I usually wash my bowls and utensils in the dishwasher, but sometimes I need to handwash them so I can use them again right away. I always wash them in very hot soapy water and scrub with a paper towel, not a sponge, but I know there are requirements for food establishments, will someone who knows please share? Thanks!

So what's the ? If you wash your dishes like you do it's fine I wouldn't use a paper towel but a disposable dish cloth or just a regular dish cloth. I've worked in food service and we didn't use anything special.

When I had my restaurant it was required to have a 3 compartment sink. One compartment for washing in hot soapy water, one for rinsing in running water and one for sanitizing by soaking in a solution of bleach and hot water, then air drying.

Even if you are washing them in the dishwasher, you need to soak them in a bleach and water solution and let them dry. That would be proper procedure. Industrial dishwashers sanitize the dishes when they wash and dry them.. home units don't.. unless you have a sanitation cycle, but thet can take a long time.

This is what my inspector told me when I got inspected for my license.

Thanks for the info!

I am wondering what is the percentage of bleach solution?

Seems like we used 1 capful per gallon. we used some test strips to check the concentration.

It only takes a very, very small amount of bleach per gallon. One capful was enough to something like 3-5 gallons.
If you can smell the bleach on the dish when you take it out of the water it is too much!

Here's something I found online http://www.umass.edu/umext/nutrition/programs/food_safety/resources/download/food_safety_principles/posters/san_w_bleach_english.pdf . It confirms the above posts about using very little bleach.

add'l article re: dishwasher vs handwashing: http://www.wisegeek.com/is-it-better-to-hand-wash-dishes-or-use-a-dishwasher.htm

You should get the chlorine test strips.. they are super cheap and you will be able to know for sure how much bleach you need. It is a small amount.. about 1 TBSP per 3 gallons of water. You are looking for about 10 ppm (parts per million) of chlorine in your water.. and the water doesn't need to be hot (or even warm).

In NC the requirement is a 3 compartment sink (dishwashing, rinsing & sanitizing). At school, we don't dry anything, it is all air dried then put away. And we wash EVERYTHING by hand. Just an FYI!
Leslie

I'm in Texas and yes, you can hand-wash but you do need a 3-compartment sink. Rinse, wash, santize and air-dry; however, I do towel-dry if I need it right away. And we did when I worked at a small restaurant.

You don't rinse the bleach solution off after?