Controlling Food Cost in Production

1. Controlling Food Cost in Production • Controlling Foodservice Costs 7 OH 7-1

2. Chapter Learning Objectives • Develop a food production chart. • Describe how a waste report helps control food costs. • Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield for an existing recipe. • Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of portions it will produce.

3. Monitoring Standards • Tasting foods regularly is one way to ensure standards are met. The use of standardized recipes is another.

4. Food That Does Not Meet the Restaurant’s Standards • Should not be served • Should be salvaged (all or part), if possible • Should be discarded if not salvageable • Increase costs • Reduce profits

5. Questions to Ask When Food Fails to Meet Standards • Is the recipe clearly written? • Did the cook understand the recipe?

6. Questions to Ask When Food Fails to Meet Standards continued • Are ingredients used in the recipe clearly labeled? • Are the appropriate ingredients in the proper containers? (Do ingredients in containers match the containers’ labels?) OH 7-6

7. Determining Quantity to Produce • Accurate food production schedules are important because • Overproduction causes excessive leftovers and waste. • Underproduction causes production shortages and unhappy customers. • Both situations reduce profits!

8. Determining Quantity to Produce continued To maximize guest satisfaction, managers help their production staff know how much to prepare on the proper day and at the proper time.

9. To Ensure Proper Production • Professional managers always use food production charts!

10. Sample Production Chart

11. Food Production Charts • Created by studying past sales (sales histories) • Generally, the best predictor of what guests will buy in the future is what they purchased in the past. • Created based upon management’s estimate of future sales

12. When Using Production Charts • Prepare an estimate of the number of guests to be served. • Indicate the actual number of items to be produced. • Post the production chart where it can be seen easily.

13. When Using Production Charts continued • Ensure the required standardized recipes are readily available. • Periodically check the actual recipe yield against that listed on the standardized recipe.

14. Waste Reports • Critical to food cost control • Easily completed • Should be maintained for each shift • May indicate • Where training is needed • Production concerns that require attention

15. Sample Waste Report

16. Analysis of Waste Reports • Determine why each item had to be discarded. • Develop a strategy to prevent similar future losses. • Share findings with those who need to know.

17. Recipe Conversions • Step 1 – Compute the conversion factor.

18. Recipe Conversions continued • Step 1 – Example • Current yield, fifty portions • Desired yield, forty portions

19. Recipe Conversions continued • Step 2 – Convert ingredients into units that can be easily multiplied or divided. • Convert weights to ounces. • Convert cups, pints, and quarts to fluid ounces.

20. Recipe Conversions continued • Step 3 – Multiply each ingredient by the conversion factor. • Example

21. Recipe Conversions continued • Step 4 – Convert ingredient amounts back to normally used units. • Example

22. Recipe Yields • Recipe yields must be known. • Accurate costing of menu items is not possible without known and consistent yields from standardized recipes. • Effective production planning is also impossible without known recipe yields.

23. Recipe Yields continued • To calculate a recipe yield, compute the total volume of the recipe by • Weight—for those recipes where portion size is determined by weight. • Volume—for those recipes where portion size is determined by volume.

24. Calculating Recipe Yield • Weigh or measure only the major ingredients. • Account for cooking loss, especially for • Meats • Vegetables • Fruit

25. How Would You Answer the Following Questions? • It (is/is not) possible for a cook using a standardized recipe to create a substandard menu item. • Waste reports indicate when employees overportion and waste food. (True/False) • How many steps does the recipe conversion process have? • Three • Four • Five • Six • A recipe (yield/portion conversion) test is a calculation of the number of portions produced by a standardized recipe.

26. Key Term Review • Conversion factor • Food production chart • Recipe conversion • Recipe yield • Taste test • Waste report

27. Chapter Learning Objectives—What Did You Learn? • Develop a food production chart. • Describe how a waste report helps control food costs. • Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield for an existing recipe. • Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of portions it will produce.