As many people know, more than half of food waste in a restaurant starts in the kitchen, not on the customer's table. Instead of restaurants waiting for food waste to occur and then finding ways to use waste, such as ingredients left over from cutting to make new menus, or reducing the amount of food customers eat to create less waste, we can reduce food waste more effectively than that. Today I have techniques to reduce food waste from the ordering process to before the food is served .
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Raw material planning process
This step is considered the most important step in controlling food waste because if the restaurant has a good plan, the chance of waste will be greatly reduced. The restaurant needs to set standards for the ingredients the restaurant needs, accurately predict the use of ingredients, and have an efficient process for inspecting and receiving ingredients.
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Raw material standards development
Have you ever bought ingredients that were not consistent in size and standard each time? Sometimes they were small, sometimes they were large, sometimes they were young, sometimes they were old. If you cannot control the standards of the ingredients you receive from the beginning, there is no way you will be able to cook the food with the same taste. And there is even a greater chance that food waste will occur because the kitchen staff will not be able to estimate how much to cut.
Creating raw material standards, or what we call product specifications, is when you define important standards that affect the raw material, such as species, brand, size, weight, trimming, and even packaging style, etc., which will be an agreement between the restaurant and the supplier about the standards that the restaurant wants.
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Raw material forecasting
Restaurants can plan their ingredient ordering by analyzing sales data from the POS system. We will know the sales volume in each order, allowing us to predict future sales. There are 3 factors that affect the quantity of ingredients ordered each time:
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Weekly raw material consumption
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Safety Stock quantity reserved in case of using more raw materials than expected.
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The number of rounds of deliveries per week, if you do not calculate the amount of raw material used per round of ordering well, it may cause problems with ordering raw materials that are out of stock or ordering more than necessary.
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Determining the method of raw material inspection
Good raw material inspection requires coordination between the restaurant and the supplier regarding the time of receiving and delivering the raw materials. Otherwise, if the supplier delivers the raw materials during a time when the restaurant staff are busy serving customers, such as during the day, there is a chance that there will be an error in the inspection, causing the raw materials that do not meet the specified quality to leak in. There is also a chance that the kitchen staff may forget to store the raw materials in the storage area or refrigerator properly, causing the raw materials to be of reduced quality.
2. Storage of raw materials
After the staff receives the raw materials from the supplier, they should separate each type of raw material and store it immediately in a suitable container. For example, vegetables that need to be soaked in water to keep them in good condition for as long as possible should be stored in a vertical container. The remaining vegetables should be stored separately in a plastic container with a tight lid to prevent shock and bruising from the excessively cold air in the refrigerator.
Ingredients such as seasonings should be removed from the bag and stored in a container with a lid to prevent spillage while cooking. Ingredients such as meat should be stored in a FIFO (First-in First-out) system so that you know which ingredients should be used first and which ingredients should be used last to prevent the ingredients from expiring.
3. Controlling the amount of ingredients per dish (Portion control)
No matter how detailed you have set the ingredient standards, have a good ingredient management plan, and have a proper ingredient storage plan, if you neglect the last step before the food is served to customers, which is the cooking process, without determining the correct amount of each ingredient (Portion control) that is added according to the standard recipe, not only will the dish not taste up to standard, there is also a chance of food waste from adding too many ingredients.
The solution is to use measuring devices to help in the cooking process, such as a digital scale to weigh the amount of meat before stir-frying, using a portion spoon to separate each condiment to scoop the condiment or ingredient instead of estimating the amount by eye, and timing or measuring the temperature while cooking to see if it is as specified. These will help reduce food waste before the food is served to the customer's table very well.
You can follow the Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste via Facebook: Makro Horeca Academy and website.
To increase know-how, increase ideas for restaurant operators to develop their business to be strong and able to 'survive' in the current situation and learn how to reduce food waste which will help reduce costs and create more profits with online content about food waste and methods of managing and reducing food waste.
Click to read Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste.
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