VOLUME FEEDING

VOLUME FEEDING

                Catering establishments could be producing food in volumes, but then it could vary depending on the size of the establishment and the nature of business. When we say volume cooking, we think of professional set-up with modern and specialized equipment and professionals cooking large quantities of food following best practices and safety standards. The organization required for a bulk cooking is, however, more complex in nature than that for a small commercial establishment. Quantity food production requires attention to planning, forecasting the quantity of food to be cooked, merchandising and selling the product and developing strategies for selling the finished product.

        Food is one of the basic necessities for survival and hence must be provided to discerning customers as well as employees of the establishment. The hospitality industry is not restricted to only commercial establishments but also caters to non-commercial establishments.

             Growth in the industrial sector led to business houses setting up large factories and industries. This meant providing food to people working in those organizations and thus gave rise to industrial catering. Hospitality services of food are provided to factories, departmental stores, sport centers, clubs, schools, universities armed forces (mess) and even prisons.

                  The growth of travel and tourism industry has led to air, sea and railway catering. Special dietary requirements of hospitalized patients gave rise to hospital catering. Today, specialty food is not restricted to just five-star hotels and stand-alone restaurants, but one can also enjoy cuisine from all over the world under one roof in shopping malls.

INSTITUTIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS

Institutional establishments offer food services not necessarily to make profits but because it is a necessity. In many places, it is a legal binding on the organization to provide meal services and this depends on many factors including the following:

·        If there are no facilities (where employees can eat their meals) within the reach.

·        Even if there are facilities, do they offer a reasonable choice of food and are these affordable by all levels of employees?

·        Do the times and hours of operation allow employees to eat outside their work premise and are these facilities open during those times?

Educational institutes include schools, colleges, universities, professional education institutions, hostels, etc. these can be broadly categorized into two types: academic institutes and professional institutes.

·        The main consumers here are students. The food is made and supplied by cafeterias at very nominal rates.

·        The cafeteria could have its own fully equipped kitchen and thus prepare food or it may even outsource food.

·        The kitchen would have very basic equipment depending upon the region and the type of cuisine it intends to serve.

·        The main focus is on health, hygiene and nutrition. Since children need right kind of nutrients, seasonal vegetables are included in the meals. Some schools monitor closely when serving students in dining hall as the focus is also on developing good eating habits and etiquettes among children.

·        The main consumers here are adults and hence it is important to offer some variety to them. Kitchens of these institutes are referred to as ‘mess’, which may be run by a committee called mess committee or it could also be run with professional help from an outside agency.

·        Cyclic menus help to solve the issues of monotonous food.

·        The kitchen set-up can be basic to modern depending on the type and volume of meals that the institution cooks on a daily basis.

INDUSTRIAL CATERING

Industrial catering refers more to shops and factories where food is made to primarily serve the needs of the employees. The food is served in dining halls, often referred to as cafeterias of employee dining halls. In many companies, members of the senior management eat in the same dining halls along with other employees. However, in some companies, the members of senior management have food in a separate area sometimes referred to as EDR or executive dining room.

The number of meals served may range anywhere from 30 to 2,000 or more, and this depends on the size of the organization, that is, the number of employees. Industrial catering is a crucial and a sensitive one too because it caters to a large group of people with multicultural and different religious beliefs. In India, we also have specialized celebrations done on major festivals in cafeterias and the food cooked on such occasions reflects the specialties from that festive season.

Most organizations prefer to prepare food in-house, but if that is not possible, then food could be produced from an external agency, which would come every day and lay out the buffet for the employees. The cafeterias have tea/coffee facilities, with some also having snack and beverage vending machines.

HOSPITAL CATERING

Hospital catering developed when it was realized that hospitalized patients need food with specific dietary requirement in order to get well soon. The size of the operation depends on the size of the hospital and also the number of employees working there, as the food is prepared both for patients as well as nursing and hospital staff.

·        People who are admitted in hospitals for health reasons.

·        Employees working in the hospitals.

·        The product is patient specific; each patient has a unique dietary requirement that is to be strictly followed in order to make him/her recover from sickness.

·        Very strict process with focus on health hygiene and safety.

