The product journey – allergens, pricing and everything in between

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The products used in your business are quite literally the raw ingredients for success. Not only in taste, flavour, colour and texture, but also in terms of GP, allergen compliance and nutritional information. At a time when the balance between profit and loss pivots on a knife edge, it’s essential that you review and understand your products – from their allergen profiles, to their supplier prices, all the way through to the GP of the dishes they’re used in and their suitability for particular dietary requirements.

The product journey starts with the supplier

An open and clear dialogue with suppliers is the best starting point for every product journey. Understanding how your suppliers manage allergens, how they determine allergen status and ensuring that their processes are as rigorous as yours is essential. It is always far easier to manage at source rather than further down the chain. The days of ‘May Contain’ may be numbered so it’s vital that processes and policies on allergen management are locked in. With the free to use F+B Gateway suppliers can manage their online catalogue and send up to date product details directly into Kitchen CUT’s F+B Engine.

Seamless data flow from your suppliers

The F+B Gateway is a completely FREE platform that allows direct trading and data flow between customer and supplier. For suppliers around the world, it’s fast, easy-to-use and completely accessible, allowing instant integration with customers.

For operators, whether restaurants, hotels, bars or pubs, it centralises the point of trading, simplifying the supply chain, making the entire end to end purchasing process cheaper, more efficient, transparent and completely traceable.

The F+B Gateway provides seamless supplier integration to place orders, pay invoices, review costs, control spend and implement a quick and easy returns process. But that’s not all. The Gateway also facilitates the flow of allergen and nutrition information from supplier to operator, providing one version of the truth that will then be automatically used throughout the product journey – from storeroom, to kitchen, to menu, to plate.

To get started, suppliers can register here. Once registered they’ll receive their Gateway credentials which will allow them to log in. All they then need to do is to complete their company profile and they’re good to go. All members of the Gateway appear in the F+B Engine’s supplier marketplace allowing directly, quickly and easy connection.

Ensure an accurate flow of data

Team training and access to comprehensive, accurate recipe specs is also vital in managing and understanding products within your business.

F+B To Go Engine will automatically build out an ingredient profile and allergen matrix as you build out your dishes. This enables you to keep your team trained and up to date on your dishes and menus. Upon publishing, dishes are updated across your system in real time, everywhere including customer facing digital menus.

Further safety measures include the use of ‘testing and ‘development’ permissions, enabling a final review and sign off before the recipe is posted as ‘live’.

The system also enables you to review and manage any potential cross contamination, allowing
you to constantly review and improve your processes.

Reaching the customer

Industry recognised food databases are also live within F+B Engine allowing you to publish each product’s nutritional data and build out its nutritional profile. The data is consolidated into the widely recognised traffic light system as well as configurable tables depending on where you are in the world.

This information is then pulled through into spec sheets and digital menus, so that your guests can easily filter out dishes according to their allergies and dietary needs. At a time when customers are demanding more and more information about the food that they’re ordering, giving them the confidence and reassurance that you take their dietary needs seriously and responsibly makes absolute sense as well as ensuring legal compliance.