Food cost control- Can someone explain?

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN ME THE ENTIRE COST CONTROL PROCEDURE.

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Permalink Reply by Meyer Salamon on February 13, 2011 at 13:27

I don't know for how long you have been dealing with cost control or food & beverage, it's a whole proses that is very difficult to explain in few words, I think you should go back to the history of your organization and look out for the proses line by line and i believe you will eventually understand how it works, it's a very simple proses but yet, complex as you will have to take under consideration many factors in order to get the best result,

good luck

meyer salamon

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Permalink Reply by Roland Atembe on February 13, 2011 at 14:50

Hello Hirosh,

Cost control is a long procedure. I suggest you check your cor operate culture. You will be able to get a track record of the various costs and see if there are any variances.
But also you will have to narrow it to what type of cost you are actually trying to control (labour cost, food & Beverage, or cleaning) etc.

For instance, if you are looking at Food & Beverage cost, you will have to consider factors such as, unit prices of your products and as purchase quantities. The eatable portion after trimings, and the number of portions yield. After that you will have to look at your service portion sizes. Then you can figure out how to control the cost of Food & Beverage.

Most often, the following ways are used to control food and beverage cost;(reduce portion seizes, use substitutes, change certain menu items, or source for new suppliers with better prices). In a case like Food & Beverage cost, it is also important to ensure a good stock control method to avoid pilferage because this one of the most influential factor to F&B cost in most establishments.
I hope this will give you an idea about your subject matter.
Good Luck

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Permalink Reply by Kashif Iqbal on February 13, 2011 at 14:58

Dear hirosh

Good Day

a)Eliminate waste, Pilferage, or Loss of Food & Beverage.

a)for the purpose you need suprise visit of your outlets regularly .

b)Lower Cost without reducing the established quality or quantity.Make it possible to supply better food & drinks without increasing the cost

b)Monthly market survay to find out batter supplier with lowest price and with good qulaity .

c)Responsible to safeguard the company’s investment in Food & Beverage and others.

Inventory & to provide management with accurate & timely operational cost figures.(Flash Cost)

Supervising the Food & Beverage control staff & the work of Receiving officer & Storekeepers. -- Regularly checking of received items of food and beverages during when the items received to provide the best quality of Food Stuff.

Cost out the recipes and menus.with exec chef

Regular check on banquets to control and checking of menu with function sheets.

Performing & supervising the following control procedures.

1- Receiving Practice 2- Storing Practice 3- Issuing Practice 4- Costing 5- Bar Control 6- Portion Control Inventory taking -- Reviewing & analyzing all cost reports. -- Analyzing Purchases, portion contol etc,

thanks and regards

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Permalink Reply by saurav choudhuri on February 15, 2011 at 17:20

i hope you have a clear idea about what is food cost and how it is calculated.....now the word control here indicates "to regulate"...how can you make it more or less as per organizational standards....for example a hotel X wants its speciality restaurant cost to hover arround 35% -40% .here by controlling you can bring a food cost wich is 45% during the first week down to your specified range & vice versa at the end of the month. the traditional tools are portion control, par stocks, appropriate odering,minimal wastage,standardpurchase specifications...etc..etc. how ever from my experience i will tell u a trick if your food cost is really high & u want to bring it to reasonability..go for high cost items make sure wastage is minimised keeping standards intact .......alll the best

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Permalink Reply by Bobby Vishwanathan on February 16, 2011 at 9:38

Mr Saurav

Can u pls explain what is high cost items

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Permalink Reply by John Eric I. Mendoza on February 17, 2011 at 6:16

Mr.Hirosh,
It's too complicated to explain. There are several factors involved which depends on the company's culture and set up. There are a lot of formulas to compute for the cost and variables to that is what you should watch out for.

Food cost = beginning inventory-ending inventory / sales x100
Facrore to consider are
The cost of goods.
Optioning based on recipe cards
Minimize pilferage and spoilage
Proper storage procedures
Proper receiving procedures

With the above, you come up with reports and monitoring procedures so as you can get the food cost desired as part of your KRA and

Hope you had a pretty clear idea of what is it all about.

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Permalink Reply by John Aggrey Otieno on February 21, 2011 at 18:09

To explain the entire procedure may need a whole book but here is a little insight:

Menu planning - whether for food or beverages, needs to be done in order to know exactly what you want to prepare and serve in the establishment. This also ensures that the correct methods are used and wastage is minimised.

Menu Costings - after preparation of the necessary recipes (this comes with a lot of processes such as yield tests etc) This obviously gives you the estimates for a number of customers and you can compare with the actuals

Purchasing - ensuring that the right products are then purchased at the right qualities and quantities at correct prices

Issuing - are done correctly with proper computation and records

Note that control needs a collective effort/team work of all those concerned in the various sections of the control chain ie, Purchasing dept, stores, production (minimising spoilage, wastage and pilferage) in order for the necessary desired results be achieved.

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Permalink Reply by ravi s rawal on March 7, 2011 at 16:12

hi...food cost control is not a big issue.... menu planing,menu costing,purchasing & issuing....contro d

spoilage.wastage & pilferage..... go for d better suppliers.... make sure of surprise visit of ur outlets regularly without any failure.... thnx Ravi Bachan

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Permalink Reply by suhas ramesh tare on March 18, 2011 at 13:17

hi............... i am chef suhas. plz................. send me the entire cost control procedure on my e mail id suhastare@rocketmail.com

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Permalink Reply by Arun Ajinkya on October 26, 2011 at 19:18

1.Fix the commodity specifications.2.Recipes of all items and updation of cost prices must be on going.3.Stock coming in and in various stages of processing to be taken into account for accuracy.4.Weight loss and shrinkage to remember.5.Ensure there are no diversions in recipe or method of preparations.6.Every day return on stock investments is a must to avoid wastages and pilferages.7.Before an order is passed u must know the stock in hand and its lean and buisy day consumption.THIS IS A SORT OF ORDER JUSTIFICATION

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Permalink Reply by Meyer Salamon on October 27, 2011 at 11:22

Dear Asuhar

If you realy want to understand the entire process of food & beverage cost control procedures, you read the "Food & Beverage Bible", In this book, you will find practicaly everything relating to F&B proper management including examples on how to do...from A to Z

I can send you the book if you wishh, but you will have to give your email address

Cheers

Meyer Armand Salamon