Thursday, November 25, 2010

Food and Beverage Gadget Essentials - Disposable Glass Cylinder



Soda siphons, cream whippers, and disposable gas cylinders like CO2 cartridges and nitrous oxide cartridges are basic necessities for those in the food and beverage business. These kitchen and bar essentials would be your key to creating mouthwatering desserts not to mention exotic mixed drinks and other favorites. Starting your own business is quite challenging because you would have to be creative and imaginative in what you will serve in order to capture the interest and ensure the loyalty of your customers. You would have to come up with something more special and more delicious than what your business competitors are serving to entice their loyal patrons to your place.

You would need to stock your kitchen and bar with the right liquor, beer, wine, and mixers like fruit juice, club soda, tonic water, etc. You should not forget the garnishes like olives, maraschino cherries, and lemons. As for your club soda or soda water, you need not buy it from the store. In fact, it would even be better if you would not use store bought water sodas, as it could go flat if not used right away. It would be better to make your own soda water with your soda siphons and disposable CO2 cartridges. You would be pleasantly surprised at the taste, crispness, clarity, and effervescence of your carbonated beverages. It would make your special creations or mixed drink favorites better than the usual.

It is important to note that when you are looking for soda siphons and disposable gas cylinders like CO2 cartridges, you should make sure that what you are getting are of the highest quality and has met the strictest of standards to ensure quality of your drink. It should be able retain the freshness and effervescence of your soda water in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. There are different brands and kinds of soda siphons or seltzer bottles from aluminum to stainless steel, which would mean that the prize would differ too. These would be a nice investment since you are going to be using it a lot. You would be better off buying something that is durable and of superior quality.

When it comes to creating "foamed" desserts, creamy soups, sauces, purees, and appetizers, you would need a cream whipper and its accessories as well as nitrous oxide cartridges. You could also make your own whipped cream that would be ideal toppings for your desserts, ice cream, coffee, and mixed drinks. It would be best if you can get a multifunctional whipper that comes in a thermally insulated bottle that would be ideal for preparing hot and cold foams, creamy soups, sauces, etc. It should be able to keep your mixture cold or warm for long hours.

The cream whipper accessories like the decorator tips and injector needles would be great for making delectable looking concoctions and desserts as well as for making tortellini, cream puff, and the like. Freshly made whipped cream makes a big difference to the taste and quality of your wonderful creations and concoctions. High grade cream whippers and nitrous oxide cartridges would ensure quality for every serving or for every use.

www.made-from-india.com gives you trade directory of Food & Beverage product , Indian Food & Beverage supplier & manufacturers, Food & Beverages exporters, Food & Beverage Traders, Food & Beverage Distributors, food manufacturers in India, Food & Beverage Factories, Food & Beverage Producers, wholesalers. Manufacturers and suppliers of bottles & cans of beverages. A large number of products like: alcohol, beverages, bread & biscuits, frozen food, saffron, snacks, spices & seasonings etc. are included under the category of Food & Beverages in the exclusive directory of www.made-from-india.com

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Food and Beverage Gadget Essentials - Disposable Glass Cylinder



Soda siphons, cream whippers, and disposable gas cylinders like CO2 cartridges and nitrous oxide cartridges are basic necessities for those in the food and beverage business. These kitchen and bar essentials would be your key to creating mouthwatering desserts not to mention exotic mixed drinks and other favorites. Starting your own business is quite challenging because you would have to be creative and imaginative in what you will serve in order to capture the interest and ensure the loyalty of your customers. You would have to come up with something more special and more delicious than what your business competitors are serving to entice their loyal patrons to your place.

You would need to stock your kitchen and bar with the right liquor, beer, wine, and mixers like fruit juice, club soda, tonic water, etc. You should not forget the garnishes like olives, maraschino cherries, and lemons. As for your club soda or soda water, you need not buy it from the store. In fact, it would even be better if you would not use store bought water sodas, as it could go flat if not used right away. It would be better to make your own soda water with your soda siphons and disposable CO2 cartridges. You would be pleasantly surprised at the taste, crispness, clarity, and effervescence of your carbonated beverages. It would make your special creations or mixed drink favorites better than the usual.

