What Your Ingredients Are Really Costing You

Ingredient choices do far more than determine what ends up on the plate. They shape food cost, menu versatility, prep efficiency, and increasingly, the image a restaurant projects to its guests. 

Marry Cariaso, Client Success Manager at FoodGrid Inc., a manufacturer of oils, shortenings, coconut-based products, compound chocolate, and natural decorative ingredients, reveals common ingredient questions operators are asking today and, why, in a business where margins are under constant pressure, operators who treat ingredient strategy as a competitive tool have a distinct edge.

The Hidden Price of the Wrong Frying OilOil is oil, isn't it? Why does it matter which frying shortening I use?It matters more than most operators realize. Frying oil degrades through oxidation—the faster it breaks down, the more often you replace it, and the higher your costs climb. Specialty donut fry shortening, for example, is specifically engineered to resist oxidation at sustained high temperatures…