A fully functional kitchen is top priority when building your restaurant. Designing one can be tricky and tedious because of all the things that need to be considered, like the restaurant hood as well as the style and efficiency.

But none of them is more important than the safety of your kitchen, especially this space is packed with equipment that produce intense amount of heat and flame. In fact, 57% of restaurant fires are caused by cooking equipment, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

This is why restaurant inspections are conducted regularly and your inspectors will usually look for these three important things in your hood:

Adequate Ventilation

Adequate ventilation is crucial to a safe kitchen. This is why it makes perfect sense to look for a restaurant hood from a hood depot that will provide enough ventilation in your kitchen. But how do you know if your hood complies with kitchen ventilation regulations? You need to consider these factors first:

• The type of food that’s prepared in your restaurant. If you are cooking high fat products that produce more grease, you will need a specialized hood to get rid of both heat and grease from your cooking equipment.

• The type of cooking equipment you use in your kitchen and where they are positioned. Different types of a restaurant hood from a hood depot are available for ranges, deep fryers and ovens as well as appliances placed along the wall and those on the center island.

• The position of your hoods relative to your equipment. Hoods can be mounted on the wall or overhead.

• The different accessories that come with your hood including fans, ductwork and make up air systems.

Proper Layout

When designing the layout of your kitchen, it’s best to learn about basic requirements that inspectors will take note of during an inspection. For instance, your cooking equipment should be ideally placed far back against a wall because wall-mounted hoods are better than overhead ones.

Hoods should also be mounted as low as possible to maximize their efficiency and exhausts can be placed directly over cooking appliances to improve ventilation.

Make Up Air

Since air is vented out of your kitchen, you also need to make sure that there is enough air coming in to keep your cooking space comfortable and safe for your employees.

One of the things that inspectors will look for during an inspection is a makeup air unit, which will help your HVAC system to keep up with the demand for proper ventilation in your kitchen. You can also integrate your kitchen’s ventilation system with the rest of the building’s HVAC system for added ventilation.

Final Words

Your kitchen is the heart and soul of your restaurant because it is where food is produced and most of your staff work. Complying with proper kitchen regulations for your restaurant hood is not only important to make the grade during inspection, but also to make sure that your employees can work efficiently in a good environment that has enough ventilation.

You can protect them from health risks and of course, safeguard your investment against hazards like fire that can easily destroy everything you worked hard for.

Exhaust Hood Depot is proud to offer its services Nationwide and to the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland and their major cities and surrounding areas: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Erie, Baltimore, Frederick, Annapolis, and Rockville