Benefits of using rapid and flash freezing technology in central kitchens

What is a central kitchen?

A central kitchen is a facility that processes and cooks a large amount of ingredients and dishes in one place. School lunch centers and supermarket processing centers also fall into this category.
Central kitchens that utilize rapid freezing are used all over the food service industry, including in hospitals and restaurant chains.
There are many cases where the introduction of a rapid freezing central kitchen has led to business expansion and increased sales through cost reduction and stable quality, so it can be said to be a very beneficial measure for food and beverage businesses with multiple stores.

Many people are wondering whether to use a rapid freezing central kitchen in their own store. However, if you are going to actually use it, you want to know the advantages and disadvantages, and whether it will suit your store!
Therefore, we at this website, which has a track record of receiving many inquiries about rapid freezing central kitchens, will provide you with a detailed introduction.

What is a central kitchen ?

Source: https://www.ivy-company.jp/recruit/brand/centralkitchen.html

First, let me explain how a central kitchen works.
A central kitchen is a facility that takes over the preparation of food for multiple locations in one place, such as a school lunch center.
This also includes the role of purchasing ingredients and delivering food. Therefore, at the stores to which the food is delivered, it is possible to serve the pre-cooked food simply by heating it and plating it. This is how a central kitchen works.

This role may be carried out within a single store, or a central kitchen may be set up separately from the store.
There are also companies and associations that have central kitchens and provide these services, with some associations also taking on the role of providing meals to disaster-stricken areas in the event of a disaster.

So what types of businesses are using central kitchens?

Food and beverage businesses that  have a central kitchen

Recently, the following types of food and beverage companies are increasingly adopting central kitchens.

・BBQ companies that operate multiple stores/restaurants.
・A restaurant that started delivery of lunch boxes as a new sales channel.

●BBQ companies that operate multiple stores/restaurants

Yakiniku restaurants with five or more stores often have a central kitchen called a meat center, where meat is cut, sliced, seasoned, and otherwise "prepared" before being delivered to each store.

●A restaurant that started delivering lunch boxes as a new sales channel

Demand for take-out is increasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and more and more existing restaurants are starting to deliver meals. However, there are limits to how much one kitchen can cook and serve food to customers and create lunch boxes for delivery. Therefore, restaurants built central kitchens, where they make and package lunch boxes specifically for delivery. They were able to work more efficiently by separating the workspace for preparing delivery orders from the workspace their existing business.

But, how much does it cost to set up a central kitchen?

Costs of a central kitchen 

How much does it cost to set up a central kitchen?

In order to set up a central kitchen, you need large-scale cooking equipment because each location is solely responsible for cooking.
If you don't have space, you may need to build a new central kitchen or purchase/rent a space.

Setting up a central kitchen inevitably costs a lot of money, but the amount varies depending on the scale and direction of your business.

Throughout your business, you need to consult with experts to decide what and how much you will make each day, what kind of equipment you will need, and what kind of layout will allow you to work efficiently.

We can give you an approximate quotation depending on what you want to make, so if you are considering a central kitchen, please feel free to contact us.

There's a reason why many companies choose to go with central kitchens, even if it means spending a lot of money initially.
Next, we will talk about the benefits of having a central kitchen.

 Benefits of having a central kitchen

Central kitchens are essential for services that involve large-scale cooking, and the reason they are so necessary is because they bring about many benefits.
First, let me explain the benefits of having a central kitchen.
What kind of benefits have restaurants that use central kitchens achieved?

There are two main advantages:

⒈ Sales increase
⒉ Cost decrease

It goes without saying, but by achieving these two things, you can realize better profit margins.

Increase sales

Now, let's talk about the first benefit; sales increase.

There are three reasons why central kitchens increase sales:

①Production efficiency improves
② Standardization of food quality
③ Strengthening hygiene management

Increased productivity through improved operational efficiency

As mentioned earlier, new stores that are starting to offer bento delivery services have a limit to the amount of food they can produce if they cook in their existing store kitchens. This is why they introduce a new central kitchen and separate the kitchen for producing bento for delivery from the kitchen for preparing food to be served to customers, thereby raising the upper limit of production and improving productivity.
This will enable them to secure sales from their new business of delivering boxed lunches.
And as manufacturing efficiency improves and daily production volume increases, sales can inevitably increase.

Standardization of food quality

Even though it's a chain restaurant, isn't it true that the taste varies from store to store?
By cooking all the food in one place in a central kitchen, we can reduce the variation in taste between stores. This allows us to provide food of a consistent quality at every store.
Since customers can enjoy the same taste no matter which restaurant they visit, this leads to an increase in repeat customers. Therefore, standardizing the taste of the food offered is also a factor in increasing sales.

Stable quality also brings benefits to hospitals, by being able to provide hospital food tailored to each symptom etc.

Strengthening hygiene management

Since cooking is done in one central location, thorough hygiene management in the central kitchen enables thorough hygiene management at multiple stores.
Customers with small children and female customers are especially concerned about hygiene.
Strengthening hygiene management allows customers to enjoy their food with peace of mind, which leads to loyal fan base.

