Explain problem encountered in food and beverage control

1. Unpredictability of the volume of the business
Sales instability is inherent in almost all food and beverage operations. The changes which occur
in the volume of catering establishment are of several kinds;
First the intensity of demand of food and beverage will in most cases vary during the day. As a
result in majority of catering establishment, its possible to observe more or less regular peak of
activity during the working day.
Secondly, there are changes in the volume of the business occurring from one day to another in
accordance with more or less distinct weekly pattern.
Finally, in hotels which are to some degree seasonal, turnover in the season may be considerably
greater than that in the off season.

2. Perishability of Supplies
Food is perishable both in the form of raw material and as prepared meals. This presents
the establishment with two major problems,
First, when buying perishable food stuffs, its necessary to ensure that whilst the current
stock are adequate, there is no over-buying. This applies particularly to highly perishable
food stuffs like soft fruits, salads and certain vegetables.
Secondly, the quantity of food prepared for each service should be in line with the
forecast demand.

3. Daily variation in production
In addition to changes of volume due to sales instability, there is a continual change in
the assortment of meals produced by the establishment. The assortment of meals will
change from one service to another during the cooking day. Also there are often
considerable changes of emphasis from one item of the menu to another in the course of
the break as well as over longer periods.

4. Short cycle of operation
Another characteristic feature of hotel operations which present an acute control problem
in the food service operation is short cycle of operations. While in many industries, the
time taken by the productive process from the purchase of raw material to the sales of the
finished products extends over weeks or months. In hotel cycle the operation is extremely
short and the full production process usually takes less than a few days, hence the speed
of operations is such as to allow little time for many control tasks normally undertaken
during the course of production. Therefore the food and beverage staff cannot produce
report at the end of the day.

5. Multiplicity of low value transactions
The spending power of the customer will vary from one type of establishment to the
other. Whilst in some high spending power establishments it may well be excess of £10
per head in the majority of case its probably less than £2. Even when the customers
spending power is high the total amount spent by the customer consist of a number of
small payments for the individual items comprising his meal.

6. High Degree of Departmentalization
Whereas some establishments have one selling outlet, there are many which have several
revenue producing departments. This is particularly in the larger hotels some of which
operate several selling outlets for food in addition to bars, kiosks, and shops. Clearly the
larger the number of outlets the more tedious the work of control. Whilst analysis of total
revenue presents some difficulties, even greater difficulties are faced when analyzing the
total cost of food consumed particularly where all the selling outlets are served by one
central kitchen. Where there are several selling outlets eg public bar, cocktail bar,
dispense bar, etc, cellar issues have to be recorded in a manner which will permit the
compilation of separate trading results for each other.

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NatalieR answered the question on May 12, 2022 at 13:57