12 - Ordering, Receiving, and Storage -- Pizzeria Operations -- CorrellConcepts.com

CONTENTS
Product Design
On-site Preparation vs. Ready-to-use
Brand Selection
• Comparative Testing
• Price vs. Quality
• Price vs. Yield
Supplier Selection
How to Get the Most from Suppliers
• Compare Prices on a Regular Basis.
• Don't Divulge Competitor's Prices.
• Be Wary of Loss-leader "Deals."
• Set the Rules and Priorities at the Start.
• Expect Good Performance and Don't Accept Less than What's Promised.
• Use Good Ordering and Receiving Procedures.
• Use Your Salesperson as an information Resource.
• Be a Good Customer.
Ordering
• Calculating Order Amounts
Receiving
• Receiving Block Cheese
Storage
• General Guidelines
• Guidelines for Specific Products
• Maximizing Storage Space

NOTE: Visit the Encyclopizza home page for the complete Table of Contents, including pizza dough/crust/sauce recipes.

PREVIOUS chapters include technical information about selecting, receiving, and storing specific products. They also include details that can help pizzeria owners judge ingredient quality. This chapter describes the management aspects of ordering, receiving, and storing pizza ingredients, and gives pointers for how to improve purchasing effectiveness.

Lengths, weights, temperatures, and volume measurements are given in inches, pounds and ounces, degrees Fahrenheit, and quarts and cups (U.S. version). The following abbreviations are used: lb = pounds, oz = ounces, F = Fahrenheit, and qt = quarts. For conversion to other measurement systems, refer to the chapter on Measurements and Conversions.

Product Design

A pizza is a pizza is a pizza—right? Not so. Each style of pizza should be designed to produce a certain pizza-eating experience. Why? Because the main thing most pizza-eaters want from a pizzeria is a GREAT PIZZA-EATING EXPERIENCE—specifically, an experience that they can’t get anywhere else. Sure—friendliness, cleanliness, promotions, delivery, image, speed of service all play a part in customer satisfaction. But if your product doesn’t provide a great pizza-eating experience—that is, if your product isn’t both better than and different than your competition’s—your business will never maximize its full potential. So your product is your main competitive weapon.

This means, before deciding what ingredients to use, a pizzeria owner or owner-to-be should determine what type of pizza s/he wants to sell, because the type of ingredients is determined by the type of pizza. Many considerations go into designing a pizza. For a discussion of those factors refer to:

• Development Questions section of the Dough-making chapter.

• Recipe Development Questions section of the Sauce chapter.

• Selection Considerations section of the Cheese chapter.

On-site Preparation vs. Ready-to-use

Part of determining the type of pizza you want to sell is deciding which ingredients to prepare on-site and which to buy ready-to-use. To assist with that decision, refer to the On-site Preparation vs. Ready-to-use chapter.

Brand Selection

Next you must select the brands that best achieve your product design objectives. Here’s how to do it.

Comparative Testing

The chapters on Dough Ingredients, Dough-making, Sauce, Cheese, and Toppings describe in detail the quality factors for each type of product and explain how to compare brands by doing a baking test. Keep in mind that the highest priced brand might not be the best quality (but it could be) and that on-site preparation might not be better than buying ready-to-use (but it could be). To find out what brand is best for achieving your product objectives, get samples and test them. Use the procedures described in the Baking Test parts of the Dough-making, Sauce, and Cheese chapters. In short, the best way to select brands is by comparative testing—that is, by side-by-side evaluation. The more you test, the more you will know about what brands best suit your style of pizza.

Price vs. Quality

Price is an important consideration. Possibly even more important, however, is product quality. We suggest using the brands that will make the type of pizza that you will sell the most of. If using a top-quality product will make your pizza a bigger seller, we suggest going with the better product and, to cover the cost difference between the top-quality product and lower-quality product, raise the price of your pizza enough to cover the per-pizza price difference between the two brands. Most pizza-eaters—especially the loyal ones—will readily pay a little more to get the kind of pizza they like most!