It is important to note that when you are looking for soda siphons and disposable gas cylinders like CO2 cartridges, you should make sure that what you are getting are of the highest quality and has met the strictest of standards to ensure quality of your drink. It should be able retain the freshness and effervescence of your soda water in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. There are different brands and kinds of soda siphons or seltzer bottles from aluminum to stainless steel, which would mean that the prize would differ too. These would be a nice investment since you are going to be using it a lot. You would be better off buying something that is durable and of superior quality.

When it comes to creating "foamed" desserts, creamy soups, sauces, purees, and appetizers, you would need a cream whipper and its accessories as well as nitrous oxide cartridges. You could also make your own whipped cream that would be ideal toppings for your desserts, ice cream, coffee, and mixed drinks. It would be best if you can get a multifunctional whipper that comes in a thermally insulated bottle that would be ideal for preparing hot and cold foams, creamy soups, sauces, etc. It should be able to keep your mixture cold or warm for long hours.

The cream whipper accessories like the decorator tips and injector needles would be great for making delectable looking concoctions and desserts as well as for making tortellini, cream puff, and the like. Freshly made whipped cream makes a big difference to the taste and quality of your wonderful creations and concoctions. High grade cream whippers and nitrous oxide cartridges would ensure quality for every serving or for every use.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Your Restaurant Menu is the First Line of Sales



For any food and beverage establishment, the primary feature - obviously - is what is being served on the menu. Every other facet that a restaurant features is in support of this primary point. In this, not only is it important that the food is delectable, but the dishes must also be well presented to guests. As such, restaurant menus decided by restaurant manager are the first line of advertisement for a food and beverage operation.Restaurant menus target two specific areas of representation: the guest and establishment itself. Each of these two areas of representation has inherent menu characteristics.

For the guest, the menu is the first line of sales. The menu is the practical advertisement that markets the primary function (food and beverage) of the restaurant. As such, the menu should be not only be functional (i.e. easy to read), but it should be reflective of the quality services of the Restaurant and highlight the motif expertly.

For the Restaurant, the menu represents inventory requirements and advertising opportunities. The menu can be a basis in which a restaurant manager determines their inventory needs and categories. The menu will also point to staffing demands in terms of delivering services. Finally, the menu as noted earlier; is a prime means of advertisement. By placing pictures and other graphics of meals and beverages on the menu, the establishment positions itself for return business and increased sales.

As one can see, the menu concept goes beyond just being a list of the available food and beverages that an establishment offers. As food and beverage management prepare menus for their establishments, a restaurant manager should consider the following content in regards to fulfilling the aforementioned outlined purpose of a menu.

The first area of concern for a restaurant manager is the actual content of the menu - the language. The language, both in style and nationality, can depend on the theme of the establishment. They should definitely match. The primary consideration within this framework, however, is that the guest shouldn't have any trouble reading or otherwise understanding the menu.

Accuracy is the next facet that a restaurant manager should be concerned with. There is nothing more frustrating to a guest than to have inaccurate listings and prices on a menu. This causes confusion and is unprofessional; both issues that impact negatively on a business.

Pricing is the final component that demands attention with an establishment's menu. Not only should the pricing be accurate, but they should be reflective of the quality and types of services offered. Competitive and reasonable pricing is imperative if an establishment wishes to remain a viable business entity.

In short, the menu of a food and beverage operation is a vital part of the overall success of the establishment. More than a list of available food and beverages, the menu provides establishments with numerous benefits ranging from advertisement to inventory assessment. It is therefore of paramount concern that a restaurant manager not only compile effective menus, but that they continue to monitor and update menus in order that they remain current.

www.made-from-india.com gives you trade directory of Food & Beverage product , Indian Food & Beverage supplier & manufacturers, Food & Beverages exporters, Food & Beverage Traders, Food & Beverage Distributors, food manufacturers in India, Food & Beverage Factories, Food & Beverage Producers, wholesalers. Manufacturers and suppliers of bottles & cans of beverages.

