Restaurant Produce Ordering Guide

Does your restaurant have a streamlined, dependable process for ordering produce? From smaller, independent establishments to large franchises – and every restaurant in between – it (literally) pays to have a restaurant produce order guide that works for your kitchen staff. 

A produce order guide is the ultimate money saver, and it’ll ultimately benefit your customers and your bottom line. With a little up-front planning and timely purchasing, you’ll immediately notice an improvement with ingredient utilization and optimization. 

While we’re known for our world class restaurant accounting solutions, RASI also knows a thing or two about day-to-day restaurant processes. With this online produce ordering for restaurants, you can maximize your leverage with suppliers and producers. Buyers Edge Platform also has its own division for produce management. Visit BEP today to learn more about their services that help ensure safe handling, storage, and usage of produce products. 

Why Proper Produce Ordering is Essential

Accurate, on-point produce ordering is vitally important in order for your restaurant to make tasty, memorable meals for your customers. Here are a few reasons why it helps to follow a sustainable, flexible restaurant produce order guide:

• Increased order speed
• Proper designation and quantities for seasonal-specific ingredients
• Reduced order errors
• On-the-fly adjustments are easy to implement for seasonal items and special promo entrees
• Seamless process – easy for someone to fill in and order produce without missing a beat (or beets, if that’s your thing)
• Optimal ROI and less kitchen waste
• Enhanced menu engineering
• And many more

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Tips for Ordering Produce

The core of any efficient produce order guide starts with ordering produce at the best possible price for your restaurant kitchen, along with optimal freshness and storage time. Follow these simple steps, and you’re well on your way to adhering to an easy-to-follow restaurant produce order guide:

Assess your needs.

Along with your regular go-to, staple menu items, stay ahead of the curve for seasonal favorites and upcoming new entrees & appetizers. For example, your produce ordering requirements in April might differ substantially from your September produce purchases.

Finding Reliable Suppliers

In other words, find a vendor management strategy that works for you. Check out RASI’s helpful article on this subject for invaluable tips. Vendor management is a critical component of every well-run online produce ordering system for restaurants.

Understanding Lead Times and Special Orders

We touched on this earlier, but it’s hard to stress the importance of anticipating bulk orders, special produce purchases, and the like. There’s a bit of trial & error in play here, especially for less experienced chefs & kitchen managers, but once you build a reliable supplier network, it’s easier to handle this tricky task. Should you buy in bulk now? How does my produce inventory impact my balance sheet? These and other questions are answered by controlling the cost of goods (COGs) for your eatery.

Quality Control and Food Safety

Produce freshness depends on impeccable quality control and food safety measures. For your restaurant produce order guidelines, this means:

Thorough Delivery Inspection

• Never just accept a produce delivery without a cut-no-corners inspection. Always check for proper firmness, color, and aroma.

Storing Produce Properly

• To get the most out of your produce order guidelines, ensure you have a clearly defined produce storage plan in place. 

Preventing Cross-Contamination

• Pay attention to cross-contamination with your produce. For example, never store fresh produce next to meat, dairy, and other non-produce ingredients.

Optimizing Produce Usage and Minimizing Waste

Want to produce the best results for your restaurant produce? Try these tips: 

Reduce Over-Ordering

• This goes along with our previous point about anticipating seasonal ingredient trends and similar special circumstances. Another helpful aspect of limiting over-ordering and having too much produce on hand? Get on a regular, reliable schedule with trusted partners & suppliers.

Implement Creative Ways to Use Excess Produce

• When you have some extra produce on hand, a great way to ensure it’s used before expiration is to add a new menu item (or more) to utilize soon-to-expire ingredients.

Donating Excess Produce

• If your menu is already at full capacity and it’s not feasible to create new menu entries, donating to local food bank is always a good idea.

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RASI: The Ultimate Solution for Produce Ordering, Accounting & More 

From online produce ordering & management for restaurants on the Buyers Edge Platform to accounting services and more, RASI & Buyers Edge Platform will help your BOH restaurant system run more efficiently. We offer everything from tax & compliance help, balance sheet optimization, multi-unit inventory expertise, and much more.

Request a demo today or call us directly at (720) 826-9900. Thanks for visiting RASI – we look forward to hearing from you soon!