Frequently, however, the per-pizza price difference between top quality and mediocre quality products is not that great. A good example pertains to pizza sauce. There can be as much as $3.00 per case difference in price between a high-quality and low-quality sauce. This may appear to be a large savings, especially if annualized. However, the best way to analyze price vs. quality of competing brands is on a per-pizza basis. Such an analysis can result in an eye-opening discovery.

Specifically, a case of pizza sauce yields about 40 lb or 640 oz of product. Assuming that the average pizza takes 5-1/3 oz of sauce, this means a case of sauce covers 120 pizzas (640 ÷ 5-1/3 = 120). So, what is the savings per pizza in going with the lower-quality sauce? It amounts to only 2‑1/2 cents per pie ($3.00 ÷ 120 = 2-1/2¢). This raises a number of questions. Is it worth 2-1/2 cents to have less than the best sauce flavor on your pizza? If it’s vitally important to increase your profit per pizza by 2-1/2 cents, wouldn’t a wiser move be to raise the price by three cents rather than jeopardize the product’s flavor? Finally, wouldn’t any pizza-eater prefer to pay three cents more to get a pizza with the best possible flavor?

So when deciding whether to use a high-cost vs. low-cost ingredient, first determine whether the cost savings from using the low-cost ingredient would result in a perceived quality reduction. If it would not, then perhaps you should go with the low-cost item. However, if it would result in a perceived quality loss, then ask yourself whether your customers would prefer to pay the difference in higher price to receive the better quality pizza. If they would, then the wisest decision is to sell the higher quality pizza at a slightly higher price—that is, at a price which recoups the difference in cost between the high-quality and low-quality ingredient. This strategy will likely maximize your long-term sales.

Price vs. Yield

Another factor to consider when evaluating brand prices is product yield. Cheese is a good example. Cheaper cheese may not be as cheap as first appears. In buying cheese many pizzerias focus on the price per pound of competing brands. However they would probably be better served to focus on the cost per pizza. Because cheese brands can bake up differently—with the higher quality cheese “covering better” and producing a better-looking, better-tasting pizza than a lower-quality cheese—a cheaper cheese often requires a 10 to 15 percent larger portion to produce the same appearance and flavor on a baked pizza.

A similar comparison can be made with high-priced versus low-priced meat products. Higher-priced products tend to have less fat and, therefore, less waste and shrinkage than lower-priced products. Also, when comparing the cost of meats and vegetables, compare the cost after preparation rather than as purchased.

In short, when deciding what brand to use, first compare baking-eating characteristics of equal portions of competing brands. Then adjust the portion amounts for equal appearance, flavor, and “coverage” on the baked product. Finally, compute the cost per serving based on the amount of product needed per pizza to produce the desired results. You might discover that the expensive brand is actually the economical one—or at least not as expensive as first appeared.

Supplier Selection

To an extent, brand and supplier selection go hand-in-hand because some brands can only be acquired from certain suppliers. However, for most ingredients there are two or three top brands that are similar in quality. And most suppliers carry at least one of the brands.

In evaluating and selecting suppliers consider three factors: Quality, Service, and Price. How you rank these factors depends on your business objectives. Here’s some things to consider.

QUALITY FACTOR

• Does the supplier carry top-quality brands? Does the supplier carry the brands I want?

• For perishable products such as cheese and toppings, is quality consistent from delivery-to-delivery? (Quality consistency is highly important. Without consistent quality ingredients, making a consistent quality pizza is impossible.)

• Does the supplier practice good storage and trucking practices (i.e., maintain proper refrigeration in coolers and on trucks, maintain clean facilities, etc.)?

SERVICE FACTOR

• Can I get delivery at convenient days and time? Do deliveries arrive as scheduled?

• Can I get an emergency delivery if needed?

• Are the salesperson, order-taker, and truck driver friendly and helpful?

• Is the billing dept. helpful? Are invoices accurate and easy-to-read?

• Can I easily return poor quality items for credit, without hassle?

