As employee retention rates continue to suffer, it is important to keep your employee’s front of mind when making business decisions. Listen to what they have to say such as suggestions for improvement or it could be even things that are going well that could be even better. Listening to feedback from your back of house staff can just be a first step in the right direction to keep them on board and reduce turnover costs.

Cross-training is important so that every employee is trained to handle multiple tasks and roles. This leads to a growth of professional capabilities of your staff and ensures that you have a workforce who can multi-task when push comes to shove. Cross-training increases efficiency, develops empathy towards coworkers, and provides learning and team-building opportunities at the organizational level.

Having an employee dedicate their time to dishwashing can be a major time-waster. Yes, dishes pile up and can take time and effort but there are steps you can take to reduce your staff’s time on washing dishes. Try to only run a full dishwasher to cut down on water, soap, and energy costs as well. During prep, make sure to spray all pans with a high quality pan release spray like Vegalene Premium 3-Oil Blend Pan Release Spray. Coating your pans well before cooking can save dishwashing time for your staff as well as saving on your water bill.

Look at the sales of all of your menu items and cut out the worst sellers. If a poor selling dish uses some costly ingredients, this is an easy way to save ingredient costs. But along with this, look at prep and cook time. If this dish is taking too much of your cooks’ time away from preparing other dishes, it may be time to cut it out if your ROI is not worth the time and cost to continue to offer this item. Seasonal items can be switched to evergreen, best-selling menu items that your customers order again and again to optimize your sales and staff energy.

Labor costs are one of the most substantial restaurant expenses that can cause financial problems for a food service business. Make sure to take some time to analyze each aspect of your business and take appropriate steps to effectively managing your labor costs.

Here’s some ways to adapt your university dining program to keep the new generation enticed:

Students need certain foods to be easily accessible to them based on their dietary needs from gluten-free to vegan. Specifically Gen-Z students are increasing aware of their eating habits and focused on improving their personal health and the health of the planet through what they choose to eat. Younger generations are more sensitive to ingredients and how their food is prepared, which is important to translate into campus dining experiences. Allergens are also a make or break for many students looking for an easy and accessible way to get food that meets their restrictions. By providing options for students with allergies (dairy, wheat, soy for example) and for students who make choices for their environmental impact (vegetarian, vegan, or non-GMO) you are fostering an inclusive nature through the campus dining and more students will want a part of it. Make small concessions to start, like preparing all your food with allergen free or non-GMO cooking sprays to not spread or contribute to allergens in foods or provide an option that is completely clean label in all your food prep. You can spray it in all pans, regardless of any dietary needs, and still get great results. It’s an easy change to position your university’s dining experience in a progressive and inclusive way for all students to be attracted to.

The same food week to week can get stale very quickly and make your food options seem average and bland. Add some variety to dishes but also at what time of day they are served. Try having breakfast food for dinner on a special night or celebrate cultural holidays with that specific culture’s or holiday’s signature dishes. Add some different flavor or spices to your recipes to mix up a plain chicken breast prepared in the same fashion week to week. Experimentation is the key to providing a unique and exciting dining experience for students.

Creating traditions and building community among students is one of the benefits of living on campus and going to college. Annual events like an outdoor picnic with food trucks or different cuisines for students to try can create a memorable experience that students will wait for year after year. Having staple foods that you are known for doing well while also expanding on those ideas is another good way to engage students in dining hall activities. College students want to feel like they belong to something, and having giveaways, events, and special breakfasts/lunch/dinners or snacks is a great way for dining halls to establish themselves as the top choice for student’s meals.

Often students will choose to order takeout as it seems like a safer and easier option when they are riddled with exams, papers, and homework. Making campus dining fun, healthy, inclusive to dietary needs, and exciting to go to is a way to build the campus culture and experience to attract new students and retain the same ones year to year.

Consumers are looking for a way to eat food that tastes great and aligns with their values for their personal health and the health of the planet. Fewer and simpler ingredient lists are alluring to this growing audience as well as overall ingredient transparency. Having buzz words on a menu like “organic”, “natural”, and “simple” are important but terms like “dairy-free”, “vegan”, and “non-GMO” are becoming even more essential classifications for plant-based food products.

Sustainable eating may seem like a trend, but it is here to stay and is a major opportunity to cater to a diverse range of customers. Fast food chains like Burger King pioneered the Impossible Whopper (a Whopper with a plant-based Impossible Burger patty) which is now a staple item on their menu. Starbucks offers a variety of plant-based milks and other non-dairy drinks like Refreshers and lemonades that have become very popular items. Small changes can be made throughout the cooking process to provide a more holistic switch to a plant-based kitchen. PLZ Corp can manufacture aerosol and liquid sprays for food preparation that can keep up with this growing community and demand for non-GMO and plant-based products. It can be as simple as making slight changes to develop the cooking process to be more plant-based without disrupting the overall system when working to add more new menu items.

