Odour and Infection Control

Would you eat at a restaurant or from a takeaway with a Food Hygiene Rating of three or fewer?

What does the rating imply to you? Dirty kitchens? Maybe the odd cockroach hanging around? It’s not an appealing thought, is it?

Truth is, if you work in the catering game, you know you must display your rating by law.

The NFU Mutual Food Hygiene Rating Report found that 44% of people would turn away from a food establishment that displayed a rating of three or fewer and a huge 38% of people said that, if a favourite food outlet scored three or fewer, they’d stop visiting altogether.

Part of keeping your food-hygiene score high is keeping your kitchen clean. But we all know how hard that can be.

The grease problem

The problem is grease. It gets into the duct and coats it. Duct cleaning can also cost you £1500. And if it catches fire, your whole ventilation duct can go up. That will stop you trading in a heartbeat.

Complying with regs is also tough. And you need a yearly TR19 inspection, or your insurance is invalid. You also need a high Food Hygiene Rating if you want people to eat and recommend your food.

Here at Plasma Clean, we’re ventilation experts in the commercial kitchen market. We’ve been asked a lot of questions about the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme over the years and how we can help.

What is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme?

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is run by your local authority together with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). It’s like an MoT for your food outlet.

The scheme gives consumers a snapshot idea about hygiene standards on your premises when they were inspected by food-safety officers. Their inspections check you’re complying with legal requirements and a rating from one to five reflects the findings.

The idea is to give the public the chance to make informed choices about where they eat out. This should encourage businesses to improve their hygiene standards.

As part of the scheme, the FSA has announced that the ratings must be displayed in your outlet. This should mean fewer ‘poorly compliant’ businesses.

Improving your hygiene standards should mean less food-borne illness. But does it apply to you?

Well, yes, if you supply food directly to customers. This includes restaurants, cafes, takeaways, food retailers, and any other place where people eat food prepared outside of the home.

What are Environmental Health Officers looking for?

The good news is that your business should be able to achieve the top rating. You just need to know what EHOs (Environmental Health Officers) are looking for.

EHOs give food premises a rating based on the physical condition of the premises and facilities as part of the criteria.

Food Hygiene Ratings assess:

• Hygienic food handling
• How food is stored
• How food is prepared
• Cleanliness of facilities
• How food safety is managed

They’ll also check compliance with structural requirements, cleanliness and the condition of your facilities and building (including the layout, ventilation, handwashing facilities and pest control) to enable good food hygiene. It’s your responsibility to comply with food-hygiene law at all times.

Things to consider:

• Extractor fans are in proper working order
• Storage rooms are cool, well-lit and ventilated
• Safe cleaning procedures are established and followed

Want a 5-star Food Hygiene rating?

We can help you secure that vital five-star rating.

Here at Plasma Clean, our unique air-filtration and purification systems can reduce grease, help with Food Hygiene Ratings, and save you thousands on duct cleaning and kitchen shutdowns.

We specialise in the design, manufacture and supply of high-quality commercial kitchen ventilation grease, smoke and odour control.

We also provide consultancy services across a wide range of clean-air and surface-disinfection applications. This goes beyond our own product range, giving you a knowledgeable source of advice no matter what your particular environment and problem.

Just answer 5 simple questions

To find out exactly what kind of help you need in your kitchen, simply answer these five easy questions. This will help us offer you the best solution for cleaner facility and boost your chances of a higher Food Hygiene Rating.

We’ll get back to you with a professional response within 24 hours.

Any more questions about how we can help with Food Hygiene?

Chat to us today about how we can control grease, eliminate odours and save you serious money on duct cleaning. Call us on (0)161 870 2325 or email us: ask@plasma-clean.com

What is odour control? How does it work? And what are the trusted solutions?

The simplest way to describe this is if you think about nature.

During a thunderstorm you have high voltage which is created in a cloud. This high voltage needs to get to ground. It builds and builds and eventually the air starts to break down. When the air breaks down a plasma is formed. That plasma is lightning (!) which ionises the air. This is why the air smells so fresh after a thunderstorm.

The best solutions for odour control actually create this natural process. Our Ambion solutions are designed to ionise the air. In washrooms, waste storage areas – any space where there is odour which needs to be controlled.

We have 3 different styles:

1. Ambion 15 – can handle up to 15m²
2. Ambion 25 – can handle up to 25m²
3. Ambion 100 – can handle up to 100m²

Dr David Glover, Plasma Clean’s Founder & Managing Director:

“The reaction from customers who switch to these odour control systems from perfumed systems is initially a significant saving because you don’t have to buy the perfume sprays every month. The ionisers actually destroy that smell and it leaves the air smelling fresh and hygienically clean”.

Link to video.

Contact us today if you have any questions or if you are interested in any of our solutions:

T (0)161 870 2325

M ask@plasma-clean.com

W www.plasma-clean.com

Meet Phil and Jo. They’ve just moved into a buzzing, cosmopolitan neighbourhood. They’re young, they love a bit of city life and they’ve got everything on their doorstep – bars, restaurants, nightclubs, markets. They’re in heaven.

Even better, Phil and Jo love a late-night Chinese and, as luck would have it, there’s a takeaway right on their doorstep. Bring on the Dim Sum and chicken with chestnuts.

