A NEW RESOURCE ON STANDARDIZED RECIPES
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines a standardized recipe as one that “has been tried, adapted, and retried several times for use by a given foodservice operation and has been found to produce the same good results and yield every time when the exact procedures are used with the same type of equipment and the same quantity and quality of ingredients.” The terms “quantity recipes” and “standardized recipes” are often confused with each other. Many recipes are written to produce large quantities of food. Any recipe that produces 25 servings or more is termed a quantity recipe. Quantity recipes are not standardized, however, until they have been adapted to an individual school foodservice operation. Benefits of using standardized recipes include but are not limited to consistent food quality, predictable yield, and customer satisfaction. Written standardized procedures in the recipe makes efficient use of labor time and allows for planned scheduling of foodservice personnel for the work day. Training costs are reduced because new employees are provided specific instructions for preparation in each recipe. Employees may also feel more satisfied and confident in their jobs because standardized recipes eliminate guesswork, decrease the chances of producing poor food products, and prevent shortages of servings during the meal service. School
Food Authorities will be receiving or already have received from the National
Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI) a new resource entitled Measuring
Success with Standardized Recipes. What’s
in this kit? There is a manual or “how to” guide for managers and employees
to help in understanding the recipe standardization process.
The video emphasizes the importance of recipe standardization.
The CD-ROM program contains self-paced, interactive, instructional
lessons designed to assist managers in learning the recipe standardization
process and includes a recipe adjuster to assist with the mathematical
calculations in recipe adjustment. Additional
copies of the kit may be purchased from NSFMI.
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