Care & Cleaning
While stainless steel is highly resistant to stain and corrosion, even the finest alloys will suffer if corrosive food chemicals are not removed by proper soaking, washing and rinsing procedures. Careful handling will prolong the life and luster of your stainless steel tableware.
1. WASHING
Stainless should be pre-soaked immediately following its removal from the table. Use a pre-soak compound recommended by the manufacturer of your detergent. It is very important that you use only a plastic or stainless steel pan for pre-soaking. NEVER USE AN ALUMINUM PAN. Aluminum frees the chlorine present in most pre-soak compounds, and causes discoloration of stainless steel.
Take particular care in removing all remnants of lemon, vinegar, butter, ice cream, cheese, milk and table salt from stainless items directly after use. These foods can cause corrosion if they‘re left too long.
Do not use a pre-soak solution containing silver detarnishing agents. These products cause severe corrosion to stainless.
Be sure that the stainless does not remain in the pre-soak solution too long before it is washed. After pre-soaking, wash your stainless in hot water and a good cleaning agent. Select your cleaning agent with great care, making sure there are no abrasive or corrosive qualities. Stainless steel should be thoroughly dried immediately after washing.
Polishing stainless occasionally is a good idea, but not a necessity. Polish stainless items with a mildly abrasive powder mixed with neutral soap flakes. Then rinse pieces in hot water and dry them well.
2. RINSING
The clean stainless should then be rinsed in water of at least 180 degrees. A wetting agent may be added to the rinse to prevent minerals in water from staining your tableware. Should you have very hard water, a softener is recommended
3. HANDLING
Perforated cylinders in a portable rack-suitable for sink or dishwasher use-make it possible to wash, tranport and dispense stainless with a minimum of handling. In a system where tableware is washed and stored in the same cylinder, the stainless should be sorted into the cylinders utensil side down to prevent hand contamination after cleaning. In a system where the tableware is transferred from cleaning cylinder to a storage cylinder by inversion, it should be sorted in the cleaning cylinder utensil side up, so that it will eventually be stored utensil side down.
4. LOW –TEMP DISHWASHING – CAUTION!!!!!
If you are using a low –temp or chlorine bath type dishwashing system, take great care in following the manufacture’s instructions. An over concentration of sodium hypochlorite (Bleach), the active sanitizing agent of these systems, will attack most metal tableware, improper use, or faulty equipment functioning, will cause staining or corrosion of even the finest stainless steel.