Configuring Refrigeration Equipment To Save Labor

With wage hikes and other increasing labor costs, foodservice operators are looking for ways to cut expenses anywhere they can. While maybe not the most obvious place to start, maximizing performance and convenience in refrigeration equipment can help squeeze out more labor savings. Here are a few tips:

Glass door reach-ins help to quickly find contents in a busy kitchen.

• Use a glass door reach-in in the kitchen to save time by quickly identifying contents. Unlike a front-of-house glass door merchandiser, which is geared toward retail selling, a back-of-house reach-in needs to be a little more durable and is usually constructed of stainless steel to match solid door refrigerators and freezers also found in food prep areas.
• Installing pan slides in reach-ins makes it easier to store prepared foods prior to placing in an oven. Just slide a pan out of the reach-in and place directly in the oven.
• View windows in walk-ins serve a similar purpose to glass door reach-ins making it easy to peek inside and instantly know what’s inside and how much is there.
• Additionally, vinyl curtains and doors make it easy to pass back and forth through a walk-in without opening and closing a door. While you wouldn’t want to leave a walk-in door open all the time, vinyl curtains add convenience for the busiest times while holding cold air inside the walk-in.
• Save time and workspace in the kitchen by using chef bases. These bases are made to fit under combi ovens for refrigerated space that fits within in the same footprint as the oven. Meat, fish and poultry can conveniently be stored directly beneath the oven for quick access.
• When preparing salads, sandwiches or pizzas, keeping an adequate supply of ingredients handy is a time-saver, so use a prep table with as many food pans as you can possibly fit into your workspace. Mega top tables, with an extra row of pans, are specially designed for this purpose.
• One more prep table idea is to use optional overshelves for more storage space and quick access to more ingredients.

Overshelves on prep tables add convenient workspace capacity.