Across the country, cheese prices are up 20% compared to last year and many pizza restaurants are being forced to raise their own prices as a result. The increase is due to the Omicron variant’s impact on production at dairy farms and experts predict the high cheese prices are here to stay – at least through the third quarter.
This moving-target-like nature of cheese prices makes it difficult to accurately predict budget expenses, which can potentially upset customers who get sticker shock when their favorite pizza place raises its prices.
You may or may not have much say in the price of your cheese supply, but you do have more control on getting the most out of your ingredient budget. Especially when cheese prices are high, waste can be an unnecessary drain on profits – piling up piece by piece. A little wasted cheese here and there seems insignificant, but it adds up.
Foodservice operations likely have enough to worry about nowadays – labor shortages, supply chain delays, employee retainment and much more. Adding higher cheese prices just creates one more challenge. But while unnecessary cheese waste can make it harder to maximize profits, there is a new fix to that chronic problem.
New Equipment Helps Solve the Cheese Waste Problem
The Randell Cheeser Station® is a new commercial foodservice product on the market.
It holds 30 pounds of cheese, with a stainless steel grate to rest the pizza on during preparation. That way, whoever is preparing the pizza sets it on the grate and reaches down into the holding bin to get the right amount of cheese. Any cheese that doesn’t land on the pizza falls back in the holding bin – not on the floor or prep table.
This means 100% cheese utilization.
The Cheeser Station also runs on an energy-efficient R290 compressor system and has visible external electronic controls for quick verification of proper settings.
Best of all, the Cheeser Station doesn’t take up much valuable space. At only 2 feet wide, it’s practical for real-world floorplans.
Scale option prevents employees from overdoing it with cheese
Cheese waste doesn’t only happen when an employee accidentally misses the pizza.
The Cheeser Station also comes with a scale and tare option, which turns the cheesing process into a science – making sure employees aren’t overdoing it when they are adding cheese.
One employee adding too much cheese to one pizza isn’t the worst thing in the world. But without a way to prevent that from happening, the costs can add up quickly over the course of a year – especially when prices are skyrocketing.
How Much Is Cheese Waste Costing You?
New equipment for the kitchen is a significant upfront investment.
But fluctuation of cheese prices is likely here to stay. It’s an unfortunate reality of being a foodservice operation in 2022. However, you have options to help minimize the waste of higher priced cheese.
At the end of the day, any new equipment investment must make financial sense for a pizza restaurant. Will this help or hurt profits? A few factors can impact how quickly something like the Cheeser Station can pay off for a pizza restaurant.
Randell has an ROI calculator for the Cheeser Station to help you find your return on investment using the unit. Some operators can see payback in as little as 6 months.
If you’d like to know more about The Cheeser Station, go to TheCheeserStation.com.
