With all the “green” talk going on - and there is a lot of it - we come to realize that most restaurants don’t fall neatly under a green or non-green category. Let’s face it, there are shades of green. Most businesses start out by replacing lightbulbs with CFLs or watch their water consumption; many will recycle plastics and cardboard, and some even compost kitchen waste. With so many chefs now favoring locally grown products, we wondered, if there’s such a focus on providing great organic and local food, then why aren’t chefs concerned about the types of cleaning products used in their kitchen? This food they’ve searched for is sitting on counters and in sinks that have probably been cleaned with bleach or sprayed down with a chemical solvent tinted any color of the rainbow.

We looked into green cleaners that are geared to bustling kitchens and found Earth Alive, a product from Canada that’s an organic microbial cleaning solution made from tree bark. “Clean shouldn’t smell like bleach, lemon or pine,” stated Avy Cohen, vice president. “The real test of clean with our product is if you use it and it doesn’t smell like anything, then you know it is working.” The cleaner is shipped in powder form, which Cohen explains is better for the environment – less packing materials, cardboard boxes and gas used for transportation. The iced tea-colored powder can be mixed with cold water and used to clean anything in a kitchen. You still need a sanitizer, but this product is designed to replace everything in the kitchen. And this cleaner won’t foam so it rinses out faster and doesn’t require hot water to break down the foam.

Stainless steel cleaners can be expensive and they usually require the use of gloves for cleaning. “We want stainless steel to look shiny and polished, so people use degreasers and steel cleaners, which makes it look shiny but it’s greasy and it’ll attract dust,” Cohen said. “We’ll rub our product on the stainless steel and it will take off the old layers of grease.” He also boasts about the grout cleaning capabilities of Earth Alive, and floor cleaning. Just as it does on stainless steel, it can safely lift layers of film off floors, potentially lessening slip and fall incidents.

Endorsed by the Green Restaurant Association, Earth Alive is pH neutral and hypoallergenic. It might make you think next time you’re cleaning counters with gloves on, then place food down on that same counter. A green cleaner may be your next step. Any step in the green direction is a great step for your restaurant and the environment. Earth Alive can be reached at www.earthalive.ca or (888) 511-3040.