How to Choose Food and Beverage Consultants For Your Restaurant



Your new restaurant has been well received by your customers. But now that the honeymoon period is over, sales have leveled off. Customers are coming in, but there is no increase in numbers. You find that handling the kitchen is still a nightmare. Food and labor costs are high and you are unable to streamline the business to make it operate in an effective manner. The worst part is that you know that business will pick up with some efficient marketing. But marketing is not your expertise in addition to the fact that you are working almost 70 hour weeks. So, even if you knew exactly how to go about marketing your restaurant, where are the resources- Does it sound like you need to look for food and beverage consultants-You bet.

Most businesspersons do not like the idea of hiring food development consultants for their restaurants. After all, the restaurant is their investment and they do not want to hand over the business to someone else. There is also concern about the expenses involved. When your business is running on thin margins, it is hard to invest in something that does not bring immediate returns. Nevertheless, there are advantages for you in investing in a goodfood consultant. The first and the most obvious is the measure of objectivity they bring. Most businesspersons find it difficult to be objective about their own business.

Many restaurant operators who are new to the food or hospitality business realize that running a restaurant is a lot more complicated than they thought. When owners begin to realize that they do not know enough about their business, hiring food development consultants becomes inevitable. At this point, owners need help from someone who has done it all before.

Food and beverage consultants can help you in the different areas of your restaurant business, including:

-Selection of site
-Development of brand, design and conceptualization
-Startup
-Project management
-Financial planning
-Recipe development and design
-Operations
-Assessment of profits
-Operating systems
-Staff training
-Accounting systems
-Kitchen management

How do you choose the right people in the food consulting business?

- First, identify your problems and define the role of the consultant. For instance, climbing food costs may be due to the lack of proper kitchen management, poor systems or even lack of trained staff. It could also be the result of your pricing strategy. If you believe that your pricing is wrong, you need your consultant to have experience evaluating your prices and comparing them with market prices. Some restaurant consultants may not have sufficient experience in kitchen systems and even if they have some, you need to find out whether they have the specific expertise that you need.

- At times, a restaurant owner is unable to identify their problems, even though they know that the business isn't running as well as it could. In this case, you need a restaurant/food consultant who has the expertise to undertake an operational assessment.

- You may opt to take the temporary services of a food consulting firm in order to expand your business or even branch out in a new way.

- Before you select the restaurant consultant, review their background thoroughly. It's not enough to find out about the jobs they have done. You also need to know how much time the consultant has actually spent in the industry. You can find this out through a personal interview.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Food Plant Sanitation Using Ozone



In the food industry, an important aspect of the manufacturing process involves cleaning and disinfection of the process equipment. This has become an increasingly visible aspect of the food processing due to recent incidents involving food related illnesses. The cleaning process in the food industry involves the removal of food or beverage soils from the surfaces prior to the disinfection process. If the surfaces are not cleaned properly, disinfection will not be effective.

Several factors affect the cleaning process: Time, the longer a cleaning solution remains in contact with the equipment, the more material that is removed. Temperature, most food materials become more readily soluble as the temperature is increased. Chemical concentrations of cleaners will normally be reduced as time and temperature are increased. Mechanical force helps remove soil and can reduce time, temperature, and concentration requirements.

Clean in Place (CIP) systems clean the interior surfaces of tanks and pipes by circulating the cleaning/disinfecting solution through the system. This method eliminates the need to disassemble the equipment. Other advantages of the CIP method are the process can be automated and workers are not directly exposed to the cleaning agents. Clean Out of Place (COP) requires the disassembly of equipment and placing the equipment is a tank with a circulating cleaning solution. Mechanical systems can be as simple as a worker with a brush and cleaning solution to scrub the equipment. This article will focus on the CIP process.