·        The idea to provide the basic amenities at subsidized rates or something at own cost.

OFF-PREMISE CATERING

Off-premise catering is mobile and is done at different locations or premises. Marriages, large conventions and big events (such as award functions, music festivals, etc.) have given rise to this type of catering. Earlier most of such events used to take place in five-star hotels as they had large banquet halls that would accommodate a gathering of up to 3,000 people, but with rising costs and limitations for decorations and religious ceremonies, off-premise locations (where one could have a freehand for décor and ambience) were sought after. Many caterers made use of this opportunity and this gave rise to outdoor catering or off-premise catering.

This catering can be done by hotels and restaurants or specialized caterers who do only off-premises catering. Many open lawns and gardens have been converted into locations suitable for organizing such events, including weddings. Indian weddings are very lavish, with a huge display of food and stalls offering a wide range of cuisines. Hence an outdoor location is most sought after nowadays.

Catering for an outdoor function is a very complex job, as it requires detailed planning and everything has to be set up for the function. The equipment are laid out in the most ergonomical manner so that there is a smooth flow of work with no chaos. One must remember that an off-premise catering would cook food for a large number of people and if there is shortage of food, then there is no backup as in hotel operation, where ample resources are available to meet contingencies.

MOBILE CATERING: RAILWAY, AIRLINES AND MARINE

 RAILWAY CATERING

            In earlier times when commuting on trains, one would pack home-cooked food even if the journey was to last for two nights or more. Now with the busy schedules and the awareness of health, hygiene and safety, demand for catering on the trains is on a rise. In the Indian segment, trains such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi serve all the meals that are inclusive in the journey fare.

Railway catering services are managed by the Indian Railways through

 (a) Its catering department and

 (B) Contracted catering operators/companies with a catering background

      So that travelers could be more professionally served during long journeys.

Rail catering may for the purpose of study be divided into

ü Terminus catering for food and beverage

Terminus Catering covers

1. Refreshment rooms

2. Stalls

ü In-transit catering for food and beverage.

In-transit catering covers

·        Mobile catering services in Pantry Cars

·        Dining cars

·        Authorized vendors.

Terminus catering

Most important stations have vegetarian and non-vegetarian refreshment rooms and light refreshment stalls. The detailed menu and tariff is displayed in the refreshment rooms and at the stalls.

Refreshment Rooms: These include station refreshment rooms (or restaurants) and stationery stalls. Trains whose journeys do not have facility of meal provision, make planned stops for reasonably long times at stations with refreshment rooms to enable passengers to consume food and drink. Refreshment rooms are provided at all termini and junctions and serve meals and snacks that are vegetarian and non-vegetarian. The size of the refreshment rooms depend on the amount of traffic and while some of these rooms at smaller stations are operated at a loss as a service to the traveling public, those at terminus stations and junctions on the other hand more than compensate on account of their huge turnover. The prices of food and beverage are extremely reasonable and affordable keeping in mind the socio-economic status of the average Indian traveler. For the transfer of stores between stations schedules are carefully worked out and loaded on certain trains at set times for the convenience of suppliers.

The opening and closing times of these refreshment rooms must be coordinated with train timings and service and may be called upon to remain open outside their normal hours owing to delays and unforeseen circumstances. To maintain standards of food and staff should be trained and skilled and frequent inspections are necessary. They should be prominently located, comfortable and have a bright pleasing atmosphere.

Hygiene standards and their maintenance are of great importance

Stalls: Another point of F & B sale in addition to refreshment rooms there are the stationery stalls located on the platforms especially at junction stations stocking a wide variety of food items (mainly snacks) and non-alcoholic beverages for sale to passengers for immediate or later consumption on the journey. Paper plates, aluminum foil, containers, plastic and Styrofoam cups may be used for dispensing these food and beverage. Not only are they hygienic but are easily disposed off and help in rapid service. Further the vendor need not wait until the passenger has finished consuming the food/ beverage as the containers are disposable. At busy stations where competition is intense, the station restaurant and stalls operation and sales may be supplemented with the help of authorized (badged) attendants who merchandise food and beverage wares in loud tones, parading the platform for the length of the train just outside the windows and even within the compartments of the stationery train, making them more accessible to the passengers.

