09 April 2024

How To Engineer a Pizza Menu That Creates Less Waste

From ingredients to energy, to staffing and transport – 2022 showed us all how volatile the market can be and how quickly prices can escalate.

If you’re finding that the cost of running your business is on the increase, it could feel like ‘doing the right thing’ when it comes to reducing your food waste is pretty far down the priority list. But reducing food waste and cost saving very much go hand in hand. By reducing your food waste, you’re likely to be able to save on both costs and reduce your impact on the planet. And one of the best places to start is with your menu.

Your menu is the beating heart of your food business, so it’s important that it works hard for you. You’ll already have an idea of what your customers like, of your most popular dishes and the key ingredients you source and buy to deliver the best possible experience, every time. But have you ever considered whether your menu could be ‘engineered’ to be more profitable and to waste less food?

Although it has a technical name, menu engineering is probably something you and your restaurant team are doing already. It’s making your menu and dishes work as hard as they can for your pizzeria, ensuring you have great, on trend menu items that appeal to customers, while driving sales and profitability. It’s an exercise to review dish popularity (sales) against profitability (cash in the till) and complexity, with one simple goal – increase profitability for your pizzeria. So, where should you start?

Start by analysing your current menu

Map your bottom and top sellers against their cash margins. At its crudest, doing this will show your ‘Stars’ (top selling) and your ‘Niche’ (lowest selling) dishes so you can decide what may need to be cut.

Consider how your ‘Stars’ could better support your ‘Niche’ dishes

Once you know what you’re dealing with, you can start to dig a little deeper on how to create more efficient ingredient choices. For example, could you make some of your pizza toppings go further (and better justify their inclusion on the menu) by using them on more than one pizza? Perhaps a topping that currently only appears on a ‘Niche’ dish could give a little boost to one that’s close to being a ‘Star’. Not only could rationalising your list of ingredients across the menu help to reduce costs, but it would also reduce complexity in the kitchen too – and ultimately help to reduce food waste.

Think seasonally and rotate your menu regularly

One of the easiest ways a food business can behave more responsibly is to use seasonal, local produce on their menu. By purchasing and showcasing the best of what’s in season in your area, instead of importing ingredients from the other side of the world, you’re helping to reduce carbon emissions through transport costs. Take time to research the fresh produce that’s in season each time you rotate your menu. What’s more, as it’s in season, you’ll likely get it for a lower cost too.

Research your suppliers and find out what they stand for

By partnering with suppliers whose standards are as high as yours, you can rest assured that the ingredients on your menu are produced in the most responsible way before they reach your kitchen.

At Arla Pro we’re dedicated to setting the bar high in foodservice through programmes such as Arlagården, our initiative to ensure transparency on how milk is produced to secure food safety and traceability. Furthermore, our mozzarella is always made from fresh milk, produced according to traditional recipes, and tested by chefs to ensure that it meets the needs of pizza professionals.

Find the right cheese

Arla Pro Large Diced Mozzarella 2kg

Arla Pro; made specifically for professional chefs & operators in mind. Arla Pro Mozzarella Large Diced is delicious pre-cut cubes made from high-quality mozzarella ideal for easy application. The dice are creamy light yellow in colour and offer fresh flavour and optimal meltability.

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Arla Pro Large Shredded Mozzarella 2kg (Sticks)

Arla Pro; made specifically for professional chefs & operators in mind. Arla Pro Large Shredded Mozzarella has a delicious mild fresh taste with a light colour. A thicker cut size than grated (4x4x20mm) offering excellent melting, golden browning and high stretch, this solution is ideal for both dining-in and delivery.

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Arla Pro Mozzarella Cheese Block 2.3kg

Arla Pro; made specifically with professional chefs & operators in mind. Arla Pro Mozzarella Block is high-quality mozzarella in a versatile easy handle block format that can be used across the menu, ideal for customisation to create a bespoke blend/shape and authentic and unique looking pizza.

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