The importance of food storage can't be emphasised enough. Storage losses aren't always apparent but can lose a restaurant a great deal of money.
Often, food is stored in coolers or freezers where it's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'.
A common problem is not getting foods into storage quickly enough. When frozen or refrigerated foods are delivered, it's vital that they should be stored at the correct temperature at once. Bacteria will start to form as soon as foods become warmer and if nothing else, this will reduce their shelf life. Make sure that you have strict systems in place to make sure that food is put away in the correct storage as soon as it arrives.
Most of restaurant's food inventory is fresh foods. It's important to set up a rotation system in your fresh food storage area to make sure that the older items are being used first. Simple color coding can do the trick. One idea is to make sure that one employee is responsible for fresh food storage, and therefore accountable for any spoilage.
But bear in mind that the most diligent employee will have a problem with this if you, your manager or your chef over-orders. The person responsible for fresh food storage should also alert the chef to any overages so that specials can be planned or so that the chef can devise ways of using food overages.
Spills are another hazard. Make sure that shelves are easy to reach and that storerooms are laid out in such a way to minimize accidents. Consider decanting goods from glass containers to clear plastic containers to avoid the accident hazard of broken glass. (Note that plastic container must be marked with a 'use contents by' date, plus a description of the item if it's likely to be confused with anything else).
Your food inventory has another vulnerability - from dishonest staff. Have a system whereby only designated staff are allowed into storage areas. It's easy for a dishonest staff member to take a few steaks and put them into their own bags or to leave them in a garbage bag outside to be collected later.
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