In-transit catering

Indian Railways provides pantry car facilities on long-distance trains and on selected important short-distance trains.

At times, food (meals) is lifted from various stations along the route. Igatpuri (on the Mumbai-Delhi route) was one such station. These operations were outsourced to catering contractors and often the quality was very questionable. Trains like the Rajdhani/August Kranti have base kitchen where meals are prepared and loaded into the pantry car. It is then portioned for service. Small orders, omlettes etc are prepared in the pantry car.

Mobile Catering Services: This refers to the service of meals to passengers from a pantry car during the journey. Pantry Cars are compartments normally hooked onto the middle of a train and its personnel may undertake the above tasks of meal preparation and service. The operations are supervised and controlled by an on board pantry car manager. Service of these meals on board the trains relieves the passenger from the problem of carrying his own food and thereby enables to travel lighter. The food is usually Indian cuisine. Most often the cost of food is not included in the price of the ticket- although on train journeys such as on the Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express they are so included and the quality is above average(and includes a bottle of mineral water) offering value for money to the passenger for the price of the ticket paid. The mobile catering service operations may be run by the catering department itself or may be on contract.

            Passengers are asked by an attendant whether they wish to order the meal and if so whether a vegetarian or non-vegetarian meal is required. The coach and seat number is noted and payment is taken in cash at the time of order itself or later when the attendant comes to collect the soiled plates.

             In the case of department catering the meals are usually cooked at a base kitchen. The number of meals required and their mix are phoned in to the base kitchen from a previous station. When the train arrives at the said station the meals are picked up and loaded into the pantry car from where they are distributed to the passengers who have ordered.

           When the catering service on a train is committed to a catering contractor the cooking of the entire meal is done in the pantry car itself and subsequently packed and distributed to passengers who have ordered.

Dining or Buffet Cars: Are not found on regular trains today. But super luxury trains such as the Palace-on-Wheels and Deccan Odyssey have dining cars that are the equivalent of fine dining restaurants on wheels and offer an a la carte menu. Passengers make their way to the dining car where they order and consume the meal. Dining cars obviously have an attached kitchen with a full complement of equipment that can produce all items offered on the menu.

Authorized Vendors: On short distance trains it is common to find several authorized railway employees vending an assortment of food and beverage items while the train is moving for the benefit of passengers who are hungry and thirsty, thus catering to their requirement between stops as well.

AIRLINE CATERING

Airline catering is the most sophisticated and extensive food production catering establishment in the hospitality sector. The flight caterings operate near to the airports and can cater to as many as 30,000 meals a day and it can go up considerably depending on the scale of operations. Airline catering is a very sophisticated and well-planned operation. Its focus is on health, hygiene and safety as the food prepared at one time would be consumed by the passengers after many days and so it is important to ensure that the food is not contaminated right through the production until service. The most commonly used technique in airline catering. This technique is called ‘cook-chill’ or ‘cook-freeze’.

Cook-chill: The technique is to cook the food, chill or freeze it at a rapid rate and then store it safely until required. The food when cooked in large volumes should be chilled as fast as possible because microorganisms grow at a rapid rate between the temperature range of 5^oC and 63^oC. This temperature zone is also known as danger zone. If a food item is left outside to cool, it is prone to bacteria attack. Thus, the time that the food is exposed to the danger zone should be minimized and hence large equipment known as blast chillers or blast freezers are used. These equipment help to chill or freeze large quantity of food in short period of time. The ten stages of this technique are given below in detail. The process of cook freeze is similarly to that of a cook-chill, with the only difference being that the food is frozen.

