Every day, your kitchen staff members make decisions that have a direct impact on your profit margin and bottom line.
Whether they are deciding to add extra cheese to their girlfriend’s sandwich or just made too much of that night’s special. The decisions they make, when improperly trained and monitored, costs you money, time, and resources. The best thing you can do as a restaurant owner or manager is to properly train your staff in food waste management. This includes having the best products for your staff to utilise. Training your staff on food waste reduction will drive greater productivity and greater profitability.
There are many aspects that factor into food waste. The best and most effective option is to properly train and to streamline the tools your staff must work with. Cross contamination, improper storage, improper labelling, and improper order taking all affect your food waste and, ultimately, your profit margin.
Most food that is thrown away is past its expiration date. Here’s a simple trick for cutting restaurant costs. Train your cooks using the FIFO method. Clearly label food with its expiration date. Put the oldest ingredients in front so they are used first. Easy.
If your staff doesn’t understand or doesn’t take caution when prepping food, cross contamination occurs. This is particularly dangerous when handling products that can trigger food allergies. Proper labelling can prevent cross contamination. The solution to many of those issues lies within a food rotation system. This is system provides a concise and organised way to label and store your inventory. Food rotations systems help you improve inventory management, monitor expiration dates, avoid cross-contamination, ensure customer safety, assure health inspectors that the kitchen is within code, reduce waste and save you time and money.
Another way that food is wasted is through improper order taking. If your staff makes a mistake while taking an order or tries to take an order without writing anything down, this can create waste through wrong orders, mixed up requests, and forgetting to place an order altogether. Streamlining your business with proper tools is essential to waste reduction and profit increase. Providing your staff with an easy-to-use and efficient option for order taking will greatly reduce food waste.