• Does the supplier maintain adequate inventory so I’m not frequently “shorted” on my shipment?

• Does the supplier allow a reasonable length of time for payment?

PRICE FACTOR

• Are brand prices competitive with other suppliers’?

• Does the supplier readily adjust prices according to market conditions (or do prices tend to stay up even when market pricing is dropping)?

• Does the supplier try to maintain competitive pricing, or does he occasionally try to sneak an over-priced item passed me, hoping that I won’t notice?

How to Get the Most from Suppliers

In large part, how a pizzeria relates with its suppliers determines the kind of quality, service and price a pizzeria receives. Here’s some tips for getting the most from suppliers.

Compare Prices on a Regular Basis.

Competition keeps businesses on their toes. When a supplier thinks that you don’t talk to any other distributors, prices tend to rise. We would like to think that this wouldn’t happen, but it does—it’s human nature. We all tend to “sharpen our price pencil” when we know our customers are knowledgeable of our competitor’s prices.

Of course this doesn’t mean you should be constantly jumping from supplier to supplier just to take advantage of current low-ball items, or that you should be constantly trying to haggle a supplier down to the last penny of profit. This type of practice only backfires in the long run. However, at least once every month or two you should compare prices on main items just to be sure that your current supplier is staying competitive, price-wise. If you never compare prices you may find that over a year’s time the price of certain key items, such as flour or cheese, might slowly rise by a penny or two per pound above the “competitive market rate.”

Don’t Divulge Competitor’s Prices.

It’s not uncommon for an aggressive sales person to say, “Tell me what you’re currently paying and I’ll beat it.” It can be tempting to give him a price. But doing so is unfair to other suppliers, plus it’s likely not to get you the best price, anyhow. Instead, the wisest approach is to tell suppliers to submit their best price and that after you get them all in you’ll make the comparison and select the best price-value.

Be Wary of Loss-leader “Deals.”

Although it’s good practice to consider what everyone has to offer, don’t get sucked in by the “deals that are too good to be true.” Loss-leader deals are usually offered by a new salesperson who wants to get a foot in the door. There’s two problems with loss-leader deals. First, the quality is often less than acceptable (although the salesperson will assure you that there’s nothing wrong with it), or else there will sometimes be a large amount of waste (e.g., mold on the cheese). So when everything’s considered, the result is that it’s no deal at all. Second, if the quality is really there, but the price is so low the supplier can’t make a reasonable profit on it, be assured that the price will soon rise, or that prices on other items will be high enough to compensate for it. In summary, avoid constantly jumping from supplier to supplier because of tempting loss-leader deals. Instead, when comparing suppliers’ prices keep your eye on the “invoice total.” You can’t build a good long-term relationship with suppliers if you’re a sucker for every “deal” that comes in the door.

Set the Rules and Priorities at the Start.

To establish a good working relationship, inform the supplier of your rules and priorities. Are there certain days and times you want deliveries made? When should the salesperson call? What should they do when they find out that they’re short an item? Should they communicate price changes at the time of ordering? What are your payment policies? How often will invoices be paid? Lastly, be sure to inform the supplier of your priorities. What do you expect in way of quality? What do you expect in way of consistency? Do you want top quality, medium quality, or low quality? Is price more important than service and quality, or vice versa? Remember: No business can deliver the top quality brand at a bottom-of-the-line price. If you want top quality, expect to pay more than rock bottom price. If you require the lowest price, don’t expect to get the highest quality.

Expect Good Performance and Don’t Accept Less than What’s Promised.

Just as you should keep your commitments, always expect and require that the supplier keep his commitments, too. Don’t accept shortages and substitutions unless they’ve been approved by you ahead of time. Don’t accept rude or shoddy service from truck drivers or salespersons. And never accept inferior goods. Like the old adage says, “It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.” Unfortunately, even good people tend to “take advantage” of others to the extent that others allow them to. Suppliers are no exception. If they know that you’re a person who won’t accept shoddy product and service, you’ll get less of it.

Use Good Ordering and Receiving Procedures.

