Prevent Spill Burns: Best Practices for Hot Beverage Safety

spill burn warning coffee cup Hot beverage spill burns—and lawsuits—are on the rise. In an instant, a hot drink can severely injure a customer, damage your brand, and threaten your profits. If only warnings like the one pictured here could stop spills!

Humor aside, you can prevent spills and burns from coffee, tea, and other hot drinks by using quality products and training your staff to follow best practices for hot beverage safety.

Here are three tips for training your staff to prevent hot beverage spills.

1. Educate servers on hot beverage safety

Educate your staff about the seriousness of hot beverage spills and burns, and teach them that they have the power to make a difference. For any employee who will be serving hot beverages, training should include:

information about the temperatures that drinks are brewed and served
proper use of brewing equipment and products such as cups and lids
the importance of avoiding hand transfer of hot beverages whenever possible.

Empower your employees to see themselves as part of the solution.

2. Keep hot drinks out of reach of small children

Hot beverage cups and carafes are designed to be safe when handled properly by adults, but could be easily tipped or spilled by children. A large number of burns can be avoided by serving only to adults and ensuring that drinks are not served or set where small children can reach them, on purpose or accidentally.

3. Say it

We can all use a reminder. While being served, it’s common for customers to be distracted by food or conversation. Verbally cueing customers, this drink is very hot, handle carefully, can make a difference in how they receive and secure a beverage.

These best practices are a good start to prevent hot beverage spills and protect your customers, your brand, and your bottom line. Like any other training, particularly in fields with high employee turnover, it should be audited and refreshed regularly.

Our hot beverage safety poster presents comprehensive best practices in a clear, concise format designed for prominent display back of house to refresh the tips and to continually remind employees of their role in preventing hot beverage spills.