Steps	Description
1)   Selection of Raw materials	It is important to select good quality raw material. A substandard quality material will yield a substandard product and will impact the final product. It is also important to check the handling and distribution methods at the suppliers end.
2)  Storage of raw material	Once you have purchased the prime quality product, it becomes essential to store the product until further processing under required temperature and humidity-controlled environment as specific by food safety laws. Installation of vegetable washers and egg pasteurizers help in cleaning vegetables and eggs for proper storage.
3)  Preparation	The food preparation is an area where the basic mis en place, such as cutting, chopping, cleaning, etc., is done for the final product. This area needs to be separate from the cooking area to avoid any food contamination. Even in food preparation area, separate areas are provided for processing fish, meat, vegetables and fruit. Separate colour-coded knives and chopping boards and even separate colour-coded storage equipment are used for each of the groups of commodity to avoid any cross-contamination.
4)  Cooking	The food is then cooked according to the standard recipe. It is essential that the core temperature of the food reaches 75oC and this temperature should be held for at least 2-3 minutes to destroy all the pathogenic bacteria. The internal temperatures of the food are checked by thermometer probes. It is important to wipe the probes with sanitized thermometer wipes before inserting the same into any other food product. This is also done to prevent any contamination.
5)  Portioning	Once the food has been cooked, it is important to chill the food as soon as possible. As per the food safety standards, usually the food must be chilled within 30 minutes. The portioning of the food should be done at this stage; however, handling of the food should be as little as possible and gloves and sanitized portioning equipment should be used. Meals can also be portioned after chilling, but if the process is cook-freeze, then it is advisable to portion before freezing.
6)  Rapid chilling	Blast chillers or blast freezers are used for this purpose. These equipment chill hot foods within 2-4 hours. This range of time depends on the type of food and the destiny and exposed surface of the food. Blast chilling not only reduces the risk of contact time of food with danger zone, but it also helps to retain the colour, taste and nutrition of the food. Blast chillers are equipped with thermometer probes to guide on the internal temperature of a food commodity. Large joints of meat should be portioned up before chilling.
7)  Storage of chilled or frozen food	After the food is blast chilled/frozen, it needs to be stored immediately in refrigerated equipment with temperatures below 4oC. Modern refrigeration equipment have alarm sensors, which sound off in case the temperature range is going higher than recommended levels.
8)  Distribution	This is one of the most important aspects of the cook-chill process, as the food now can be distributed to various aircraft or places where it will be consumed. After taking so much care at your end, it is important that the food is delivered and served at the right temperature and is kept safe until it is served to the guest. Lapse at any of these steps will prove futile for this process.  Food must be transferred to the required place in chilled state and refrigerated vehicles are deployed for this purpose. Temperatures are recovered at every stage to ensure that there are no lapses.
9)  Reheating	The cooked and cold food needs to be consumed within 30 minutes of taking out from the cold storage. Hot food needs to be heated at the place of consumption. Even while reheating the food, it is important that the core temperature of the food reaches 75oC and is held at least 2 minutes before serving.
10)               Service	The food needs to be served with clean and sanitized cutlery. The service team should not touch the food with bare hands. Highest level of personal hygiene is to be maintained at all times.

MARINE CATERING

In the olden times, when there was no airline service, shipping was the most preferred mode to travel. Since ship journeys meant long periods of sea travel, cooking was done on the ships. With the recent developments of water tourism, people travel on ships merely for luxury and enjoyment.

Many luxury cruise liners can accommodate up to 3,000 people on board. There are fixed tours - some lasting as short as two nights’ and some lasting up to thirty days. A wide range of food and service is offered to the guests. Many of the cruise liners operate on concepts similar to hotels. There could be many restaurants and bars on a single ship to cater to the needs of the passengers. Some of the ships have lavish dinner and lunch buffet spreads with a focus on meals ranging from adults to kids. Apart from the food and beverage, there could be many other facilities provided on-board to ensure that the passengers have a good time with their families. Many countries with a coastline are trying to promote the cruise liner industry in a big way.

The kitchens of the cruise liners are similar to those of hotels; the only difference is that the number of guests eating in a ship is already known and hence the process of cook-chill is widely used. It is important to strictly follow the laws of health, hygiene and safety because if someone falls sick and needs hospitalization, one has to wait for the nearest port to arrive. Health inspectors are employed to constantly check the food and safety in the cruise liners. Some cruise liners operate 24-hour restaurants and some also offer room service. Cruise liners at times also depend on CPUs, which act as loading points at various port when the ship docks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------REFERENCE BOOK: PARVINDER BALI –QUANTITY FOOD PRODUCTION OPERATIONS AND INDIAN CUISINE