Pizza Today - September 2021 - 32

Boyles says.
If pizza or other types of TCS foods
are not served immediately after cooking,
you'll want to make sure they are properly
held. " Holding hot means 135 F or
above for safety, " Boyles says. " The optimal
setting may vary by product since thinner
items and sliced items lose heat more
quickly. " Cold foods require storing at
41 F or below. " Monitor time and
temperature that is staged for pick up or
delivery, " Boyles says.
Putting Optimal Systems in
Place
" Review procedures to ensure everyone
has clear and accurate directions
for proper food handling, " Boyles says.
Include important food safety and storing
information in staff training sessions.
Equip managers to monitor the procedures
for serving to tables, along with
delivery and takeout. " Consider using an
automated temperature sensor system
to monitor temperatures continuously, "
Boyles says. " Such systems can be used
to track temperatures throughout the day
to identify patterns and ultimately help
identify root causes. " If a unit doesn't hold
temperatures during rush hours, there may
be an underlying issue with stacking foods
or door management.
For items that leave the restaurant, a
closed container will help pizza maintain
its temperature. Other menu items might
require different transporting units. " For
fried items, we use containers with holes in
them, " Cepollaro says. " This allows steam
to get out. "
Customers can also be provided with
instructions on reheating and safety.
" Leftover pizza should not typically be
left out of temperature control for more
than two hours, " Boyles says. In addition
to including directions to promptly store
leftover pizza in the refrigerator, you could
add practical ways to serve later, such as
warming for 10 minutes in a 350 F oven.
Storing and serving at the right temperature
can also ensure high quality in
terms of nutritional value. " Some foods
might lose their nutrients when subjected
to incorrect temperatures, " says Elliot
Reimers, a NASM certified nutrition
coach at Rave Reviews. Spinach, for
instance, can lose up to 60 percent of its
nutritional content if it's overly exposed to
heat for a prolonged time.
If you recently expanded your seating
area, takeout or delivery segments,
adding on warming methods may be
needed. " There are a number of ways to
keep food at the proper temperature, " says
Jeff Ehrlich, manager at Restaurant City
Warehouse in Waterbury, Connecticut.
" These include various types of heat lamps,
hot food serving counters, warming cabinets,
insulated pizza delivery bags, pizza
display cabinets, and reheating slices in the
pizza or convection oven. " In his pizzeria,
Cepollaro relies on empty plates kept
warm under heat lamps. Once they are
filled, they are served immediately. n
RACHEL HARTMAN is a freelance
writer who covers small business,
finance and lifestyle topics.
Correct Temperatures
in Automated
Pizza Solutions
Piestro, an automated pizza creation startup,
relies on machines to produce pizzas in
a matter of minutes. " We use pre-pressed,
uncooked dough made of the freshest ingredients,
and it is stored in shelves within the
machine, " says Massimo De Marco, CEO
of Piestro. Toppings are added to the dough,
which is then ready to be cooked.
" Our conveyor oven was built to work
at 800 F to cook a pizza within three
minutes, " De Marco says. " It uses a complex
temperature isolation system that keeps the
toppings and dough at proper temperatures
from the heat of the oven. " The oven has a
series of thermal reading sensors which can
be monitored to ensure safety. After cooking,
the pizza is dropped into a pizza box and
delivered through a window to a customer
or restaurant employee. " All of this is automated-so
the pizza does not come into any
human contact from cooking to packaging, "
De Marco says.
http://www.GalbaniPro.com
Pizza Today - September 2021

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