Hupfer: Filling Gaps in the Flow-line

 
Consistent cooking and meal service, especially in large quantities, requires carefully planned logistical systems to keep food, plates and materials flowing safely and at the correct temperature. Specially fabricated material handling equipment has an increasingly vital role to play in kitchen productivity, safety and cost-effectiveness.
 

 
Caterers cannot function without safe, reliable movement of materials. Analysis of all equipment supplied to the foodservice industry suggests that, despite the apparent priority of preparation and cooking, handling and storage equipment in its various forms can represent as much as 30-35% of the total kitchen budget. This proportion may be higher still at large production or banqueting kitchens where it is necessary to deal with large daily volumes crockery, cutlery and cookware through dishwashing and waste management systems. Making such activities efficient equates to the material handling needs of industrial factories but requirements for today’s high productivity kitchens are sufficiently different to make foodservice logistics a specialist activity, in several key respects:

• hygiene and HAACP food safety regulations
• holding of heated or chilled foods with very short life, requiring very accurate and easy-to-operate temperature control
• a focus on handling products which, above all, must be palatable: piping hot and visually attractive �
• work flow complexity in view of the need for kitchens to combine several different flowlines – goods reception, food processing, cooking, holding and serving – in limited space
• compatibility with decor and noise level demands where equipment is visible to and/or located close to the general public

 
A long-established specialist in meeting these needs internationally is Hupfer, with manufacturing facilities at Coesfeld, Germany. With the goal of providing efficient, reliable bridges between people and processes, the company’s solutions range from shelves, racking and many kinds of trolley – ambient, chilled, heated and regeneration – to mechanised aids like stackers, conveyors and transport devices for food, dishes and trays.
 

 
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| 14 February 2007 |