3 Waste Reduction Practices for Bakers

Owning a bakery can be a hectic tasks but also a great way to put your baking skill into valuable use. While your baking skills will be the main reason for income, there are some strategies you must employ to minimize wastage and make your baking establishment a very profitable venture.

A lot of new bakers may not realize how important it is to minimise wasted ingredients, but by reducing your waste, you can increase your profits significantly by ensuring you are producing only the correct amount of product needed, using an accurate recipe.

If you want to minimise how much of your profits are lost in wastage, consider implementing these 3 waste reduction strategies below.

Accurate Measurements

One strategy bakers can employ to minimise waste is to ensure the correct weighing for each recipe is maintained. The right measurement will go a long way to minimise the number of end products that are discarded and unsellable after 24 hours. All bakeries, whether small or large should ensure they are using high quality weighing scales to produce a consistent and high quality final product.

This is where a food traceability system comes into place. A traceability system guarantees that all of your ingredients are traceable throughout the process, meaning any error or contamination in your final products can be traced back throughout the process to identify specific ingredients which may be the cause. This will avoid the need to waste excess product, saving you money.

Create a Baking Schedule

Drafting a schedule can help to reduce waste in the bakery. Depending on the demand for products, some baking items are likely to sell faster than the others. In some cases, some items sell at a specific time of the year. For items that are ordered in the early hours of the day, it's important to bake them early to meet the demand of customers to minimize the rate of leftovers. You also need to be watchful of your customer's demand curve. Know when order drops to ensure that there is less chance of overproduction.

Aside from evaluating your customer's preferences, it's important to keep a close eye on the equipment in your bakery. Just as you have a baking schedule, also draft a service schedule for your equipment. Equipment not running properly could affect the end products. This includes foods getting overcooked, burnt, or mixed improperly. The moment you notice your equipment isn't running at the highest level, ensure you get someone to get them serviced.

Bakery wastage could be a headache for new bakers. Read on to discover three ways of minimizing your product waste in the bakery for maximum profit. All bakeries, whether small or large should ensure they are using high quality weighing scales to produce a consistent and high quality final product.

Proper labeling during delivery

Proper labelling of items will minimize waste during delivery. Some perishable items get spoilt en route to delivery. When delivering over long distances, ensure the package is properly labelled to minimize error. For instance, rather than labeling as just "cake" label "cupcake" to create a differentiation.