Mithun Appaiah says Frozen Food is the Root to Cut Cost at Restaurants

If you are opening a new restaurant for the first time, then understanding how best to go about food storage will be an important priority. It is believed that around 4-10 per cent of food in restaurants does not end up being served to the customer. One of the main reasons for this is due to spoilage and staff error. Having an excellent food storage system in place and ensuring that all staffs are well trained is therefore key to minimising waste. Food storage is of course inextricably linked to food safety, so getting the basics right from the get-go and ensuring that everything is running smoothly behind the scenes is an essential part of the process.

Keep all storage dry and dark: All food products, whether it’s dry goods or cold products, should always be stored away from sunlight exposure. This helps with temperature control and stops food from spoiling or losing some of its nutritional value. To help preserve product quality, humidity levels should always stay under 15 per cent. Air conditioning and moisture-proof packaging are good ways to help maintain the right temperature levels.

Monitoring humidity levels: Keeping a hygrometer in your storage areas is one of the best ways to monitor humidity levels and ensure that they stay consistent. If you spot any damp or mould problems in any areas of the kitchen or storage spaces, then this will need to be addressed as soon as possible as any mould should be removed as a priority. This way, you can ensure that your practices are hygienic, and comply with food safety regulations.

Store food based on cooking temperatures: The higher the temperature of the cooked food, the lower the fridge storage shelf. The bottom three shelves are reserved for raw animal products. All seafood, beef, pork, veal, lamb and eggs should be stored third from the bottom, ground or marinated meats on the second, and poultry on the bottom shelf. Dry storage temperatures should be kept between 50° and 70° F, freezers should have an internal temperature of 0° F at most, while fridge temperatures should be kept between 32° and 40° F to prevent bacterial growth. Any hot storage must keep food at a minimum of 140° F.

Stock rotation and labeling: Stock rotation is every restaurant’s first line of defense against spoiled food being served to customers. To ensure that all your food stock is of the highest quality and to prevent food wastage, all staff needs to follow the "FIFO" rule – first in, first out. This means that any newly delivered food should always be placed behind older food to ensure that the system works correctly.

These are some of the most basic and essential food storage guidelines to get you going; however, it is crucial to conduct thorough research to make sure that every single box is ticked. This way, you can ensure that your restaurant is fully sustainable, and customers are always happy and coming back for more!  

The most complicated issue for any restaurants is logistics handling and that needs to be managed well. Most of the restaurants do not have sufficient space for the storage and hence they need technology to manage it well. JIT (Just in Time) delivery method is one such method used to ensure proper supplies. No matter you are running a single restaurant or managing 2,000 locations, find out how restaurants are partnering with logistics companies to save time, money and extra gained headaches.

Managing Time With Storage and Transportation

It’s of utmost importance that the restaurants have loyal suppliers who supply products as and when required so there are no excess or short stocks. It also allows the restaurant to provide fresh products all the time. “We at Foodlink ensure pre-scheduled deliveries of goods so that the suppliers do not incur additional transportation costs. Bulk items have periodic standing orders and deliveries in phase manner so that the products are available as per requirements,” shared Nitin Nagrale, VP – Materials Management, Foodlink Services, by adding that combined deliveries on a single route to multiple restaurants ensures savings in logistics and also provides ease in operation.

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On the other hand, Domino’s which changed the overall delivery business in India with it 30 minutes delivery model has always focused on efficient transportation and supply. “By use of Technology for e.g., there are roller cages used at supply centers for picking the stocks and movement through vehicle and this saves unloading time and storage also will be good for restaurant team. They just have to pick the roller cages and move inside the restaurant without being handling in bulk instead of pieces,” pointed K Gopala Krishnan, Head Supply Chain Centre (South), Jubilant FoodWorks that operates Domino’s and Dunkin Donuts in India. Also there are vehicle tracking system that has become popular to track the vehicle from supply center to restaurant and this will enable to plan resource at restaurant for quick unloading and better space management.

Universal and Adaptable- Winning the Game

 “We at Foodlink believe that The Food is the Hero in the entire script of the film called restaurants! We are always innovative in our offerings which make us different in our segment of customers,” added Nagrale as he believed that learning new, innovative methods of presenting & serving food, being on top of the game with progressing cooking methods and insuring good quality raw material is sourced makes us successful. Meanwhile, restaurants tend to be flexible in serving the demands of the guests as due to the exposure every customer has become very demanding. The millennial especially expect attention which is a large part of restaurant business. To understand the customer expectation and create bandwidth at back-end to meet consistent service and sustain the cost below market price. To keep the cost, efficiency and productivity is important and achieve efficiency and productivity, restaurants must use latest technology, automation and systems etc.