Help your supplier help you by using good ordering and receiving techniques. It can save mistakes and frustration for both parties. Details on ordering and receiving are given in subsequent sections.

Use Your Salesperson as an information Resource.

Salespersons come into contact with many types of operations, people, and information. Build a good relationship with your salespersons and use them as a resource. They can help you separate fact from rumor regarding market trends. Will there be a shortage of something? Will prices be going up in 3 months? If so, how much of an increase is projected? In addition, they can give you new ideas and tell you about promotions that worked for someone in another city 50 miles away. Ask your salespersons to bring you this kind of information—the good ones will.

Be a Good Customer.

Yes—odd as it might sound—probably the best way to get the most from a supplier is to be a good customer. Work at building a business relationship based on mutual respect and benefit.

Pizza consultant Dave Ostrander sums it up well. He says:

Put yourself into the supplier’s shoes—perceive of yourself as a customer and ask these questions: “If I were a supplier, would I do business with myself? And if I did, how would I conduct that business?”

The first rule to follow in building a good relationship with a supplier is: Never tell a lie (e.g., the check’s in the mail—your competition is 20 cents per pound cheaper—I didn’t get everything I should have on my invoice). Always tell the truth, pay on time, and don’t play games.

Once you establish your honesty quotient with the supplier, then insist that he be absolutely honest with you. Some buyers and sellers never get to step one. The result is that they’re constantly in a game-playing situation and no one benefits in the long run.

My philosophy is “both parties must make a profit.” Sure, pricing is very important, but service and quality are just as important—maybe more so. WHY? Because, for example, if a pizzeria owner mistakenly runs out of mozzarella on a Friday night, he’s out of luck. How much is it worth to him in the long run if he can make a phone call and have his sales rep bail him out?

Some pizzeria operators think the key to getting the most from a supplier is to constantly be “putting the squeeze on them.” I think this backfires in the long run. When you’re always squeezing someone you don’t get loyalty. How long would you do business with someone who’s out to squeeze you, and to extract every last penny of profit from you? You can buy food almost anywhere, whether it’s restaurant food or wholesale food. But what separates good restaurants and suppliers from poor ones is SERVICE and QUALITY. I work at building the type of relationships with my suppliers (and sales reps) that gets me the service and quality I need, at a price that’s reasonable to both of us.

In short, I think the way to get the most from a supplier is to build a good working relationship—with both parties operating by the Golden Rule. I make sure that I do my part, and I insist that my suppliers do theirs. That way we both win.

Ordering

Good ordering technique can save mistakes and frustration for both parties. Here’s some tips for ordering food and paper supplies.

• Have your order sheet completed, with quantity calculations done, before the salesperson calls. You don’t want him or her to waste your time, so don’t waste theirs.

• Be specific—order items by brand whenever possible. Do you want yeast, oregano, tomato puree—exactly what kinds do you want. If brand names don’t apply, have a detailed spec for the product. To create a product specification, refer to the purchasing portion of previous chapters.

• Check off each item on the order sheet as you mention it. This will prevent you from overlooking an item—which usually results in you wrongfully blaming the salesperson.

• Periodically check prices on key items as you order. OR tell the supplier to automatically notify you of any price rise at time of ordering.

• Base your ordering on projected usage. That way you won’t run out of food or, almost as bad, have excessive inventory that ties up money and space. The following section explains how to calculate order amounts for high-usage ingredients.

Calculating Order Amounts

Group your entire food and paper inventory by supplier—that is, for each vendor list the items purchased from it. Then, each time you order food and supplies, use the order list for calculating and placing the order. If an item might be purchased from two or more suppliers, list it with each of them.

The objective in ordering food and supplies is to order the optimal amount—or just what’s needed and no more. This way you don’t run out of an item but also don’t needlessly clutter your storeroom and cooler with excess food and tie up funds in extra inventory. The key to maintaining an optimum inventory amount is to focus on high-usage ingredients—such as flour, cheese, tomato products, popular toppings, pizza boxes, etc.—because these items consume the most space and money. Here’s a system for ordering the optimal amount of high-usage ingredients.