But they’ve not been there long before a few dark clouds drift across the horizon. Not so much dark clouds as pungent smells, and the drifting is all through their open window. Before long, Phil and Jo are keeping their windows closed and not venturing out.

Imagine you’re the owner of the takeaway. Phil and Jo complain to you. They’re good customers and you don’t want to upset them. You google ‘odour control for commercial kitchens’.

What’s happening is that a build-up of grease has coated your ductwork. The result is not only unpleasant on the nose, but it’s also a fire risk.

As an owner of a small commercial kitchen, this could be the death knell for your business. In extreme circumstances, especially when environmental health are involved, you might have to close down. But with the right technology in place, and the trusted solution, you can fix this situation and even get away with fewer duct cleans each year.

However, in smaller commercial kitchens, space, flow rate and budget are limited. For these kitchens, there’s only one UK manufacturer that can offer the right technology and expertise.

That’s us. At Plasma Clean, we’ve developed the ESP Lite and Techniclean Mini as a solution for smaller commercial kitchens.

These compact and cost-neutral solutions have the highest efficiency and the lowest pressure drop on the market. They also have the smallest footprint, so they’re easier to install.

The Techniclean Mini can fit into existing ductwork. Placed close to the kitchen canopy, it combats odours. It also reduces grease build-up in the downstream ductwork.

Use it on its own or in combination with the ESP Lite to control grease, smoke and gaseous odours. It’s a quick and easy fit inside the ductwork and it comes with an interlockong control panel.

Let us install it, apologise to Phil and Jo with a free Szechwan Chilli Chicken and all is good again.

Order the only bespoke grease, smoke and odour control trusted solutions for smaller commercial kitchens. Talk to Plasma Clean today on (0)161 870 2325 or email us at ask@plasma-clean.com.

A few years back, Rolls-Royce brought together its controls and data-analysis functions to bring new benefits to its jet and ship engines. And here at Plasma Clean, we’ve done a similar thing for commercial kitchens. We’re the first to combine two world-leading technologies into one premium product.

All in one solution

If grease, smoke and odour in your commercial kitchen are causing problems for you and your neighbours, you need our all-in-one solution.

Our combined ESP with UV-C gives you total grease, smoke and odour control in the commercial kitchen.

We’ve ploughed all our expertise in commercial-kitchen issues into one integrated, highly effective solution with small footprint. We’ve made our reputation by being proactive towards customer needs and we’re the only ones offering an all-in-one solution for grease, smoke and odour control.

How does it work?

Electrostatic Precipitators or ESPs remove grease and smoke particles from commercial-kitchen extraction systems. ESPs ionise grease and smoke particles as they travel over ionising electrodes.

The particles become electrically charged and then attract to the collector cells. These hold and drop the particles into the drip pan. Plasma Clean ESPs have a large drip pan and can be fitted with a drain.

Meanwhile, the UV-C light can control moderate to very high levels of odour. It’s a unique combination of technologies in one product. It all works overtime to stop grease getting into your kitchen extraction system and dramatically reducing duct clean costs, fire risk and odours by keeping your ductwork grease-free.

Trusted solutions

Here’s our product range for integrated grease, smoke and odour control:

*What’s volume flow rate? It’s how we categorise the best solutions. Flow rate is the volume of air that passes per unit time. This is generally measured in meters cubed per second (m³/s) and can also be expressed as metre cubed pre hour, litres per second or CFM.

If you’re interested in our ESP with UV-C, we’ll help you every step of the way. Start the conversation today on 0161 870 2325 or email us at ask@plasma-clean.com.

So why do you need odour control in the kitchen? And what’s the best solution?

Every commercial kitchen creates a mixture of grease, odour and smoke that varies according to what you’re cooking. This smell can become a nuisance to your neighbours and the general public. Your local Environmental Health Officer (EHO) can also get involved. And nobody wants that.

But, even worse, grease getting into the kitchen ductwork can become a fire risk. This is why you need effective grease, smoke a odour control.

Happily, technology is your friend,

Here are the best technical solutions for odour control in commercial kitchens:

• UV-C (in-canopy or in-duct): breaks down odour and low-level grease using photolysis and ozonolysis
• Ozone injection: releases ozone directly into the kitchen ventilation system

Which is right for you?

If you have low-moderate levels of odour, ozone injection is fine. Anything worse needs UV-C technology.

Plasma Clean’s Xtract Range is an easy-to-install ozone injection system. It’s low maintenance and modular, meaning we have the flexibility you need to control all levels of odour.

Here’s what we recommend:

For volume flow rate of up to 0.9 m³/s, our Techniclean Mini will be perfect. It’s an in-duct product that destroys grease and gaseous odours. It comes with a control panel that interlocks the unit with airflow.

Flow rates less than 0.9 m³/s often don’t have enough suction in the duct to pull air through the ozone injection unit. This can mean the unit doesn’t switch on. It can also result in less ozone output from the unit as the airflow cools the unit down.

However, with our totally modular approach, we can even offer ozone injection for under 0.9 m³/s.

For more details, talk to Plasma Clean today on 0161 870 2325 or ask@plasma-clean.com.