As the number of fans of the store increases, the frequency of customer visits will increase, so strengthening hygiene management will also be a factor in increasing sales.

By using a central kitchen, you can achieve the above three effects, and as a result, your store's sales can increase.

Cost decrease

Now let's talk about the second benefit, cost reduction.

There are two main ways for a central kitchen to reduce costs:

①Labor costs reduction
②Operational costs reduction

Reduce labor costs

Often, you hire part-time workers who work early in the morning to prepare the food. Many shops charge extra wages for early morning hours, and the cost tends to pile up quickly.

By preparing food in a central kitchen and then delivering it to each store, you can reduce the time spent preparing food in the early morning.

In addition, increasing work efficiency reduces work hours and labor hours, making it possible to minimize the number of personnel required for each store.

Cost reduction

The central kitchen prepares food for multiple stores at once, which means that ingredients will be purchased in bulk and naturally, the price for the ingredients will be lower.
This helps keep costs down.

As purchasing costs have become cheaper, some restaurants are offering food at lower prices than before in an attempt to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
These two things will help reduce costs.
As a result, introducing a central kitchen can increase sales and reduce costs, which is expected to improve your store's profits.

Preventing information leaks

There are other benefits besides increasing sales and reducing costs. This one is related to information leaks
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Cooking methods and recipes are often trade secrets.
The risk of information leaks increases as the number of locations and employees increases.
By handling most of the cooking in one central kitchen, the number of people involved in the process can be minimized, reducing the risk of recipes and cooking methods being shared and leaked.

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However, there are some points that you need to be aware of when using a central kitchen. Let's take a look at the disadvantages and problems of central kitchens.

Disadvantages of having a central kitchen 

The use of a central kitchen has been proven to have various benefits. However, there are some disadvantages if you are not able to utilize it efficiently.

There are three main problems and disadvantages of central kitchens.

Increased food waste during operations

Source: https://www.mylohas.net/2018/09/175676foodloss.html

One possible disadvantage of operating a central kitchen is that it increases food waste.

Some owners found that cooking in a central kitchen results in more food waste than cooking in individual stores, which is a disadvantage.

Compared to cooking after each store receives an order, if a large amount of food is cooked in a central kitchen and then delivered to each store, the number of orders at the store may be lower than the amount produced by the central kitchen.

As time passes, the excess food will be discarded before it can be served to customers.

Furthermore, even if the same amount of food is lost, the cost of loss will be greater. Food loss costs in central kitchens are high.

When cooking at each store, the food waste is the same as the raw materials, so only the cost of ingredients is included.
However, when food is wasted due to cooking in a central kitchen, it includes not only the cost of ingredients but also the labor and utility costs involved in cooking the food.

When the central kitchen is in charge of cooking for each store, it is necessary to be careful not to make too much food and to avoid food waste.

Quality, freshness, and taste deteriorate

In addition to food loss, the disadvantages of a central kitchen include the fact that the quality and freshness of the products decrease.

Compared to cooking at each restaurant, operations using a central kitchen allow for large quantities of food to be prepared and then delivered.

As time passes after cooking, the freshness and quality of the food deteriorates.

Also, since the food is not cooked on the spot, the homemade feel may be lost.

It would be better to do the final presentation and seasoning at the store.

 Hygiene management, equipment investment, etc. can be costly 

If you operate a central kitchen, it will be responsible for cooking for each store you own, this means that you will need large cooking facilities. Your fixed costs will naturally increase
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Before  transitioning to a central kitchen, it is necessary to carefully plan your production and consider whether you need one or not.

Those are the major disadvantages of operating a central kitchen.

Central kitchens have disadvantages, such as increased food waste, food quality deterioration, higher costs, and lack of depth of knowledge and experience among store personnel.

Some people may be worried about implementing a central kitchen because of the disadvantages such as food loss and food quality deterioration.

Don't worry, there are ways to mitigate most of the disadvantages that can occur in a central kitchen, such as food loss and food quality deterioration. The solution is rapid freezing.

Introducing rapid freezer can optimize your central kitchen

Source: https://kaden.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/column/lifestyle/1161208.html

If you are considering installing a central kitchen, we recommend that you also install rapid freezer!
As mentioned earlier, central kitchens have three disadvantages: increased food waste, reduced freshness, and the potential for extra costs. However, these issues can be solved by "rapid freezing."

The advantage of introducing rapid freezing is that it can complement what is lacking in a central kitchen.
We will now explain this "rapid freezing" process.

What is rapid freezing?

Rapid or flash freezing is a method that allows food to be frozen without compromising its quality. With normal freezing, large ice crystals formation (due to slow freezing speed) can destroy food cells. Rapid or flash freezing minimizes cell destruction and allows cells to be restored to their original state even after thawing.

By installing rapid freezer in the central kitchen, food can be frozen immediately after cooking, allowing it to be delivered and stored in stores while still fresh, solving the issue of freshness.
In addition, because rapid freezing is an effective method of preserving food, it makes it possible to plan food production and significantly reduces food waste.
This will lead to a reduction in work hours and labor costs that were previously affected by daily production volume and expiration date.