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At the same time, it’s important to have adequate resources to provide world class service. Anything inadequate results in insufficient service. But it’s also important that an effective manager manages backend with less resource. His capability of managing backend with short staff or less material showcases his ability and results in reduced costs. Relationship with suppliers and user department also plays a major role when you have insufficient resources so that the same outcome is obtained. “I have been working for supply chain department for over 24 years now. A solid backend ensures great front end! It helps them to deliver better to customers,” Nagrale added further as it also takes away the worry of operations staff about availability and quality of the material. Keeping abreast of latest trends, products, methods at backend always gives a great boost to front end and finally to the customers.

Commenting on the same, Gopalakrishnan added, “strong and reliable resources is very much required for strong backend operation and to train, retain we should have strong HR practices like Employee engagement, training & development system in place.”

Hence, there is no denying that backend is the key for any business success and strong backend is MUST to have great customer satisfaction in the restaurant in terms of product range availability and quick menu mix.

In the past years, the demand of the beverages was not high but in the recent times we are seeing an immense change in the entire market scenario, according to the India Food Report 2016, the market for beverages in India is close to 1, 95,000 Cr and is growing at a rate of 20–23 per cent. As the beverage industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian market and it is expected to grow at a steady pace till the year 2020.  With the immense growth in beverage sector there’s one more brand which is stepping in India. After setting a benchmark in Dubai, Heilo Beverages Pvt. Ltd. is launching Peaur in India.

In conversation with Restaurantindia.in, Piyush Mathur, Founder and Managing Director, Heilo Beverages Pvt. Ltd talks about the brand’s marketing strategy and future plans.

As you know India has a huge market for beverages, what keeps Peaur beverages apart from other competitor brands?
Our philosophy is “More in Every Drop” that keeps us apart from our competitors. We are driven to provide the purest form of beverage across categories. For our natural mineral water there is no purification process involved so nothing is added or removed from the point of extraction. Water in the bottle is the same water extracted from the source. Every drop of Peaur is untouched! It comes straight from the banks of River Ganges from extraction to packaging everything happens at Rishikesh with highest levels of hygiene standards. Our extraction plant and the packaging unit are close to avoid the entry of any impurities in our products.

Even our juices that we provide to our customers is as pure and natural as it can get with no adulteration or added chemicals, we do not use any added flavors and the packaging is also one of a kind, we use UV protected steel can containers to keep the product safe from impurities and away from any risk of contamination.

How the idea behind the brand incepted?
Peaur is not just a fancy logo or a badge as a brand. My ideology as a member of Hielo Beverages India is to provide the beverage which interacts, engages and be merited on the basis of its quality and the panache factor. Peaur is one such discovery that evolves and extends as a rage to emerge as the finest producer of premium natural drinks in India including but not limited to natural mineral water, natural nectar based fruit juices, natural flavored vitamin rich water and sparkling water as its spread of winged varieties.

Being new in Indian market, how you’re planning to expand the roots of your brand in F&B industry? 
The assured future plans and as a practice as I say will keep sipping Peaur. And as the growth demands after addressing to the commitment in India by tapping promising market of Tier 1 & Tier 2 cities, we shall explore and make India proud with our Peaur products globally. As per the market trends and needs we stand open for all sorts of marketing and collaboration that makes Peaur reach and emerges as a need of every mankind. Hielo Beverages India Private Limited is an organization which determines to contribute the industry of Food and Beverages in India. Hielo Beverages India takes pride in addressing the society and the consumers by offering the finest assortment of high grade-high purity products via Peaur.

In current scenario beverage sector is on the higher side, what major challenges do you see in the market to grow?
As I express, challenges makes you deliver the best out of you. Having said that I took the challenge of touching the industry which conveys the risk and adaptation to self and the organization that may emerge as a harsh encounter while organizing and structuring the thought into the invention of the Peaur-fect (perfect) product. The major challenge was to help people distinguish between packaged drinking water and natural spring mountain water with its benefits to the mankind as a high rich mineral contributor to the soul.

Addressing, the fruit juices where every whiff and granule is naturally sourced adding no adulterants, preservatives, and chemicals was to be educated to the end consumers. In a nutshell, positioning and selling a premium range and a priced beverage in India was not going to be an easy task, but with our determination and commitment to create a healthy world being in future we take this challenge as our pride.

What quality standards you’re maintaining in your beverages? How & where they got manufactured?
We at Peaur strive to provide our customers with a variety of beverages that suit their needs and consumption. We have various products across different categories, firstly, Natural Mineral water that is available in 250ml, 500ml and a 1-litre bottle. We have also introduced sparkling water packaged in a luxurious glass bottle. We would be launching our Fruit Juices in a variety of flavors such as mixed fruit, peach, apple and mango in 200ml and 240ml bottles. Finally to cater to the health conscious and fitness enthusiasts we have Vitamin water product available in a standard 500ml bottle.

