause rapid discoloration.
Prevent this by soaking your items in a tub with warm water and an alkaline cleaning solution. The alkaline neutralizes the acids and helps to get rid of any food before it can crust over. Leave your utensils in this solution for around 10 minutes before taking them out and getting ready for the main wash.
Cleaning stainless steel flatware
Understanding how to clean stainless steel flatware is simple. You can machine wash your silverware, but be sure you use different cycles for specific materials. As an example, if you have stainless steel cutlery sets and sterling silver accessories, wash them separately. Sterling silver requires a different wash cycle as it needs to be washed at a lower temperature to avoid corrosion.
When loading your washer, always make sure the utensils are placed with their handles facing down. This allows the machine to wash the parts of the utensil that are used when eating and will be the dirtiest. For knives, the handle will be pointing up – but this is purely for safety. To make your life easier, try to keep each type of flatware in its own section. This allows for faster sorting when you have to store them after drying – while also preventing scratches from two dissimilar items rubbing against one another.
In terms of wash cycles and detergents, commercial flatware should be washed at a high temperature with a very mild detergent. You specifically do not want washing detergents with bleach as this can seriously corrode your silverware. The higher temperature ensures your flatware gets thoroughly cleaned without relying on chemicals.
Drying commercial flatware
If your dishwasher has a drying cycle, we recommend removing your flatware before this kicks into action. You need to dry your tableware as soon as it is clean. The longer you leave it, the more risk there is of water spots or corrosion.
Drying commercial stainless steel flatware is arguably the easiest task, yet it requires the most attention. Use a clean dish towel to dry every item individually, being 100% sure there are no streak lines or water marks. When you’re confident they’re dry, lay the items in groups on separate towels, ready for storage.
Silverware Care: Storing Commercial Flatware
Your final task is storing the tableware in a safe place that’s easy to get to and won’t cause any damage to the items. It needs to be a dry area free from humidity, as high humidity levels mean there’s excess moisture in the air, which leads to silverware corrosion.
Different establishments may have different storage methods, but the one essential tip is to never stack your items. Stacking increases the risk of scratching, so ensure every single piece of flatware, holloware, serving, pieces, tongs (or anything else) has its own place. Lay them side by side or use whatever organization method you wish. Not stacking items also makes it quicker to get what you need when setting tables, which can speed up service.
When storing silverware overnight or for extended periods, oxidation becomes an issue. Always make sure your silverware is stored air-tight if it will not be used for more than a few hours.
Make Silverware Care Easier With Corby Hall
The tips and guidance in this post will help you care for commercial silverware and flatware. This leads to a longer lifespan, meaning you aren’t continuously purchasing replacements. Silverware care is made even easier when you purchase the highest-quality products. Having exceptional stainless steel flatware means there’s a lower risk of corrosion or discoloration, so every wash cycle comes with fewer worries.
At Corby Hall, we provide a range of excellent commercial silverware options for any establishment. Browse our commercial flatware collections to see our dazzling products that will wow guests and add to your restaurants atmosphere.