1. For each high-usage ingredient, determine your usage per sales dollar, or how much you use of each item per $1.00 of sales. This can be done by dividing the total consumption of each item for a period (say, four weeks) by the sales of the same period. For example, if you used 1550 lbs of mozzarella for a period, and sales for the period were $21,000, then your mozzarella usage per $1.00 sales would be .074 lbs per $1.00 sales (1550 ÷ 21,000 = .0738 or, rounded off, .074). Once the usage per sales dollar is calculated it can be used for 6 to 12 months. For accuracy, re-calculate it every six months, or whenever there’s a change in menu prices or sales mix.

Then, whenever ordering a high-usage ingredient, take the following steps.

2. Project the sales for the upcoming order period (i.e., the period of time between the upcoming delivery and the following one). In projecting sales, consider the same period of the prior week, then make adjustments for any upcoming special conditions that didn’t happen during the prior week. Examples of such conditions include change in weather, special promotions, competitor’s reactions, holidays and vacations, school starting/ending, and paydays and layoffs by large employers. To the sales projection add a buffer to cover an unanticipated sales rise. Typically that would be 10 percent, but it could be as much as 25 percent. The resulting number is your purchasing sales projection.

3. Calculate your expected usage of each high-usage ingredient, or the amount that will be needed to cover the purchasing sales projection. Do this by multiplying the purchasing sales projection by the usage per sales dollar figure. For example, if your purchasing sales projection is, say, $4700 and your mozzarella usage per sales dollar is .074 lb, then your expected usage of mozzarella for the order period would be 348 lbs (4700 x .074 = 348 lbs). In addition, if a special promotion will increase consumption of a certain ingredient, add on an extra amount to cover it. For example, if you’re running a pepperoni pizza special you would order extra pepperoni in addition to what you normally use for the projected sales volume.

4. Calculate how much of each high-usage ingredient to order. Do this by subtracting the current inventory of the item (i.e., how much is in stock) from the expected usage of that ingredient for the order period. For example, if you expect to consume 348 lbs of mozzarella during the order period, and you have 80 lbs in stock, you would need to order 268 lbs (348 – 80 = 268). We call this the ideal order amount. Since most ingredients are in pre-set quantities (i.e., cases and bags) convert the ideal order amount to cases or bags. For example, if you order mozzarella in 40 lb cases, you would order seven cases (268 ÷ 40 = 6.7 or, rounded off, 7).

To assist with the above calculations it helps to use the following type of order sheet. For clarity, fictional figures have been inserted for projected sales and mozzarella usage.

By using the above system when ordering high-usage ingredients you will avoid running out of key items and also minimize costly over-stocking.

Receiving

Good receiving technique can reduce shortages and theft—both the deliberate and the accidental types. It can also reduce spoilage. Here’s some pointers.

• When receiving goods, compare the invoice to your order sheet. Is everything there?

• Compare the invoice items to what’s delivered. The quickest way to do this is have the truck driver point out each item as you check it off on the invoice. Do this before signing. If an item is missing, have the truck driver notate such and initial it on the invoice.

• Spot check quantities and weights, important expiration dates, and, in some cases, temperature. For periodically checking case weights, an inexpensive mechanical utility scale will do (basically like a bathroom scale). For checking temperature use a mechanical stem thermometer or, for quicker readings, an electronic digital thermometer with needle probe.

If you’re a customer who never checks the goods, be assured that when your supplier (or truck driver) has slightly inferior or nearly expired product to get rid of, you will be the customer to get it. And, vice versa, if he knows that you inspect your product, he will think twice before leaving the second-rate stuff with you.

• Return for credit any items of unacceptable quality. Refer to previous chapters for a description of quality standards. Do not use anything that you suspect might be spoiled. Do not use canned goods that have a dent, puffed end, or leak. If when opening a can it hisses or spews liquid, this indicates bacterial or chemical reaction in the can. Do not use it. Also, if the product looks or smells unusual, do not use it. Once you’ve opened a can of bad product, call the supplier and ask him if he wants you to save it for him. He may so “no,” but he’ll likely tell you to save the label or lid with the production number so he can return it to the manufacturer.

