Restaurants using pre-made ingredients to combat labor shortages, supply issues
Some pre-made categories saw orders surge over 50% within the past 6 months
A slew of major restaurant chains and smaller mom-and-pop eateries have been switching to pre-made ingredients in recent months in order to battle ongoing labor shortages and supply chain issues.
During the labor crunch, Christina Donahue, president of Buyers Edge Platform, which helps restaurants save money on everything from tomatoes to tablecloths, told FOX Business that operators "need to be strategic about how to use employees."
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"Would you want them cutting limes or helping to serve tables … or whatever other job needs to get done around the operation?" she said.
Plates with food and glasses of wine at the outdoor table of a restaurant, selective focus. (iStock / iStock)
Using pre-made ingredients will give more flexibility on how employees are utilized, according to Donahue. A lot of places are taking advantage of it.
After analyzing 10 billion in purchases over the past six months by 70,000 restaurants and other food providers who are members of the digital procurement company, Donahue noticed a massive increase in operators ordering pre-made food items. This includes popular brands such as Red Robin, FAT Brands, Jersey Mike's and Qdoba Mexican Eats.
According to the data, orders of frozen pre-made soups and soup bases increased by more than 54%.
Meanwhile, orders for refrigerated pre-made soups increased 34.3% and pre-made beverage bar mixers surged 32.3%. The data also showed that frozen dessert products were up over 32%, frozen appetizers were up 31.6% and orders for gravy and gravy bases were up 25.3%.
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However, this doesn't mean consumers are going to notice a major difference in their food, according to Donahue.
Two men choose food in a fast food restaurant. (iStock / iStock)
She calls it "scratch cooking" because the meals themselves are not pre-made. Rather, chefs are just using some pre-made ingredients within a made-from-scratch dish.
"It doesn't mean they are sacrificing on quality," Donahue said. "The key is that operators are recognizing that there may be better ways to use the valuable labor they have in order to get the best products on the table. "
According to Donahue, manufacturers have been creating these types of products for many years and operators are finding them to be extremely helpful.
"For years, operators only thought about the bottom line of their purchases, and buying the food items that cost the least," she added. "But now they're also thinking about the bottom line of their labor. It's a finite resource that needs to be managed as well."