Hospital foodservice operations require adjustments to their recipes from time to time. But when patient populations soar, foodservice professionals must explore scaling their food production to meet the needs of their patients. If you’re upping your production by just a little, you might not need to look much further than changing a small number of ingredients here or shifting cook times there. But it’s a different ball game if you’re significantly increasing production. This post will take a look at some areas to consider when boosting your yield.
Cooking takes chemistry
Cooking is an art, but it's also a science. Mixing ingredients and adding other elements like heat and time is chemistry at work in the real world. Without getting too much into the science weeds — when you scale up your formula, ingredients don’t always operate the same way as they do in smaller batches. The scaled-up product could have a different taste or texture than your original recipe. To produce a tasty end-product, you might have to look at supplementing some ingredients, adding stabilizers to the mix, or changing the cook temperature and time.
Convert each recipe
Another helpful hint is to convert all recipes to a standardized unit of weight and volume. Weighing is more accurate than measuring dry volume in larger quantities. For instance, it’s much easier and more accurate to weigh 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of flour than try to count out 36 cups. Working with standardized recipes also allows you to easily break down how much one serving weighs, allowing you to better scale a recipe up or down in the future.
Supply chain sourcing
Sourcing product and the volume of items you need to increase your production can prove difficult (especially now). Check with your current foodservice supplier or suppliers to see if they can accommodate your new needs. If they can — great! However, anyone that’s been in the foodservice business long enough knows there are often supply chain hang-ups. If you’re out of one key ingredient, it could throw your whole operation for a loop. Be prepared and have more than one supplier in your back pocket for when unforeseen supply issues come up.
Sufficient storage
If you’re upping your orders, you’ll need to take into account that your storage needs will also increase. Think about where you’ll be able to safely store items before production. Is your walk-in cooler and freezer space adequate? Will you need to expand or purchase new, larger units? Once the cooking and prep are done, will you need more hot- and cold-holding space for meals that are ready to deliver to patients? Securing adequate storage and holding space will allow your operation to be more organized and help ensure product safety (via proper holding temperatures).
Quality equipment
Large-scale, quantity food production needs quality equipment that’s ready to do the job. Commercial kitchen equipment needs to be able to handle continual use at high volume (but isn’t durability the key for any product you purchase?). In addition, when dealing with cooking large quantities of food, precision matters. Units that offer automated features such as programmable presets will help drive consistency with each batch. In addition, when scaling up recipes, equipment that employs quick-cooking technology such as Hatco’s induction cooktop will reduce labor and promote more timely service.
Set yourself up for success.
Ramping up your foodservice production can be a challenging time for your healthcare operation. Being prepared with the right recipes, suppliers, storage and equipment will set you up for success and benefit your patients in the process. Looking for other ways to meet the needs of your patients? Check out another one of our recent blog posts to see how hospitals are getting on board with the latest trends and serving up meal kits for both patients and staff.