• Transfer refrigerated and frozen items into the cooler and freezer immediately. A ten degree rise in product temperature can shorten the shelf life and quality of vegetables. Slight defrosting of frozen goods can increase their wateriness and diminish quality, as well. When transferring items to the walk-in cooler, keep the door closed as much as possible. Do not prop it open—even if there’s a plastic strip curtain—as it causes the temperature to rise, which diminishes shelf life and quality of products. Also, do not let truck drivers prop open cooler doors. If necessary, post a sign on the door informing people not to leave it open.

• Do not prop the back door open while receiving deliveries. It fills the kitchen with insects. Truck drivers prop the door open for convenience but it’s not worth the sanitation problem it creates. Most deliveries don’t require a driver to open the door more than 5 to 6 times. That’s only about 15 seconds, total time. Saving 15 seconds isn’t worth having a kitchen and dining room filled with dirty flies.

• Lastly, make sure somebody in your company is checking invoice calculations. Are prices the same as promised? Are extensions and totals correct?

Receiving Block Cheese

Of all pizza ingredients, block or loaf mozzarella is the most apt to vary from shipment to shipment. So extra precaution should be taken. Upon receiving block mozzarella, check the date of manufacture on the case to make sure the cheese isn’t already over-aged. If it is, send it back. If the manufacturing date is in code, ask your supplier to explain how to read it. Generally speaking, distributor’s should ship mozzarella that’s 13 to 20 days old. If less than eight days old it will usually be under-aged. If over 28 days it’s usually over-aged, unless it’s very low in moisture—i.e., 45 to 47 percent. However, cheese that’s under 28 days can be over-aged if it has been stored above 50 degrees F for a time.

Next, open a case and inspect a loaf of cheese for flavor and firmness. If it’s over-aged and unusable—possibly due to being stored at too high a temperature in the warehouse or during shipment—send it back and ask the supplier to send out better cheese immediately. If it’s under-age, decide how soon you need to have it fully cured, and what storage conditions will best accomplish that. (See next section for details.)

When taste-testing cheese, cut the sample from the middle of the loaf, not the edge. Most manufacturers salt mozzarella by dipping the loaves into a brine solution. This causes the surface to taste extra salty for the first ten days (until the salt is absorbed into the cheese). If a pizzeria owner cuts a sample from the edge rather than the middle of the loaf, s/he might conclude that the cheese contains too much salt when, in fact, it has the proper amount.

Unless the cheese is under-age and needs quick-curing at room temperature, always put it into the refrigerator immediately after receiving it. Letting cheese warm-up for even a couple hours greatly accelerates the aging process, which can result in it being over-aged by the time it’s used.

If the cheese is approaching over-age when you receive it, store it at the coldest possible temperature, preferably in the 33 to 36 degrees F range, and use it as soon as possible. Cheese that is 25 days or older is approaching over-age, unless it’s 45 to 47 percent moisture.

If the cheese is moldy, send it back or receive a credit for the loss incurred from trimming off mold.

Storage

Proper storage is essential for quality ingredients. Previous chapters describe storage guidelines in detail. Here’s a summation of general guidelines, followed by specifics for key ingredients. To convert Fahrenheit temperature to Centigrade, see the Measurements and Conversions chapter.

General Guidelines

• FROZEN FOODS: Maintain freezer temperature at 0 degrees F or below. Wrap food in moisture-proof, vapor-proof wrap or foil, or put it into an airtight container. Do not re-freeze thawed food. For air circulation in a walk-in unit, allow 2 inches between containers and between containers and the wall. Also, use wire shelving or sheet metal shelving with louvers.

