TYSON FOODS, INC. TRADEMARKS AND REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ARE OWNED BY TYSON FOODS, INC. OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES.
5 Tips for Efficiency in Non-Commercial, High-Volume Operations
Published: July 23, 2024
In today’s fast-paced world, providing consistent (and delicious) on-the-go meals and snacks is more important than ever for non-commercial operations. Whether they’re looking for quality meals or snacks across the dayparts, customers want a selection of grab-and-go options. Utilizing value-added products across your menu can help attract and satisfy those busy customers—and manage back-of-house labor.
Since food costs make up about one-quarter of overall operator expenditures1 and nearly two-thirds of purchases are food, building traffic, controlling costs and managing employees are top priorities. 1 And with labor challenges remaining a top concern—78% of operators saw an increase in labor costs1—we’re sharing five tips to help you manage labor when you need to feed your students or guests quickly and efficiently (and satisfyingly):
Tip 1: Offer Build-Your-Own Options
Creating a customizable bar space in your establishment provides a flexible rotation of products that offers customers the opportunity to build a variety of dishes to meet their tastes and trends
Tyson® Ingredient Chicken comes in a variety of fully cooked formats such as diced, sliced and shredded that are perfect protein bases for make-your-own bars. Consider a ramen bar with an array of noodles, proteins, veggies and sauces. Ingredient chicken is also the perfect base (or topping) for salad bars and build-your-own bowls.
Capture wing-lovers with a chicken wing bar featuring Tyson Red Label® Fully Cooked Homestyle Select Cut Chicken Breast Chunk Fritters. Guests can customize their wings with flavor favorites like buffalo and BBQ sauce, as well as globally inspired options like sweet Thai chili or harissa.
And a salad and grain bowl bar hits the mark for ever-popular proteins, greens and veggies, allowing healthy-yet-portable creations. Tyson Red Label® Fully Cooked Unbreaded Grilled Chicken Breast Strips come in a variety of formats and serve as the perfect ingredient chicken for customizable bars—without the labor and cleanup
Tip 2: Utilize Fully Cooked Products
Tyson Red Label® and Tyson® brand fully cooked chicken products help alleviate many of the concerns that come with uncooked products. Cooking from raw can leave room for error and impose food safety concerns and cross-contamination issues. Fully cooked helps take the guess work out of prep, saving you stress and time back-of-house while providing the quality and consistency you need.
“The beauty of these [fully cooked] products is that they are versatile and can be used throughout multiple dayparts and in multiple cuisines,” says Brooks Cameron, Senior Executive Chef at Tyson Foodservice Culinary.
58% of operators say ready-to-serve is an important factor when selecting sandwich ingredients (up from 49% in 2020).3
Fully cooked can also help minimize labor concerns. Today’s operators continue to face challenges with support staff—54% say they are struggling to find qualified candidates (up from 46% Q3, 2023), and 41% are concerned with training employees appropriately (30% are very concerned).2 Easy-to-heat products provide consistent results across dayparts—from breakfast to lunch and late night.
Additionally, 58% of operators say ready-to-serve is an important factor when selecting sandwich ingredients (up from 49% in 2020)3. And consumers’ appetites for eating sandwiches away from home is growing during morning meal/breakfast (+14.8%) and late night snack (+23.9%).4
With the consistent quality of fully cooked Tyson Red Label® products, you’ll get incredible, on-the-go versatility with every flavor and form—from sandwiches to salads, wraps, pizzas, flatbreads and more.
Grab-and-go packaged sandwiches have seen sales growth in the last year for 52% of operators who offer sandwiches, and adding grab-and-go sandwiches is the primary change operators plan to make for their sandwich offerings in the next year.3
Tip 3: Praise for Pre-Packaged
Portable meals and snacks are a must for many customers. Offering pre-packaged products like breakfast or lunch sandwiches or snacks as quick and portable options helps meet this demand.
Grab-and-go packaged sandwiches have seen sales growth in the last year for 52% of operators who offer sandwiches, and adding grab-and-go sandwiches is the primary change operators plan to make for their sandwich offerings in the next year. 3
Jimmy Dean® Breakfast Sandwiches and Tyson® Chicken Sandwiches are pre-packaged, ready to heat and eat as part of a quick and convenient meal. And Hillshire Farm® Classic Sandwiches are just right for any cold sandwich option.
For those looking to grab a quick, protein-rich snack, Hillshire® Snacking Small Plates and Bistro Bites are the perfect choice.
Adding grab-and-go sandwiches also happens to be the main change that operators plan to make for sandwich offerings in the next year. Make sure you’re featuring a selection to meet the growing demands, with items like Tyson® Fully Cooked Chicken Ham & Cheese on Whole Grain Hoagie Bun, Hillshire Farm® Turkey Bacon Club Flatbread Sandwich and countless other pre-packaged options.3
Tip 4: Consider Hold Times
Products that hold well for long periods of time allow for batch prep that can relieve some of the back-of-house stress when working through high-volume feeding times. Everything is available and ready to go for hungry (and busy) customers.
Many Tyson Red Label® products will hold for a minimum of four hours. Whether eaten on-site or purchased as a portable option, they can help satisfy customers.
“Fully cooked chicken products have a shorter recon time, since you are simply heating rather than cooking the items,” says Kim Glenn, Director of Research and Development at Tyson Foods. “And they provide a more appetizing color and can be consistently prepared by team members without additional culinary training.”
Tip 5: Pre-Prep to Do More with Less
Focusing on product versatility helps your staff efficiently prep and provides flexible options. Consider how to use one product or a few core products in multiple applications. This helps optimize inventory and allows for preparation ease—and helps offset rising food costs by using products that are versatile across dayparts and dishes.
Focus on creating menu items that can be prepped ahead—combine ingredients for next-day serving or prep items in a large pan, so they’re ready to be oven heated the following day. This can help alleviate some of the stress and demands of high-volume feeding.
Stay in the Know and Get Inspired with our Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to get on-trend menu ideas and more. You’ll be first to know about our great new products and get exclusive access to money-saving offers, business solutions, recipes and inspiration.
Sources:
1 Datassential, Pulse Industry Overview, 2024
2 Technomic, Consumer & Operator Outlook Report, Q3 2023
3 Datassential, Keynote, Sandwiches, 2023
4 Technomic, Sandwich Consumer Trend Report, April 2022
*Minimally processed with no artificial ingredients
