The restaurant industry has always been one of the most highly competitive fields. New restaurants open on a regular basis, driving others to explore creative options to keep their customers happy. This is often accomplished by expanding menus and exploring alternate cooking methods. In recent years, meat smoking has grown in popularity and the once regional staple can now be found offered in various restaurants across the country. Without question, a meat smoker may be responsible for some of your favorite tender, flavor-filled recipes. It’s an incredible asset and moneymaker, but it can also be hazardous if not properly maintained. A cooking equipment fire can cause insurmountable damage to your staff and operation. Properly cleaning a meat smoker is crucial for fire prevention, as well as maintaining proper health standards.
(more…)Author Archives: Jarrett Wagner, Society Insurance Risk Control Representative
How Colorado Restaurants & Bars Can Protect Themselves Against the Costly Hail Season
By: Jarrett Wagner, Society Insurance Risk Control Representative. Originally published in Colorado Biz on June 3, 2020.

With so many uncertainties in the restaurant and bar industry, there’s one consistent hazard in Colorado every spring – the return of hail season – and your business should be prepared.
(more…)Safeguarding Your Livelihood: Business Video Surveillance Best Practices
As a business owner you want to ensure your investment is well protected. From slip and fall accidents to robbery, there are many reasons to have business video surveillance. Having an effective business video surveillance system will help deter shoplifting and employee theft, while also proving quite valuable when trying to document injury claims by customers or employees.
(more…)DIY Commercial Refrigeration Maintenance Tips
It wasn’t until 1835, when the first patent was granted for a Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Cycle. Over the years, technology has vastly improved and almost everyone can recall growing up with a refrigerator in their own homes. As with many items that have become commonplace, we sometimes take for granted the amount of thought which went into the design and may overlook the importance of regular maintenance on the equipment after it has been installed. (more…)
Fire Preventive Maintenance for Deep Fryers
Clean Cooking Equipment to Prevent Grease Fires
For each year from 2011 to 2013, an estimated 5,600 restaurant fires were reported to fire departments in the United States, resulting in no fewer than five deaths, 100 injuries, and $116 million in property damage. Of those 5,600 fires, 64% involved cooking and grease played a factor in nearly half of those incidents (Source: U.S. Fire Administration). (more…)
The Dangers of Deep Frying Turkey – with a Delicious (and Safer) Alternative
Over the years, both the average consumer and restaurant owners have devised several different methods of cooking their whole turkeys in order to stand out from their friends and/or competitors. Eventually a trend grew among the public – attempts to deep fry whole turkeys outside, mainly in preparation for holidays or other occasions. Traditions have developed where the cook and onlookers stand over this outdoor deep fat fryer and listen as the oil sizzles and turkey quickly cooks. Many of us have seen these videos of whole turkeys flying out of the deep fat fryer or a large fire spreading to outlying areas (or in some cases, their own garages and homes). We may have joked or kidded with our friends about these scenarios, but I can assure you the people in the videos don’t find this funny. (more…)