• REFRIGERATED FOODS: Maintain refrigerator temperature at 33 to 36 degrees F. Keep food in closed containers. For air circulation in a walk-in cooler, allow 2 inches between containers and between containers and the wall. Use wire shelving or sheet metal shelving with louvers. Although wire is popular, sheet metal is easier to clean. Lastly, casters on shelving facilitates easier cleaning of floor and walls.

• STORE ROOM (GROCERIES): Maintain store room temperature at 70 to 80 degrees F. Keep opened items in sealed bags or closed containers.

For all products, do the following:

• Store product at least 6 inches off the floor.

• Stack older items above or in front of newer items—i.e., ROTATE THE GOODS so oldest is used first.

• Leave products in the case until needed (it reduces chance of theft and makes for easier inventorying).

• For easy reading, position labels topside-up and facing front.

Guidelines for Specific Products

This section describes optimum storage conditions for key products.

FLOUR: Store at 75 to 80 degrees F in a well-ventilated, dry place and, if possible, with relative humidity around 60 percent. For air circulation, criss-cross bags and keep them 12 inches from the wall. Store off the floor. Keep separate from strong-smelling items such as onions and garlic, as flour can absorb odors. Maximum shelf life is 1 year.

DRY YEAST: An unopened package (vacuum-sealed or flushed with nitrogen) has a one year shelf life if stored at 70 to 80 degrees F. Once opened it should be kept sealed and refrigerated at 33 to 36 degrees F. Roll the foil bag up tight to the yeast (to expel air) and keep it in an airtight container (to exclude moisture). Stored this way, one manufacturer says it keeps for 6 to 8 weeks. It can also be frozen for up to six months in an airtight container or in freezer wrap, if it hasn’t been frozen before. Keep it at a constant 0 degrees F—no thawing and re-freezing.

COMPRESSED YEAST: Refrigerate at 33 to 36 degrees F in sealed foil or moisture-proof freezer wrap. Unopened, the shelf life is about 4 to 6 weeks. Opened, it should be used within two weeks to be on the safe side.

OIL: Store in an airtight, light-proof container in a cool, dry place. For prolonged storage, keep in a refrigerator.

NON-FAT DRY MILK: Store in a closed container in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. Keep separate from strong-smelling items such as onions and garlic.

HERBS, SPICES, DEHYDRATED SEASONINGS: Store in an airtight, light-proof container in a cool, dry place. For long periods, freeze in a sealed, moisture-proof bag or container.

BLOCK MOZZARELLA: Optimum storage temperature for block or loaf cheese varies depending on degree of aging. For curing under-age cheese within a week, store it at 40 degrees F. For more rapid curing, store it at a higher temperature—around 50 degrees—for a couple days. To speed-cure under-age mozzarella, some pizzerias let the cases sit at room temperature for about 12 hours, or overnight. However, because some health departments might object to this, we avoid recommending it.

To minimize aging of fully cured cheese, store it at 33 to 36 degrees F. After processing, store it in a closed container at 33 to 36 degrees.

When storing loaves, keep them in the case (as opposed to removing the loaves and discarding the box). This way you know the date of manufacture of the cheese, which aids product rotation in your cooler. Also, if there’s a problem with the cheese you can give the distributor the manufacture date, which helps him track down the cause of the problem. Without the date, this can’t be done.

READY-TO-USE MOZZARELLA: Store refrigerated ready-to-use cheese at 33 to 36 degrees F. Store frozen cheese below 0 degrees. Thaw it under refrigeration and don’t re-freeze it once thawed.

FRESH GARLIC: Store at 70 to 80 degrees F in a dry place.

FRESH WHOLE ONION: Experts recommend that early onions (April to August) be refrigerated and late onions (August to March) be stored in a cool (70 degree F) room. Keep them separate from flour, potatoes and other items that will absorb onion odor. Although some onion varieties will last up to six months in refrigeration, it’s best to buy only what will be used within two weeks.

FRESH WHOLE GREEN PEPPER: Store at 33 to 36 degrees F in their carton.

FRESH WHOLE TOMATOES: Store at room temperature (55 to 70 degrees F) until fully ripe, then refrigerate if necessary.

