Manage your commercial kitchen effectively with these top tips

For businesses responsible for serving food across a range of industries, efficient operations underpinned by effective and sustainable processes are essential. During busy commercial kitchen shifts, it is hard to overestimate how managing time productively contributes to successful and profitable operations. Chefs and commercial kitchen managers are required to consider a range of factors every day including food safety, timing and cleaning operations whilst still serving high-quality meals to patrons.

There are a number of ways that chefs and commercial kitchen managers can manage commercial kitchens more effectively and profitably:

Implement effective labelling processes

Tightening up your labelling processes can create more time for kitchen staff to focus on the tasks at hand and encourages a greater emphasis on food safety. Implement the use of pre-printed food labels in your commercial kitchen to free up time that is taken up by handwriting dates, food items and use-by dates. This not only makes the selection process of food quicker but also minimises the risk of human error due to poor handwriting or information not being recorded properly. The use of pre-printed food labels is also conducive to food safety as allergens and use-by dates are more easily identifiable.

Delegate tasks and responsibilities 

Making sure that kitchen staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities allows for smoother and more efficient commercial kitchen operations. Implement training processes to ensure that all new staff receive the appropriate level of training and receive a kitchen orientation session. Not sure where to start? Check out the Fildes Food Safety Employee checklist for staff training to help form a comprehensive training plan.

Drawing up a cleaning roster is a good idea for delegating important cleaning tasks throughout commercial kitchen shifts. Items on the roster should include cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and high-traffic areas, ensuring food is disposed of or stored safely and sanitising the necessary kitchen supplies.

Minimise food waste for greater profit

Reducing food waste is a great way to operate more profitably whilst also doing your bit for the environment. Evaluating how food and ingredients are stored in your kitchen is a great place to start. Invest in air-tight food storage solutions to keep food fresh and section out meals into portion bags to avoid over-serving. Take the time to take a detailed inventory of stock and update it regularly to avoid ordering too much.

Investing in fridge thermometers reduces food waste and energy consumption in commercial kitchens. Implementing the use of fridge thermometers allows staff to quickly identify the internal temperature of the fridge. Some fridge thermometers also feature an alarm to draw immediate attention to any faults in the appliance that are causing rises and dips in the temperature which could require a lot of energy to rectify. Fridge thermometers prevent food waste by alerting kitchen staff quickly when food is at risk of being stored inside the food temperature danger zone and spoiling thus allowing for more profitable operations.

Fildes Food Safety offers a wide range of food safety products and commercial kitchen supplies, designed to help chefs and kitchen managers to operate profitably and effectively. Visit our website or get in touch with your Fildes Food Safety representative to place an order.