While it is not safe to be a chef because of risks to physical well-being like cuts or burns, long-term health issues like back or feet problems, mental well-being because of long work hours, fatigue, and social isolation, there are many safety and preventative measures to make being a chef safer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article considers the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A commercial kitchen is filled with hazards, and personal safety can be compromised when accidents occur. Cuts, burns and falls are common accidents whilst working in the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Injuries to the hands and other parts of the body can occur from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While knives are a chef\u2019s most important tool, they carry potential safety risks from accidents or when not handled correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knife injuries to the hand range from simple cuts requiring only a plaster to deep ones needing stitches or where nerve endings are damaged. Worse is when the tip or a whole finger is amputated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knife injuries are commonly caused by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faulty kitchen appliances, incorrect use, and not following safety procedures when handling kitchen equipment can result in injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using a short handle rather than a long handle tool when working with a deep fryer or using a plastic crate that is unstable rather than a step stool to reach an object on a top shelf are examples of using the wrong tool that could easily result in a kitchen injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burns can occur from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These include injuries from moving a heavy pot with hot contents from the stove, alone, rather than asking for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chef jackets, for example, with loose, flapping rather than tighter fitting sleeves, risk catching fire when close to stoves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hair not covered and tucked away from the face is at risk of catching fire when coming too close to a flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When chefs are not wearing non-slip, comfortable shoes with steel tips on the inside, they risk slipping and getting injured when objects fall on their feet or sore feet from the strain of standing long hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These can occur when spills are not wiped immediately, floors are not cleaned regularly, leaving them greasy or when obstacles are left in walkways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washing dishes by hand could cause cuts when sharp knives are left in the water or glass breaks in the washing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When chefs move around in the kitchen carrying sharp knives or hot pots, they warn others as they approach them from behind or in front that they are carrying potentially dangerous objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lack of doing so could result in accidents and injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unnecessary accidents can occur by not constantly problem-solving to generate the best safety procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, rather than randomly placing knives in water to be washed and risking a hand cut, having a container for dirty blades next to the washbasin may be best. This creates greater awareness to proceed cautiously in getting the knives cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working in a kitchen can place your short and long-term health at risk due to the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides physical fatigue, standing for prolonged periods, especially when standing with an incorrect posture, places the chef\u2019s health at risk to things like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Injury to the hand and wrist mainly occurs with activities requiring repetitive hand motion, such as whisking, stirring, kneading, chopping or cutting. This can range from injuries like a wrist sprain and tendinitis to more serious ones like carpal syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n Those new to the chef profession can suffer from injuries like tendonitis, which stems from a sudden, increased use of the hand, as in cutting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the day-in and day-out of the faulty repetitive motion, over time, that poses the most significant health risks to injuries like carpal syndrome rather than infrequent activities requiring repetitive motion. The risk of injury is heightened when holding the wrist, arm, and shoulder at an awkward angle, bending the neck and back, and working with forceful movements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The working conditions of chefs can put their psychological well-being at risk due to the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This result is mental and physical fatigue, which can negatively impact mood, leading to feelings of irritability, emotional volatility and an overall lowering of coping resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long hours and shifts disrupt the typical pattern of life: Sleep, nutrition, exercise and family life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sleep:<\/strong> From observing our son, a culinary student in industry training, he is not always sure on any given week, which days he\u2019ll be working, which days he\u2019s off, or whether he\u2019s doing the morning or the evening shift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Constant schedule changes can affect the circadian rhythm of the body (24-hour body cycle) and cause disruptions in sleep patterns. This could lead to sleep deprivation in quality and quantity and tiredness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nutrition:<\/strong> Our son\u2019s colleague stopped at a fast-food outlet after an evening shift because he didn\u2019t have the physical capacity to come home and prepare a meal to eat after the long shift of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Good nutrition, in turn, is essential to fuel the body and aid both physical and mental resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exercise:<\/strong> Our son, in turn, is finding it hard to exercise at the same pace he used to. Having been in a swim club, work hours make it difficult to train at the pace and time as everybody else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exercise releases feel-good chemicals in the body like serotonin and is essential for strengthening our physical and mental resilience to cope better with our demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Family life:<\/strong> Chefs may often work at critical times of family interactions, like at the dinner table or weekends. One of the chefs where our son works mentioned how challenging it is to spend time with his son when he works on weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, chefs may only sometimes be able to provide critical support for the smooth running of family life, like helping with school trips, taking kids to extracurricular activities, or attending parent meetings. This can strain family life and relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several stressors when working in a commercial kitchen environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, evening shifts are incredibly stressful and anxiety-provoking for chefs with the pressure of doing orders that come in at a rapid rate and must be done with quality and speed, not to keep customers waiting too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leadership you are working under also plays a role, says our culinary son. When the sous or executive chef is calm and composed under pressure, it makes everyone cope much better with working under pressure. When they are high-strung, it creates a tense atmosphere in the kitchen and increases the kitchen staff\u2019s anxiety level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The culinary industry is rife with drug and alcohol abuse as a way of coping with the pressures of the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A friend of our son\u2019s said he started smoking during his industry training to cope with the stress he experienced working in the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst many chefs experience mental health issues coping with the industry\u2019s strain, there is still a stigma to asking for support and talking about it. The result is that they suffer in silence and cope in ways that cause more problems than it solves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many safety measures are available to prevent injury, like following best practices when working with knives, hot pots and pans, oil and water and for best body posture for standing and working with your hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, kitchen injuries happen, and some, like knife cuts and burns, remain common. A significant reason is that safety best practices are not always adhered to, resulting in accidents and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make being a chef even safer, it is necessary to address why safety measures are not religiously adhered to, as doing so can minimise risk to health and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When chefs are aware right from training days of the safety and health risks of being a chef, maximised by neglecting preventative measures, they are more likely to adhere to