FRESH MUSHROOMS: For maximum shelf life—which is about 7 days in the pizzeria—store mushrooms at 33 to 36 degrees F and, if possible, 85 to 90 percent humidity. When stored over 40 degrees the shelf life is greatly reduced. Allow for good air circulation. Do not put them in a closed container. Also, allow 2 inches between boxes and do not stack boxes on top of each other. To prevent excessive drying, which might occur if stored in a place of low humidity, drape a damp cheesecloth over the boxes.

READY-TO-USE VEGETABLES: Store processed vegetables at 33 to 36 degrees F—the closer to 33 degrees, the better. Keep them in their shipping container or bag. Higher temperatures and fluctuating temperatures greatly shorten the shelf life of cut vegetables. Shelf life varies with how they’re processed and stored. Ask the manufacturer for guidelines.

PEPPERONI: Store stick pepperoni at 33 to 36 degrees F. If frozen, keep it below 0 degrees F. When sliced it has a two week refrigerated shelf life at 33 to 36 degrees F. In a gas-flushed bag, sliced pepperoni will keep refrigerated for 30 to 45 days.

FRESH SAUSAGE/GROUND BEEF: Store fresh meat at 33 to 36 degrees F. Refrigerated shelf life for opened, raw sausage is usually 4 to 5 days but, to be on the safe side, try to use it within three days. When vacuum-packed it will last up to 21 days in refrigeration and 4 to 5 days after opening.

FROZEN MEAT: Store at 0 degrees F or below. Shelf life for frozen pre-cooked product is about six months. Once defrosted it has a 7 to 10 day refrigerated shelf life.

CANNED GOODS: Store at 70 to 80 degrees F in a dry, well-ventilated room.

PREPARED PIZZA SAUCE: Refrigerate your sauce in covered plastic or stainless steel containers. Don’t use aluminum. If using plastic, use a hard rather than soft plastic, as soft plastic absorbs tomato residue that’s difficult to remove from the microscopic pores of the plastic surface (although it doesn’t affect sauce flavor).

Maximizing Storage Space

One problem many pizzerias face is lack of storage space. However there are some remedies that can mitigate the problem, as follows.

The most common carton in a pizzeria is a case of six No. 10 cans. It measures roughly 18-inches long by 12-inches wide. A case of mozzarella cheese is about the same size. To accommodate an 18-inch long case most pizzerias use 18-inch deep shelving. However, to maximize storage space, use 24-inch deep shelving and arrange cases lengthwise on the shelf, thereby allowing you to pack TWO cases front-to-back. This approach increases storage capacity per shelf by 33 percent. And, in most cases, using 24-inch deep shelving still leaves adequate aisle space.

In addition, for storing processed food in your walk-in cooler, plan container shape and dimensions so you can pack a maximum number of containers per shelf. Also, it helps to know that more food can be stored per square foot of shelf space by using rectangular containers than by using round containers.

Finally, arrange the vertical dimension between shelves for maximum storage. Generally speaking, allow enough space for stacking two containers high plus 4 inches more for air space. Or if you’re not stacking containers, the distance between shelves should be the height of the tallest container plus 4 inches more. With proper planning a pizzeria can sometimes squeeze in an extra shelf or two per rack and, thereby, increase cooler storage capacity by 20 to 30 percent.

In short, many pizzerias have cramped storage not because they lack floor space but because people have done a poor job of planning shelving and container dimensions to accommodate a maximum amount of product.

ORDER SHEET FOR: (supplier name)
(A) Projected Sales for Order Period = $ 4700 . (include 10 percent buffer)
ITEM	(B) Usage per Sales $	(C) Expected Usage AXB	(D) Amount in Stock	(E) Ideal Order Amount C—D	(F) Case Size	(G) Cases to order (E¸F)
Mozzarella, lb	.074	348	80	268	40	7cs.
Provolone, lb
Pizza Sauce, can
Crushed Tomatoes, can
High-gluten Flour, lb
12” Pizza Box, each
ETC.