A clean shop and top service: best practices

Making a good impression

Ensuring a quality service in your shop means first of all taking care of appearances:

• Wear a uniform when working in the shop (preferably an apron, changed daily).
• Avoid wearing bulky jewelry.

What about wearing a mask? Apart from specific health recommendations (coronavirus), wearing a mask is advisable as soon as symptoms as mild as a simple cold appear.

Hand hygiene: wash your hands as often as possible

In contact with your bakery products and means of payment, hands are the main sources of food contamination. Remember to wash them:

• As often as necessary, for 30 seconds (ideally with anti-bacterial soap).
• After any change of activity (arriving at work, preparing sandwiches, cleaning, restocking, etc.).

Don’t forget to keep your nails short and well-groomed and protect any cuts with a waterproof bandage (and if possible, a glove or finger cot).

Things to avoid

In spite of impeccable hand hygiene and immaculately clean clothes, certain actions (often carried out unconsciously!) can be a source of contamination. These include:

• Touching your face or mouth.
• Wiping your hands on your apron.
• Wetting your fingertip to pick up a sheet of paper or packing case.
• Blowing into a bag to open it.

Providing top-quality service

From taking orders to taking payment, here are a few hygiene tips:

• When serving pastries, use tongs or a cake slice (wash as often as necessary). In this way, you will avoid any direct contact with the products.
• Wipe counters with a clean cloth as soon as crumbs, sugar grains and other food residues start to accumulate.
• At the till, always use the same hand to handle money, the other to handle the products.