In this way, most of the problems in central kitchens can be solved by rapid freezing.
In addition, rapid freezer allows us to maximize the strengths of our central kitchen!

Therefore, in order to achieve operational efficiency without compromising food quality, it is essential to introduce a central kitchen and rapid freezer together.

Many of our customers who have adopted central kitchens are also using rapid or flash freezers.

*Quoted from Japan Frozen Foods Association

Central Kitchen x rapid freezing ~ Examples of use by customers, shops, stores, etc. ~

What stores utilize central kitchens?

There are many examples of businesses that have successfully transitioned to central kitchens utilizing rapid or flash freezing, including sushi restaurants, curry restaurants, hospitals, and restaurants.

Below are some examples of shops that have adopted central kitchens and are using rapid or flash freezers.

① Sushi restaurant 

Revolutionizing the way central kitchens work with rapid and flash freezers

Industry: Restaurant, central kitchen
Frozen ingredients: sushi

Issue: long employees working hours because the central kitchen cannot freeze food in time.

First, let's take a sushi restaurant as an example.

The rapid freezers used at the time were performing slowly given the amount the restaurant needed to freeze, so people working in the central kitchen had to work late into the night.

Solution: Upgrading to rapid or flash freezers with better performance.

Effect: Saved kitchen space and froze a 6.25 times higher quantity than before, shortening their working hours.

The amount of food frozen daily has increased significantly, and the freezing speed has also skyrocketed. According to calculations, the amount of food frozen per batch was 6.25 times higher that of the rapid freezers they previously used.

The smaller new flash freezer also freed up more space in the kitchen and made it less cluttered.

Currently, the restaurant purchases fish from wholesalers, cut it into sushi-size pieces in the central kitchen, arrange them one by one in Tupperwares, vacuum package them, and flash freeze them.

The most obvious positive impact this new flash freezer had was that it shortened the working hours.

After purchasing the flash freezer, employees were able to finish their work on time, which led to an improvement in the working environment and staff morale.

②Curry shop

Reducing the burden of shipping from the central kitchen to each curry restaurant!

Industry: Restaurant, central kitchen
Frozen ingredients: curry

Issue: transportation and labor costs are too high for daily deliveries from the central kitchen to each curry restaurant.
Solution: using a rapid or flash freezer in the central kitchen and delivering rapid or flash frozen curry in batches for several days.
Result: curry delivery now only needs to be delivered once every 4 days!

Next example is a curry shop.

For example, this soup curry shop had to deliver the curry they produced every day, so they needed staff and cars to transport the curry.
However, by introducing rapid freezer in the central kitchen, we were able to reduce the burden of curry delivery, increasing our curry menu and reducing the time and labor costs associated with transporting curry.

Using rapid freezing, the shop could cook multiple days' worth of curry and store it in the freezer. Since rapid freezing can maintain the quality of food compared to slow freezing, it has become possible to provide the taste of freshly made curry to each curry shop without compromising its quality.

Also, since this shop offers multiple types of curry roux, the central kitchen used to make multiple types of curry roux every day, but with flash freezing, they started making big batches of the same roux for each day .

As a result, this store now only has to make deliveries once every four days instead everyday, successfully reducing labor costs for deliveries.

At wholesale stores, when an order is received, the curry is thawed in hot water and served to the customer.
Now that customers can enjoy the taste of freshly made curry, has it become more delicious than before? It seems that the curry itself has been well received by customers.

This shop was also able to expand the curry menu, and increasing the variety of curries has led to increased sales.

Other customers who are using a rapid or flash freezer in their central kitchens noticed that :
・By rapid freezing food prepared in their central kitchen, the quality of the food became more consistent .
・You only need to use the amount of food you need when you need it. This minimizes food loss. Many customers have shared positive feedback about their experience with rapid and flash freezers.

However, rapid freezers used by these customers are not all the same.
It is necessary to select a rapid freezer that is appropriate for your food and your pre and post-freezing processes.

DayBreak is a company that specializes in finding the best rapid or flash freezer for you and your business given our large selection of products and vast knowledge.

If you are interested in acquiring a rapid or flash freezer after reading this article, please feel free to contact us.

Summary of central kitchens using rapid freezing

What did you think?
On this page, we have introduced central kitchens, which handle cooking operations for multiple stores in one place, along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Utilizing a central kitchen has many benefits, including consistent quality, increased efficiency in cooking and serving, and cost reduction.
Although there were some drawbacks, there was a way to solve most of these problems:" rapid freezing "which minimizes cell destruction.

Both central kitchens and "rapid freezing" are systems that are used more than you might imagine. Why not consider using them to keep up with the times and not lose to other companies?
After reading this article, if you are interested in purchasing rapid freezer in addition to your central kitchen,
Please feel free to contact us for any inquiries.

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In the next article, we will discuss the cook-chill system and how rapid and flash freezers are essential to this

Please check out our next article if you want to know more.