these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a chef is unaware that, for example, the strain on the hand and wrist from repetitive hand motion when cutting and chopping can lead to carpel tunnel, they are unlikely to take precautionary measures like breaking the movement by stretching their hand or alternating activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chefs need a comprehensive knowledge of the various best practices to prevent injury and why they must adhere to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a chef doesn\u2019t know, for example, that an upright posture when standing with the back straight and shoulders upright is essential to avoid lower back and hand injuries, as the nerves operating the fingers start in the neck and slouching hinders motion of the hands as it places strain on the neck and shoulders, they are less likely to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is that only some chefs are committed to their health and safety and thus may be careless about it and give the industry a bad name, discouraging would-be chefs concerned about the dangers of being a chef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As chefs are under pressure, especially during service time, they may neglect to follow needed safety measures, which could result in injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time pressure could also result in a chef paying scant attention to an injury requiring more severe intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While your confidence grows as you become a more skilled and experienced chef, you may also become more relaxed about following safety methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No matter how skilled and experienced one becomes, the kitchen remains full of potential hazards, and it\u2019s essential always to be aware of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So many chefs are passionate about what they do and can become overly task focussed on doing an excellent job but less focused on health and well-being. Rather than attend to physical discomforts like leg or back pains, they push themselves to perform and worry about the health consequences later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Younger chefs may not initially feel the strain of many hours of standing and repetitive hand motion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Education and insistence on applying best practices at the outset of their training from chef instructors and senior chefs in the workplace can lead to safety measures integrated into a habitual workstyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having the discipline to adhere to the same safety procedures daily can be tedious, resulting in a chef overlooking and becoming lax in applying these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working in a hot kitchen on your feet for hours on end with few breaks can lead to physical, mental and emotional fatigue, possibly leaving a chef less alert and cautious, making unnecessary safety errors that could lead to accidents and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Various safety products like fatigue mats or wrist braces can help chefs care for themselves and prevent injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chefs, however, may only sometimes be able to afford these products: other concerns like paying for food and rent may, out of necessity, take precedence over safety products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a chef, you need to do whatever you can to minimise the risks involved and commit to taking care of your personal safety, health and well-being both in the short and long term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Below are things chefs can do to minimise risks to their physical safety and prevent health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoid becoming complacent about safety, taking for granted what you do and becoming relaxed about the preventative safety measures required when working in the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be mindful, fully aware of the task at hand and be cautious of becoming overly confident in your skills so that you become careless, leading to undue accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking the necessary safety measures requires extra time, which you may feel you don\u2019t have in a busy kitchen where speed is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As prevention is better than cure, reframe your thinking to prioritise your safety, health and well-being above speed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Should an accident occur and you are hurt, dealing with that takes priority. You\u2019ll have to stop working to attend to your wound or visit a hospital if it is more serious. In time, you may also have to take time out, in any case, to consult with hand specialists to deal with hand-related illnesses like carpal tunnel, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you include safety and health best practices as part of your kitchen routine, they become part of what you do for yourself. In time you\u2019ll probably also practice health and safety speedily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a commercial kitchen is dangerous, there are correct working techniques and tons of safety do\u2019s and don\u2019ts for just about everything in the kitchen, from the knives you use to the chemicals used to keep the kitchen clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These techniques and safety measures are there to protect you. Know them well and diligently apply them to protect yourself from cuts, burns, slips and falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do so until they become second nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Examples of some safety rules in the kitchen to prevent injuries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Correctly handle, maintain and store knives. The below video has valuable tips for knife safety:<\/p>\n\n\n\n3 Greatest safety risks to being a chef.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Risks of physical injury like cuts, burns and falls.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Working with knives.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theaspirantchef.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Safety-7-1024x662.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHandling kitchen tools and equipment.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Using the wrong tool to get the job done.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Burns.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Incorrectly handling objects.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Wearing unsuitable gear.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Slips, trips and falls.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Washing dishes.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Poor communication in the kitchen.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Unsafe kitchen procedures.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Health risks to body parts like the hands, feet and back.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Injury to legs, feet and back from prolonged standing.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Injury to the wrist and hand, like carpal syndrome.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theaspirantchef.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Safety-6-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n3. Risks to mental and emotional well-being.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Overly long work hours with minimal breaks.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Disruption in typical patterns of life.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Working under pressure in hot, noisy kitchens.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Insufficient coping mechanisms.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Reasons why safety measures are not adhered to.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Lack of awareness of the health and safety risks.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Lack of knowledge of best safety practices.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Incorrect attitudes to safety and health.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Time pressure results in neglecting safety measures.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. Overconfidence in their skill.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Overly task and less health and safety focused.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
7. Lack of discipline to follow repetitive safety practices.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
8. Physical and mental fatigue.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
9. Affordability of safety products.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
9 Preventative measures that make being a chef safer.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Have a safety-conscious attitude.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
An evergreen awareness of the risks of working in a kitchen.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Always be alert, paying attention to what you are doing.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Think safety, health and well-being.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Apply correct techniques, safety rules and procedures.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To prevent knife injuries:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n