28 ways to reduce food cost

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28 WAYS TO CONTROL AND REDUCE FOOD COST 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

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Weigh items upon receiving to ensure your being charged properly Check every box in to ensure proper receiving, don’t just count boxes Verify pricing on invoices. Many items are under corporate pricing contracts. Check for quality. Open boxes and look at the items. Return any items that do not meet expectations. Put perishable foods away ASAP to maximize shelf life and quality Rotate stock, always use the oldest product first Portion control. Use scales and portion containers for pre-portioned service items. Train servers on specified portions and spot check throughout the meal and preparation times. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula. How much food are we throwing away in the bottom of bowls, cans and gallon containers??? Roast meats at a lower (325-350) temperature to maximize yield and retain moisture. Utilize pan drippings for sauces and gravies. Have a working oven timer and use it. We all get busy and forget about items in the oven. Batch cook. Don’t prepare all the hot food at 9 AM or cook all the hamburgers before service. Batch cooking will keep the product fresh and allow better utilization of any leftovers. Carving, sautéing or tossing items to order will accomplish the same as batch cooking, preserving quality and allowing better utilization. Steer customers toward what you want to sell, popular lower food cost items, by featuring these items toward the front of the café. Place the higher cost items toward the back of your café. Make items from scratch or speed scratch. It’s cheaper to bake a cake from a speed scratch mix rather than purchase a prepared one. And the quality will be much better. Don’t garnish the servery with food items that cannot be utilized in production. Grilled oranges and lemons look beautiful but are hard to utilize. Look at what’s being thrown away. Are we getting maximum yield? Can we better utilize items? Utilize vendor specials. If fresh tuna is on special next week put it on the menu. Cost all your menu items out. Write menus quarterly taking advantage of items that are in season. Purchasing items that are in season will give you maximum quality, availability and the lowest prices. Implement cross-utilization when writing menus. If you have carved ham, put a bean and ham soup or grilled ham and cheese sandwich on later in the week. Put popular comfort style foods on your menu. Pasta, meatloaf, lasagna etc.. These items are traditionally favorites and low cost. Utilize production sheets to order and produce the proper amounts


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Lock your storage areas and watch the back door. An easy theft target only tempts people. Focus on catering sales. If we priced our catering properly, the food cost should be much lower in catering than in the cafÊ. Complete a competitive analysis. Our competitors are frequently charging more for the same items we are serving. We cannot just determine selling price by food cost alone. Add new items to the menu at a higher price. Use vendor promotions. Vendors will donate food samples, product, give-aways, point of sale material and help you put it all together. Utilize any manufacturer’s rebates. Use proper sanitation practices, it will maximize the quality and shelf life of our food.


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