This week, we’re diving into three industries that depend on high standards of hygiene, but often fall short in surprising (and very fixable) ways.
Whether you run a kitchen, a gym floor or a care home, these are the blind spots that could be hurting your brand, your compliance, or your bottom line.
1. Restaurants: Hygiene is More Than a Health Score
Most restaurants obsess over food hygiene in the kitchen, but forget about the customer’s actual journey.
The common fails:
- Sticky menus
- Greasy door handles
- Grimy toilet floors
- Overflowing blue roll bins
🔍 Fix it: Customers don’t see the kitchen. They see the surfaces, toilets, floors and air quality.
A regular front-of-house hygiene audit is as important as your food hygiene rating. Want five stars? Start with the hand dryer.
2. Gyms: Sweat ≠ Clean
Gyms are meant to get sweaty. But that doesn’t mean members will tolerate grime.
The common fails:
- Refillable spray bottles that haven’t been cleaned in months
- Microfibre cloths reused 30 times without washing
- No one really knows whose job it is to sanitise machines
🔍 Fix it: Install visible hygiene stations with disposable wipes, effective sprays and clear signage.
Also: if your changing rooms smell funky, you’ve already lost the battle.
3. Care Homes: Too Much Product, Not Enough Process
Care environments deal with complex needs, and often overcompensate by overstocking.
The common fails:
- Multiple cleaning products doing the same job
- Staff confusion over which product to use where
- Hidden corners ignored because they’re “someone else’s area”
🔍 Fix it: Standardise your product set, simplify training, and switch to colour-coded systems.
Hygiene should reduce stress, not add to it.
What All These Industries Have in Common
- People under pressure
- Multiple hands involved
- Public trust on the line
At Blue Shield Hygiene, we help businesses tighten up their hygiene processes, not just with quality products, but with systems, signage and support that keep things running smoothly.
Because no one has time to guess which bottle to use on the toilet seat.
Try This: The “Sniff Test” Challenge
Walk into your business as if you were a customer, patient, or new member.
Before you see anything, ask yourself:
- What does it smell like?
- Does it feel fresh or forgotten?
- Are the bins discreet or overflowing?
- If your competitor’s space smelled better, would it matter?
Answer: yes, it would.
Next Week:
“The Illusion of Clean: Why Shiny Surfaces Can Still Be Unsafe” - how to spot hygiene theatre vs actual protection.
Need help auditing or simplifying your hygiene approach?
