CALCMENU Blog

How can EGS CALCMENU and F&B Control help you in nutrient and allergen management? Part 1

2010-09-07T17:47:00.004+08:00

Last week, we have talked about the importance of nutrient and allergen management tools like EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control, for foodservice professionals. We have concluded that such tools are an effective way to keep up with the growing need of informing consumers of the nutrient and allergen content in food products and in improving nutrient and allergen management in the food industry.

This week, we have listed down the various ways on how these tools, specifically EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control help in ensuring reliable nutrient and allergen management.

1. CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise automatically provide nutritional information for your recipes and menus.

Each recipe’s nutritional content can be easily calculated to up to 12 nutritional values that you have chosen from several databases or references such as USDA (American reference), BLS (German) and ASA (Swiss).

Nutrient Tab in CALCMENU Enterprise containing the nutrient information of a recipe (Click to enlarge)

Nutrition information in labels or alongside your menu is more than just following government guidelines. It is a great marketing strategy as well. It was determined that a growing number of diners actually support laws requiring restaurants to post nutritional labels on their menus.

2. CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise provide hassle-free product labeling.

The same program that manages your recipes and menus can also be used to create nutrition labels for your food products. With CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise, each of your recipes’ nutritional information can readily be printed out as labels. The labels can be placed on pre-packaged food and on restaurant menus for the convenience of the customers and are expected to provide reliable information on the food product’s nutrient content.

The nutrition information that is automatically generated in CALCMENU assures reliability. A good demonstration of this can be seen in the laboratory test commissioned by Inselspital in Berne, Switzerland. The test is part of the study to assure the quality of their catering. They wanted to check if the macronutrient and energy content of the food they are serving to hospitalized patients complies with the nutritional value calculated from recipes as well as with the recommendations issued by the German Nutrition Society (DGE). The lab results which tested the nutrient content of certain meals showed to be within 5% of what CALCMENU calculated*.

3. CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise automatically identify and monitor allergen content.

Part of ensuring proper nutrition is also keeping a watchful eye on possible allergen content in food products since some allergens get into the food through cross-contamination. This is brought about by improper handling during preparation, storage or transport . Thus, careful management of food production, storage, transfers and even sourcing of the raw materials will do a great deal in keeping allergen contamination at bay.

Food manufacturers and retailers should be aware of the possible presence of allergen in their food products. Allergen management tools found in CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise allows you to include allergen information in your merchandise, recipes and menus, This allergen can be "inherited" by any recipe and menu that uses the food product. For example, the ingredient “Crabs” is marked as an allergen (shellfish). If a recipe uses Crabs in its ingredient, the recipe will automatically be marked as having an allergen (shellfish) also. In this way, each food product that contains this allergen can easily be identified and handled accordingly.

Find out more ways on how EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control can help improve nutrient and allergen management on our next post. Meanwhile, learn more about EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control at our website: www.eg-software.com

*Source: Meeting the Nutritional Requirements of Hospitalized Patients: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Hospital Catering (2008) by S. Iffa, M. Leuenbergera, S. Röscha, G. Knechtb, B. Tannerb, Z., Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Clinical Nutrition, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital

Improving Nutrient and Allergen Management in the Food Industry

2010-08-27T15:36:00.016+08:00

Nowadays, it is not enough for customers to just pick out any dish in a menu. Most of them make it a point to know what is in the dish—sometimes even demanding a detailed listing of the ingredients. It is a more vigilant approach to what you eat that can make a big difference in keeping yourself in the pink of health.

More and more health-conscious people keep track of each nutrient they take in, making sure that each intake is only within the recommended daily serving allowance. Others however, need to be more particular with the ingredients in their meal due to possible presence of allergens.

Allergens are substances in food that cause an adverse reaction, usually affecting the immune system. Virtually all allergens are proteins and can be present in large amounts and most often, survive food-processing conditions. If no extra care is made, ingestion of even a small amount, sometimes less than a milligram (e.g. a tiny fragment of almond or two sesame seeds) can lead to an upset stomach, rashes, itching of the skin or mouth, swelling of the throat and difficulty breathing. In rare occasions, allergy reactions can also be fatal.

Realizing this, most major countries have approved laws that would require food producers and retailers to label and provide on-hand information regarding the nutrient and allergen content of the food they offer.

With this growing importance of keeping the consumers informed about the nutrients and allergens, it will be more efficient and wise for food producers and retailers to invest in reliable tools which would effectively help them to do so.

Which brings to mind EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control which do not only improve food processes through recipe costing, managament and product inventory but also aid and improve nutrition and allergen management.

Just how do EGS CALCMENU and F&B Control help you in ensuring reliable nutrient and allergen management? Find out in our next post.

Top Reasons Why Menu Engineering is the Key Element to Your Business’ Success

2010-02-01T18:28:00.005+08:00

In this time of economic uncertainty, when there is a growing market of individuals who are conscious about their purchases, it is best that your businesses have cutting-edge approaches to maximize profits in order to survive. In the food business today, having a list of regular customers is not enough to remain successful. One needs a well-performed sales mix analysis and pricing strategies to keep the food business thriving.

EGS has over 20 years of experience in providing chefs, restaurateurs, hospital professionals and caterers with solutions to increase their productivity, profit margin and work- efficiency.Through these we have been committed to quality, reliability and drive to provide the best possible tools in improving the way food-service business are handled.One of these latest developments in our solutions is the Menu Engineering module.

