By James Careless
Inflation is having a significant impact on the price of food supplies in Canada, posing serious challenges for food services professionals. The rising costs of prepared foods, ingredients, and other operational expenses are straining their budgets, making it difficult to maintain nutrition levels for their clients on a consistent basis.
Costs go up, but budgets don’t
Working within predetermined budgets is a fact of life for food service professionals. This is true for non-profit facilities that must stay within their means to keep operating, and for-profit facilities that have to keep costs in check in order to remain in business.
“The resident per diem doesn’t change each week based on the prices in the world,” said Drew McQuiggan. She is food nutritional manager and support services manager at Caressant Care long-term care facilities, which has locations across Ontario.
“Inflation is a significant issue for us in health care food services,” agreed Marianne Katusin, director of support services at Halton Healthcare, which operates three community hospitals and numerous community-based services in Ontario. “We have seen increases in various categories such as dairy, meat, fish, produce, and baked goods.”
“We have definitely noticed the prices of items have gone up, as well as minimum orders for companies have increased and gas surcharges have been added by some companies,” echoed Marie Donnelly, manager of hospitality services at the Sisters of St. Joseph residence in Toronto. “We are extremely lucky to not have to be too concerned about food budgets because we are privately funded.”
Seven ways to cope with inflation
In response to the challenges imposed by rising prices, the professionals interviewed for this article have developed seven strategies for keeping food quality up while working within their budgets.
Careful food management: At Caressant Care, “my Dietary team uses the production sheets with the number of portions of each menu item, follows the standardized recipes, and records leftovers after service,” said McQuiggan. “I have created the order guides based on what ingredients are required for each recipe/item and order accordingly. I review the production sheets and leftover records to adjust the production numbers for the next rotation and make price comparisons between ready-to-cook items versus raw items that the staff have to prepare from scratch.”
Lower-cost options: Inflation has made it difficult to get things that used to be affordable. So when it comes to populating her menus, “I have to decide if this is something that we absolutely have to have or is this something that I can substitute a different option due to the price,” said McQuiggan.
“We have explored alternative options such as plant-based proteins/entrees to add to menus,” Katusin said. Halton Healthcare is also saving money by buying lower-cost items such as chicken thighs to use in multiple recipes, “to streamline the cost of having to bring in different chicken products,” she said. “Menu consolidation has been a key focus in dealing with the rising costs.”
Make it yourself: Ready-to-serve meal selections are faster and more convenient for food service providers than scratch-made foods — and more expensive to boot. Fortunately, Halton Healthcare has a production kitchen at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital that mass-produces items for use across their facilities. “This has allowed us to look at high-cost menu items and determine if there is any opportunity for us to make items in house at a lower cost,” said Katusin.
Buy locally whenever possible: Be sure to buy locally grown produce whenever possible; it tends to cost less than imported goods with their associated transportation costs.
“We have adjusted our menu at times to take advantage of local produce being on sale at a good price at the local grocery store,” Donnelly said. The downside? Staff must physically go shopping to get these items rather than having them conveniently delivered. “It means driving there, loading my car with baskets of fresh local produce,” she noted. “Still, it’s worth the extra effort to see the smiles on their faces when they get fresh Niagara peaches.”
Get creative: Sometimes controlling food costs — or offsetting out-of-stock items — comes down to getting creative in your food prep. “For example, our residents loved the turkey roll (raw with netting) that we cooked,” said McQuiggan. “But when that product wasn’t available, I ordered Butterball turkeys instead and used those for a Sunday night dinner. Now, the residents don’t want to go back to the turkey rolls!”
Due to the large size of these turkeys, there was enough roasted turkey leftover from Sunday night dinner to make soup and hot turkey sandwiches the next day. “Residents loved that, and have requested that again,” she said.
Minimize waste: Wasted food costs money without delivering any nutritional value to customers. This is why “one has to watch the wastage,” said Donnelly. “Be diligent on checking deliveries, the state of food items once received, and their expiry dates. If you have yogurt soon expiring, change the dessert menu to a yogurt/granola parfait with a few fresh berries. We have baked a number of banana bread loaves to avoid throwing out over ripe bananas, freezing them and using them later on. And if you have a lot of unused bread, then it’s time for bread pudding.”
Reduce the use of disposables: Like ready-to-eat meal selections, disposables are expensive when compared to washable reusables. To cut these costs wherever possible, “we have transitioned to portioning out items using china service for the most part,” Donnelly said. “An example would be the little portion cups we used to use for ketchup or salad dressing. We started using glass tea light holders as they were the perfect size. Instead of using all those disposable cups, the glass tealight holders can go in the dishwasher and be reused repeatedly.”
The moral to this tale: Using coping strategies like the seven outlined above, it is possible to cope with rising costs while maintaining the quality and nutritional value of food served in long-term care homes, hospitals, and seniors’ residences.