The CIP process of cleaning food equipment usually includes the following steps: pre-rinse, cleaning, rinse, acid rinse and disinfection. The type of chemicals used and the exact process employed will depend on the properties of the food soils, amount of soil typical left behind after the process and the nature of the surface. It should be noted that these processes often involve large volumes of water. The primary aspect of the process covered in this paper is sanitation, i.e. the reduction of micro organisms to levels considered safe for public health.

Two methods are employed, thermal or chemical disinfection. For chemical sanitizers, time, concentration and temperature are the most critical factors. Chemical sanitizers are sometimes affected by pH and water quality. The application of chemical disinfection will also depend on the specific organisms being targeted since different organisms respond differently to various chemical agents and concentrations. Typical agents employed include chlorine based chemicals, iodine, quaternary ammonium compounds, acid-anionic sanitizers, fatty acid sanitizers, peroxide type compounds (e.g. PAA) and ozone.

Chemical disinfection in a CIP system takes only 10 to 30 minutes and uses cold water versus hot water for thermal disinfection. The thermal process can take up to 60 minutes to complete. So the advantage of the chemical disinfection versus thermal disinfection process is lowers energy costs and shortens cycle times.

In terms of ozone versus the other sanitizing chemicals, ozone is a broad spectrum biocide that works against virtually all pathogens found in food processing environments. Ozone is generally faster acting versus other agents which means shorter cycle times or lower dosages. The rate of action can be measured as the product of concentration of the disinfectant (C) multiplied by the exposure time at that concentration (t) to achieve a certain reduction in a particular micro organism. This is known as Ct. A faster acting agent will have a lower Ct. This means less agent is needed or the time of exposure can be shortened.

Ozone Ct value (1.9) for 99.9% reduction of giardia lamblia (3 log reduction) is significantly better than chlorine (122), chloramine (2,200) and chlorine dioxide (26). Ozone's Ct (1.2) is also superior for a 99.99% reduction of virus (4 log reduction than the same compounds chlorine (8), chloramine (1,988) and chlorine dioxide (33).

As the data show, the Ct values for ozone are anywhere from 6 to 1,000 times better than alternative disinfectants. Unlike other disinfectants, ozone is not significantly affected by pH. Chlorine becomes much less effective as the pH of the solution increases. The FDA also recognizes ozone as an indirect food additive. Because it is very short lived in aqueous solution, half live of about 20 minutes or less, it quickly dissipates on the equipment surface further reducing potential issues with its use.

Ozone is in commercial use for the washing of fruits, vegetables and fish. It is also used for the fumigation of grains and mushrooms. Numerous studies are being carried out to extend its applications to nuts, meat and eggs. The use of ozone will also not create toxic byproducts or leave a residual in the spent wash water. This is because ozone breaks down to oxygen after use. Chlorine based chemicals can form chlorinated organic compounds such as trihalomethanes or haloacetic acids. Both groups have been regulated as possible carcinogens. Since ozone does not form byproducts and its breakdown product is oxygen, a final rinse may not be needed, reducing total water use in the process.

Another important advantage of ozone is that it is generated on site. Only as much ozone as needed is produced. So, there is no need to purchase or store chemical biocides. In addition, since the machines are built with interlocks to ambient ozone monitors, leaks of ozone result in a shutdown of the machine before the levels reach concentrations of concern. The US Occupational Safety and health Administration sets a limit of 0.1 ppm of ozone for 40 hour per week, 50 week per year exposure. Monitors can detect this level and shut down the machines. So, the process is inherently safe.

Combining ozone with the CIP process allows for a high degree of automation and quality control in the disinfection step of the process. Ozone generators, as part of an integrated ozone water treatment system, can be paced to deliver the precise amount of ozone required. Data on ozone concentration levels and time of exposure can be tracked for quality control and reporting requirements. The process advantages of using ozone for CIP along with its efficacy in destroying micro organisms should make ozone use increasingly important in the food and beverage industry.