With profits falling, calls for calorie labelling on menus and the growing requirement for tight allergen controls, the necessity for efficient, accurate restaurant management software has never been greater.
Thankfully, technology brands are stepping up to the plate, developing cutting edge software and creating strategic partnerships to give the hospitality industry the tools to make their operations safe and profitable.
Kitchen CUT are thrilled to announce their partnership with NFS Technology – the provider of leading restaurant EPOS system Aloha.
With Aloha and Kitchen CUT working in tandem, hospitality teams have the tools necessary to keep tight control of ingredients, recipes, menus and all important profits.
NFS Head of Sales for Hospitality, Chris Cartmell, identified the benefits of the new collaboration, saying:
“The system allows tight cost controls and highlights any potential allergens in ingredients. This live information is then pulled through into every sub-recipe, recipe and dish in which the ingredient is used, making allergens completely traceable.”
Kitchen CUT’s cloud-based, scaleable SaaS technology delivers comprehensive software for complete control over F&B operations in more than 55 countries worldwide.
Whilst many countries are not covered by the EU legislation, there are still the same potential dangers of allergen mismanagement. Allergies are not just restricted to Europe and allergen sufferers need to be cared and catered for globally.
Rather than adopting a manual, error laden approach to allergen management, it makes sense to have a robust system in place that is accessible by all members of the team, not only to ensure legal compliance, but also to provide a seamless service, and to protect your customers and staff.
An allergic reaction due to misinformation or lack of information could have catastrophic consequences for customers, their families and the business involved.
Mistakes are all too easy.
Dishes may consist of multiple recipes pulled together, so an allergen can be easily missed: a few drops of thickened soy sauce, a trace of nuts or maybe a change in mayonnaise supplier could mean that the new one has an additional allergen (such as celery or nut oil) contained within it, that the previous one didn’t.
It’s important for your business to have clear processes and for the teams involved to understand the importance of following them. Here are some of the scenarios you should give thought to:
- > If a supplier sends a substitute product with your delivery, what is the process for checking the new allergens? How will you ensure the allergen information for the new product is updated throughout every recipe and sub recipe in which the product is used?
> If a supplier delists a product and you pick an alternative how will you ensure that this is updated across every recipe?
> Managing the switch of entire suppliers, ensuring you update all recipes and menus.
Kitchen CUT provides accurate allergen software by allowing suppliers to upload product price and allergen data through our Supplier Gateway. This is free for suppliers to use and gives complete control and visibility over the products and allergen data being supplied.
Once approved these ingredients are then available in the system to use – chefs can be as creative as they like in the confidence that allergens are traced all the way from an ingredient level through to every sub recipe, dish and menu created. Everything is tracked accurately and automatically updated for you.
With Kitchen CUT, the system not only provides the back and front of house teams with live, accurate allergen information for every product, ingredient, recipe and menu, it also gives reassurance that there is a robust process and system in place to protect patrons against any oversights or potential mistakes that have been made.
Regardless of how big your company is, it is imperative to start taking allergens seriously.
Now is the time to stop relying on individuals as this process is prone to human error, and to start adopting a process and system that tracks allergens direct from your suppliers and vendors all the way through to your menus.
The NFS and Kitchen CUT partnership will allow you to do just that.