A good packaging is extremely essential from a utility point of view to ensure the product quality is maintained through transportation. Further, an attractively packaged product has the power to influence the purchasing decision of the customer. A lot of purchases made in the FMCG category are driven by impulse, therefore a good quality and attractive packaging goes a long way in connecting with the consumers.

A FMCG manufacturer must ensure that the packaging can protect the products from getting damaged from the pollutants in present in the environment. Also, the packaging must be done in the most hygienic condition with good quality material.

What will be the price range of the products?
PEAUR has to offer so much to the community through its Natural Mineral Water available in 250ml, 500ml packaging sizes while meeting the international standards for domestic consumption and separate packaging is done for exporting the goods at international platforms. For 1 liter PET bottle of Natural Mineral Water pricing at rupees 80.

Our premium products are also available in Sparkling Natural Mineral Water available in 250ml, 500ml and 1 liter packed in PET bottles and Nectar Based Fruit Juices available in the flavors of Peach, Orange, Pineapple, Alphonso Mango at rupees 50 for 240ml packed in cans. For 1 liter PET bottle of Sparkling Natural Mineral Water pricing at rupees 160.

What will be the marketing strategy in the initial phase? Do share the other phases too.
Our marketing strategy is to understand customer’s desires and their way of living for which strings to connectivity is quintessential. By getting in constant touch with our customers keep us assured that it is done in the best possible way. Distributing PEAUR tomajor departmental stores and online portals throughout the country and in international platforms as well is the current strategy that we hold within all the teams and departments.

A few key cities where we will be distributing PEAUR are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and more to explore, overseas distribution strategy being one of the strategies.

As you claim that you are the largest suppliers of Halal Buffalo meat? From where did you source the meat?

We supply fresh water buffalo’s meat. The water buffalos are first kept in stables wherein they get best quality feed and give milk. Once they stop their supply of milk they are sent for slaughtering. We get them from different villages of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

You supply fresh halal and safe meat. Is there any special processing you do at your end to maintain the freshness and hygiene?

We have government approved slaughtering certificate. All the processes and slaughtering are done at Mumbai based government slaughter house, that is our panel and through that only all the imports and exports takes place. The supply to all the five star hotels and fine dine restaurants are processed from there only. We ensure the animal in terms of health, fitness after that only we process further. And to maintain the durability and freshness we have special kind of vacuum packaging through which we can restore the freshness for long period. 

You slaughter animals strictly as per the Islamic method of Halal. So who remains your target customer?

India being the second largest exporter of meat is known for its fresh and authentic meat and the best way to maintain is through halal process. We have special people who slaughter the animal through the special procedure of halal. Through halal, whole blood (which is not an edible item) circulated in the body comes out and makes the meat healthy and fit to eat. After the meat gets cool down we do the further processing.  

Your supply is direct to five star hotels, catering industry, supermarkets. Can you name some of them?

We supply to almost all the big hotels and restaurants. Our clients from restaurant include; The Yellow chilli, Mainland China, Punjab Grill, Hard rock Cafe and the list goes on. From hotel industry we supply to JW Marriott, Taj group of hotels, Oberoi hotel etc.

Can you Name some international standards through which your company is committed to deliver fresh and authentic products?

We process our meat at Mumbai based government slaughter house. We have APEDA license, ISO certification and such other standards through which we maintain the freshness and authentication. All our processing and operations are done strictly following the government guidelines and standards which ensures the freshness and authentication.

How much has the beef ban in Maharashtra affected your business?

Cow got banned years ago, now government has banned ox-bulls also so the only source left today is water buffalos. This has highly increased the demand of water buffalos in the market which led to the hike in price of meat making the lower and the middle class unable to afford the same. Even beef has also disappeared from the menus of big hotels which has too affected the supply and business. 

You also supply Chilled Meat, Frozen Meat, Eggs & Edible Offal’s. Who do you see as your biggest competitor in this segment?

There are many names in this segment. We don’t consider anyone as our competitor. The one who maintains the quality and meets the demand on time rules the market and we focus on these two points only.

In what areas and sectors you want to expand. Or simply tell us about your expansion plan for next 3 years?

We are planning to establish chicken processing plant at a large scale in next 2-3 years where we can slaughter around 2 to 5 thousand chickens per hour and we want to take this at a large scale export business also.

Don’t you think that FSSAI law is too stringent to follow?

We have FSSAI license with us which are now compulsory for supplying any food product. To deal with any hotel or restaurant we have to show that licence and I think it is sometimes difficult to produce.

Tell us something about vacuum packaging of the meat?

In vacuum packaging, the product is placed in a plastic film package made from LD and NYLON by removing the oxygen and then sealing the package which maintains the durability of meat. It can increase the life of meat by around 30 days by keeping it chilled at 0-4 degree and for frozen it should be kept at -18 degree.