Menu Engineering

It is likely that executive chefs know the simple costs of particular dishes in their menu, but most do not really have an idea of how well these dishes perform as part of their restaurant's sales. This is where the Menu Engineering module comes in handy.

Click to enlarge image

Menu Engineering is one of the reliable modules found within the EGS CALCMENU+EGS F&B Control Solution, which makes it quite a popular tool among food professionals. This module aims to improve your strategy in sales mix analysis and menu pricing to bring about an increase in profit, productivity and efficiency without the need to pile up on food costs. It is undoubtedly one of the key elements in the success of your business. Its effectiveness and efficiency can be summed up in its three main functions:

Menu Engineering analyzes.

Menu Engineering initially works by analyzing the existing recipe costs of a competing meal group along with sales data. It also considers factors like the targeted average meal price suited to your establishment and the current market situation in your area. It analyzes your customers’ exact price resistance point and gauges which of the items in your menu are best-sellers and highly-profitable. Likewise, it provides an analysis on which items are costing you time and money but are not making a mark on sales and which ones contribute well or are popular but are not making enough profits.

Menu Engineering forecasts.

Using the mentioned analysis, the Menu Engineering module can tell you which items you should retain in your menu, which ones are needed to be highlighted or promoted and which items you can do without. You can also forecast future sales profitability and take note of sales trends that can be applied in planning your menus. One way that this module achieves this is by allowing you to “play” with hypothetical numbers of items sold, selling prices and the costs of goods to see the effect on the overall food costs and other parameters.

Menu Engineering creates strategies.

With the analyzed and forecasted data serving as benchmarks for comparison, Menu Engineering then provides the opportunity for professionals like you to come up with working guidelines to further improve profitability and savings.

It allows you to make intelligent strategies to improve your menu marketability , one of which is coming up with a smart marketing plan which involves menu pricing strategies, product merchandising, applying suggestive selling approaches, re-evaluating your menu layout and positioning--to name a few.

Furthermore, an effective layout can be realized through a more aggressive branding and highlighting strategy, a well-established menu format, a precise positioning and category placement as well as through product sequencing.

Menu Engineering is undoubtedly a vital element when you want your business to keep a stable footing in the food-service industry. With this simple tool on hand, there can only be room for more productivity and profitability in your business and thus, only more success.

Cost-Cutting Measures Are Still More Profitable Than Advertisements

2009-05-05T17:45:00.000+08:00

It is undeniable that successful companies are those that are able to maintain at least 28-35% of their food costs, on the average, where at least 50% to 70% of their total sales are spent on food inventories, consumption as well as labor costs. Because of the impact that food costs has on the overall profitability of a food service company, one must be able to manage it carefully in order to increase profits by avoiding losses.

You are probably thinking: “So how can we control our food cost?” There are many ways to do so but two of the most effective ways are to control your inventory and look into your menu pricing strategy. You may have received a good deal from your suppliers by ordering in bulk, however, think about this: you may be tying in your cash flow or store room for paying and stacking an inventory that may end up just sitting in your stock room for a long period of time. Or inversely, you may have also experienced scrambling and pulling your hair out as you scramble for the delivery of last minute orders which you have to use for a party or event the next day.

Setting up an advanced inventory and recipe management in your company and using it wisely will enable you to define which of your products are fast or slow moving, what right amount of stock levels should be kept and which of your menus you can increase in price, needs promotion or which ones you would need to discontinue. Investing on software solutions such as EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control, to formulate your menu pricing strategies and in controlling your inventories can dramatically decrease your food costs and notably increase your profits.

How can these be done? Let me count the ways:

1. Through time savings – save time in handling inventory stock takes
2. Through precision in inventories, consumption, transfer, etc.
3. Through reducing food pilferage, wastage and spoilage
4. Likewise through reducing over-portioning when serving
5. Through a precise maintenance of par stock levels
6. Through eliminating over-ordering and under-ordering
7. Through the lowest cost supplier sourcing
8. Through a proactive and automated report generations
9. Through lesser costly human errors
10. Through optimized menu selling prices
11. Through optimized Profits
12. Through a consistent product quality

Here is an illustration of the Cost-Benefit Calculation when you invest in buying a software solution, based on the following standard assumptions:

1. Your sales on year 1 is $250,00
2. Current Food Cost Percentage is 35%
3. In order to become a profitable and a “healthy” company, you would like to target a Food Cost Percentage of 30%
4. Minimun decrease in Food Cost using a software solution is 6%
5. Your target Return of Investment (ROI) in investing in a software solution is at least 20%

(click to enlarge)

In this illustration of Payback Period and ROI, you can clearly see that investing in a software solution such as EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control you can easily achieve your target food costs; in fact you can even exceed it, by just making full use of the softwares’ features.

You don’t have to worry about your investments. As the illustration shows, your savings for implementing this system can easily pay-off in one and a half year and can even exceed your target ROI!

The illustration also clearly shows that it is way more cost effective to invest on an Inventory and Back Office Management Software coupled with a Recipe Management Software, more specifically EGS Solutions – CALCMENU and F&B Control – rather than making unwanted cuts in cuisine, restaurant hours and labor expenses or spending more on advertisements and promotional activities.

Truly, investing in a system like the EGS Solutions – F&B Control and CALCMENU (particularly CALCMENU Enterprise 2008)—will make you see drastic improvements in your Food Cost and Sales Mix.