Effective Control of Food and Beverages in the Catering Industry

1.1 Introduction

Catering is defined as the business of providing food and drink, typically at social events and in a professional capacity either on-site or at a remote site. The term was originally coined by the Merchant Marines, who were among the first to employ catering officers for their vessels. These catering officers were responsible for purchasing goods, preparing food, and serving the meals and beverages to the other people on board the vessels. They also had to perform other ship-related tasks.

However the trade goes back much further than that. Catering dates back in the 4th millennium BC in China. The culture of grand eating and drinking was also present in old Egypt at that time. Most of the services were provided by slaves. The ancients Greeks are credited with making catering a trade by offering free services at their inns and hostels which continued into the Roman Empire. At this time the intent was primarily to serve soldiers. In the Middle Ages catering centered around monasteries and the Christian pilgrimages in Europe. The trade spread during the reign of Charlemagne.

By late Middle Ages the new bourgeoisies and a monetary economy helped the popularity of catering to flourish. When the industry drew the attention of German legislators in the 14th and 15th century, food and beer regulations began to take form. But much of the industry was still primarily seen in feasts and celebrations for kings and other noblemen. After the French revolution in the 18th century and the lack of an aristocracy, catering guilds were forced to find new ways to sell their talents and the first French restaurants were started.

In America, the catering industry is still very young. Catering started booming after the war when companies who had previously made food supplies for World War II needed something to do. As people became wealthier and the economy grew, caterers found there was a demand for their services, which has previously been reserved for the very rich.

The modern improvement of transportation, technical innovations, population increase, and sudden rise in the trade of travel and tourism has given gastronomy today an ever increasing rise in popularity and major factor in our current economy. TGIS is proud to be part of this rich and coloured history of gastronomy for nearly 25 years.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

In the catering industry food cost control is very important because as it requires proper budgeting as cost control can limit waste. Food cost and control when properly done and attention given to every detail and process in it functions and activities results into growth of the industry. The method and application of food costing and control in the industry can be achieved through placing accurate budget in the industry. This can be done by knowing and taking the price of each item or product used in the food production unit and also taking into account all the perishable goods and products in the industry.

It is important to know that costing help in keeping cost low in planning ahead. More of the knowledge of the number of in-house guest makes it easier to control cost. There are various method used in the different organizations including cost plus. In preparing or making appropriate food cost and control in the industry, the general manager does the budgeting, and in some hotels the breakfast supervisor carries it out, depending on the establishment while in some, the general manager, accountant, store man, purchasing officer, food and beverage controller, food and beverage manager, supervisors, kitchen supervisor, restaurant and bar supervisors does it, while in some organization food and beverage manager and supervisors takes care of the food cost and control. It is important to operate food costing and control in the industry as far as food is involved, even if it is only staff meals, because this is part of the hotels expense and it needs to be controlled properly. Food costing can be said to be the all-time function in the industry including regular and ad-hoc function operations.

Understanding control system and how to apply the system the first in first out (FIFO) system is applied in order to prevent throwing food away, we make sure all items that were brought first are used first in all functions and sales outlets including stores and purchasing various things, like in portion control and audit, stock taking, sales, cash control, cashiering and reporting, prevention of theft, and pilfering etc. In the hospitality industry different portion control methods are involved and it affects the industry positively, when it is well applied or done through weighing of items and making sure that each plate that leaves the kitchen has the exact same amount of items on them and extra has to be charged extra, these methods help to standardize things.

Monthly figure and operating statements are involved in the hospitality industry, just to access, evaluate and monitor the operations and to determine where you stand in business either you are making it or losing and also determine the levels of your progress, if you targets are been meet or not, as this will help in overview of the revenue and expense, been a very important aspect of controlling. To understand the rationale behind feeding and its effects on food cost, percentage is necessary so that you can determine, amend, moderate or reposition and re-strategize on your food and beverage operations as this helps food cost controlling to be done properly.

Food cost involves cost of production and labour which actually looks at purchasing within season and purchasing outside season, cost of extra labour within and outside season and management decision on causal staff. Management cost is not over looked where the cost of supervision and control is considered, the input of the management staff per hour and their monetary value. Operational cost is also an important factor in food cost and control; here the cost of labor is the chief operating factor, involving expense on production, time and wage, expense on maintenance and services and expense on disposal.

Also of importance is the selling price, which is the actual cost of food, including the accumulated cost for sales, mark-up for sales, sales variation and sales function, this is of importance in this study as it help in contributing immensely to food costing and control in the hospitality industry with the Nigeria perspective playing a major role.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effective Control of Food and Beverages in the Catering Industry.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Effective control of food and beverages has been a major phenomenon which the catering and hospitality industries in Nigeria has over looked over the time. Effective control of food and beverages is a way through which catering industries determines how to place price tags on their food and drinks taking all factors of its production into consideration. The negligence of this has contributed immensely to the down fall of many catering industries in Nigeria. This project work therefore will focus on throwing more light on the essence of Effective Control of Food and Beverages in the Catering Industry with a view on how to encourage and educate catering and hospitality industry owners to key into this concept.

1.4 Aim and Objective of the Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effective Control of Food and Beverages in the Catering Industry. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out the effectiveness of effective cost control in the catering and hospitality industry.
2. To investigate the methods used by catering industry owners in controlling and fixing their products prices.
3. To throw more light on what effective control cost of food and beverages is in the catering and hospitality industry.
4. To devise a means of encouraging catering and hospitality industry owners to key into the idea of effective cost control.

1.5 Research Questions

During the course of the project research, the researcher deemed it necessary to generate some questions which will act as a guide throughout the course of the study. It is however believed that through the answering of the research questions, a better understanding of the project topic will be enhanced. The research question includes the following;

• To what extent has effective control management in the catering industry and hospitality industry boosted the profitability of the industry?
• What are the methods used to implement effective cost control management in the catering and hospitality industry?
• Why do most catering and hospitality industry owners frown at the adoption of effective cost management?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis 1

• H0: Effective cost control management does not enhance or improve the chances of profitability in the catering and hospitality industry
• H1: Effective cost control management enhances and improves the chances of profitability in the catering and hospitality industry.

Hypothesis 2

• H0: The adoption of cost control management in the catering and hospitality industry is not a good practice.
• H1: The adoption of cost control management in the catering and hospitality industry is a good practice

1.7 Significance of the Study

This research work is expected to be of a great importance to the students of catering/hotel management as well as students of hospitality management as it will help them to understand more about effective control as is used in the catering industry and hospitality industry. It is expected also to be of a direct benefit to catering industry and hospitality industry owners who are yet to key into the idea of practicing effective cost control management to realize the degree of importance of effective cost control management.

1.8 Scope of the Study

The rest of the project work is sectioned in such a way that the chapter one of the study presents the introductory rudiments of the study, chapter two presents the literature review of the study where previous research attempts was made by other researchers. Chapter three presents the research method that the researcher used to gather facts on the research topic. Chapter four deals with the result gathered using the method proposed in chapter three and chapter five which is the last chapter presents the summary, conclusion and recommendation of the study.

1.9 Limitations of the study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).