metal shaving... kind of scary

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
1

I had a customer call the other day saying that she found a very small metal shaving on her Hawaiian pizza. Of course I apologized and personally ran out a new one to her. She was grateful and gave me the piece of metal that she found. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly where it came from.

Occasionally, when we open a #10 can on our table-mounted can opener, it leaves a small metal shaving on the edge. When I’ve personally seen this happen, I’m careful to get rid of this debris. However, I don’t open every can and I’m not sure how to stress to my employees how important it is to double check the edge of the cans.

Are these metal shavings the result of a dull blade on the opener? The current blade is only 3 months old, so it’s hard to believe that would be that, but I’m not sure how long the blades are supposed to last.

Your thoughts?

2

Do you use stainless steel scrubbing pads? I had a piece come off a pad and get stuck on the edge of a dough pan & then end up on a pizza.Just another place it may have come from.What

3

There is a can opener available that opens the can from the side of the crimp rather from the top. The one that opens the can on the side of the crimp doesn’t have this problem. As a result we have changed over to this type of opener.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

4

this has happened especially with pasta inserts and strainers
we no longer use them as a result of this

5

I don’t use those SS scrubbies, but I can see the potential hazard. I do know with 99% certainty that it was my can opener. Every restaurant that I’ve worked in and when I went to restaurant management school, there was always one of those table-mounted can openers around.

What gets me is that these are NSF approved can openers. I would think that NSF would see this as a huge potential hazard and force manufacturers to improve the design.

6

We switched to a side cut one(like tom was talking about) because we had this same problem before. These are great they leave no shavings and the cans or lids are smooth not sharp

7

I have the same opener as you, I’m had our blade for almost 3 years and have never had any type of debris fall from it. When we smack the handle part down onto the can and start to turn, we cut all around the can until the last 1/2", then grab and hold the lid… and cut the rest of the way off. Never had any piece actually come loose.

8

I have never had a problem with shaving coming off and we have had our blade on for about 9 months. Is the blade all the way in the can maybe they are not using the opener properly?

9

We had the same problem it was the can opener

now we use the side cutter one

10

just to get a visiual, i’m assuming everyone is talking about this style of can opener:
http://s7d2.scene7.com/s7ondemand/zoom/flasht_zoom.jsp?company=NextDayGourmet&sku=800811

This is like the one i use and never had a problem with, however, accoring to this picture, i installed it wrong.
I have the base pointing UP instead of Down over the edge of the table.
doh!

11

Yea, I’ve had that exact one here at this shop for 5 months, and used that one at my last place for over a year, and the place before that 5 years… Never seen any kind of problem or debris coming off.

12

You will sometimes see shavings caused by the gear that turns the can. When that gets old you may find that it causes metal shavings at times. I will change the gear and knife about once a year. Hope this helps.
Mike