 Supporting ethical coffee growers by purchasing fair trade coffee sends a good message to customers about what type of business it is and what operations they support. The coffee industry often uses exploited labor to manufacture its products. Many businesses unknowingly support a practice that does not align with their business values. Making this switch could paint businesses as a more ethical and socially responsible place to get food.

Another way food service businesses can help the planet and conserve their own resources is to find methods of production that use less water. Operating costs as well as environmental impacts are influenced by businesses’ water usage. According to the EPA, 52% of restaurant water usage is for dishwashing. These businesses can try to upgrade equipment like dishwashers, ice machines, and steamers to energy saving and water saving models that reuse water between cycles. Another way is to make the dishwashing process itself the most efficient it can be. Making sure to spray pans with pan release spray in order to spend less time rinsing food scraps off pans and trays will enhance the efficiency of operations while using less water washing dishes. PLZ Corp can produce non-GMO sprays for businesses to make sure all creations contain no GMOs while providing the consistent release necessary. Prepping pans before cooking can save time, labor, energy, and water in the long run thus saving these businesses money.

Partnering with local farmers and other local markets to source produce is one way to minimize impact and cater to the increasing desire for social responsibility in eating culture. Imported produce often uses more water to grow and more labor to package and ship than local produce. For example, a pound of tomatoes requires about 20 gallons of water to grow. Along with the environmental benefits, local fruits and vegetables tend to have more nutritional benefits as well because they are picked at peak freshness. Switching to using local produce can provide businesses a unique opportunity to establish themselves as a stronger contributor and supporter to their community.

Restaurants, dining halls, and other businesses updating their menu to include various dishes without including meat is also a way to save water in the long run. Meat production uses a lot of water (about 400 gallons per pound) and land that causes severe stress on the environment. Many consumers are choosing to switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet to help with their individual diet’s impact on the planet. The food service industry can help themselves by catering to this demand and putting more dishes on the menu without meat to reduce the restaurant’s impact.

These are only a few ways to help make businesses more socially responsible in its choices in suppliers, products, and operations.

What is gluten and how do you know what it’s in? Gluten is a protein in wheat, barley, rye and some related grains that provide elasticity. These proteins help stretch pizza dough to be extremely thin and still have it come out with a chewy texture. Gluten also assists in the process of how a cake rises. The higher the protein in flour, the more elasticity the made dough will have, and the finished product will be chewier. The difference in the protein in these flours explains the differences in the texture and appearance in cakes and pizza crusts.

Why should you offer gluten-free? Gluten-free products currently form the largest sub-section of the overall “free from” food category. According to a recent report from Spoonshot AI and a New York University study, around one-third of US adults are believed to be looking to reduce the amount of gluten in their diets regardless of any medical diagnosis. This goes to show that consumers see “free from” products as better for them.

What are the options for gluten-free products? There are many different types of flour that have been tested and used in replacement for wheat, rye, or barley and have similar (but maybe not quite perfect) results. Some interesting options include jackfruit flour, okara flour, amaranth flour, breadfruit flour, coffee cherry flour, and orange byproduct flour. Several new products, including gluten-free items, have prominently featured cauliflower this year. In gluten-free formulations, cauliflower often may be combined with other gluten-free ingredients like quinoa flour or xanthan gum to replicate glutinous structures. Cauliflower has been a popular replacement for pizza crusts, pastas, and more with overwhelming success amongst consumers. Fortunately, PLZ offers processes to produce gluten-free pan sprays that will ensure a gluten-free cooking processes.

So, what does this mean? Gluten-free is here to stay and many people are requesting new and improved products and food items that fit these requirements. Restaurants must now accommodate delicious menus that cater to this audience as well as fulfilling the needs of patrons with no dietary restrictions.

In food service, it is important to stay aware of any diet restrictions and how best to operate a business to accommodate that need. Of course, the main concern amongst chefs is taste integrity. It is an on-going battle for anyone in food service to keep up with any new dietary needs without compromising on taste of their products.

PLZ Corp can help you manufacture cooking sprays that can facilitate the process of switching to gluten-free without affecting flavor. These cooking oil sprays would be the perfect substitution for cooking oil, as there is no risk for gluten contamination. In addition to this, PLZ will help you with sprays for a variety of cooking needs, such as baking.

That being said, it’s easy for spice blends to get redundant. PLZ Corp is aware of how time-consuming curating the perfect blend can be, and how difficult it is to find modifications that can elevate the kitchen experience. Hence, PLZ has found a way to give some new life to the seasoning process.

Seasoning sprays solve these cooking woes as they provide a new and innovative way to season food. These sprays can reduce prep time by removing the steps normally taken to measure oil, melt butter, or cut garlic. By maintaining the flavor while reducing the time spent cooking, our sprays will improve productivity without sacrificing the ideal taste.

In addition to this, undercoating will never be an issue because PLZs seasoning sprays evenly coat vegetables, bread and rolls, pastas, salads, meats, and anything else you would coat in oil, butter, and spices. Seasoning sprays are the fresh and unique way to season food and provide strong flavor at a fraction of the time, while not compromising on taste.

Learn more about PLZs seasoning sprays here!