Food Service Systems I: Production

Food Service Systems I: Production

• Food transformation is essential for any food service system, changing raw or processed foods into finished, ready-to-serve products.
• Recipe forecasting, formulation, scheduling production, and temperature monitoring are key functions within this system.
• High-volume operations involve complex transformations of ingredients into finished products.
• An objective approach to production contributes to input use conservation and desired product outputs.
• Recipe formulations create standard recipes used for production controls.

Key Concepts in Recipe Formulation

• Factor and percentage methods are common approaches for recipe formulation.
• Production demand estimates can be determined through forecasting.
• Consistent, comprehensive data collection is crucial for accurate forecasting.

Factors Influencing Production Demand

• Numerous internal and external factors influence food service production demand.
• Clear communication between management and production staff is essential for successful production.
• Ingredient assembly is crucial in high-volume food service operations.
• Portion control maintains costs and ensures nutrient composition.

Food Production Objectives

• Cooking enhances food aesthetic quality, destroys harmful organisms, improves digestibility, and maximizes nutrient retention.
• Computerization facilitates production aspects such as expanding, reducing, storing recipes.

Recipe Formulation - Format

• The recipe usually includes a title, yield, and proportion size.
• Cooking time and temperature information is often prominently displayed at the top of the page, aiding preheating and scheduling.
• Ingredient names and quantities are listed on the left side of the recipe for various yield options (e.g. as purchased, AP).

Recipe Yield

• Recipe yield is a measure of the total amount produced by a recipe.

Quality Standards

• Measurable aesthetic characteristics of food items form the basis of sensory analysis.

Recipe Adjustment

• The factor method multiplies original ingredient quantities by a conversion factor.
• The percentage method calculates the percentage of the total product weight for each ingredient.

Adapting Small Quantity Recipes

• Expanding many recipes is achievable from smaller home-sized recipes.
• Preparation, evaluation, expansion, evaluation, then expanding by 25% if satisfactory are repeated steps to achieve the desired end amount.

Forecasting Demand

• Forecasting is a prediction of food needs within a specific time frame (e.g., a day, a particular period).
• Accurate forecasting minimizes overproduction.
• Historical data, past trends, help determine current needs.
• Factors such as cost, accuracy, relevancy, lead time, food selection pattern, and ease of use are important when determining forecasting methods (e.g. manual or computer based).

Quantities to Produce

• A general procedure for producing meat, poultry, fruits, and vegetables includes steps to determine portion size, multiplies it by the quantity to be served, converts to pounds, divides the portion size by the yield percentage for the quantity to be ordered.

Production Scheduling

• Scheduling is a decision-making and communication process informing production staff about food preparation activities over a specific time frame.
• Production scheduling ensures efficient time usage, equipment/space optimization by identifying; What menu items, what quantities, when items are produced, and who/what is assigned to each item.
• Processes involved can include preparation of ingredients, combination, cooking, holding under appropriate conditions (frozen, refrigerated, hot holding), and transport.

Production Schedules

• Production schedules are detailed documents communicating work for a specific period to production staff, including what work is to be performed by whom, and the estimated quantities of each menu item.
• The schedule uses source recipes from name/code numbers, standard portion sizes and completion times.

Production Meetings

• Production meetings allow production and planning teams to discuss the menu and production plans.

Production Control

• Ingredient assembly is often cost-efficient in food production systems.
• Personnel managing the ingredient room need to be able to read, write, and do basic arithmetic.

Portion Control

• Standardized portions help control costs and maintain customers' satisfaction.
• Employees need to know the number of servings within a batch size.

Production Evaluation

• Production phases incorporate initial recipe testing and sensory analysis for quality control prior to serving food.