Delivery Packaging for Restaurant Convenience and Customer Peace of Mind

Apr 19, 2020
Food delivery is an essential business model for restaurants. Whether it is during the virus crisis when consumers need to rely on food delivery services or even after the situation normalizes, consumers will surely still want the comforts of food delivery services. Restaurants, in addition to having to adjust in terms of their sales channels and delivery, however, packaging is also very important, as they make it possible to preserve food quality and deliver impressive services to customers. Additionally, to ensure that food from restaurants reach customers intact, the packaging must be sturdy and not dented or leak.

  • Customer Journey – Important Things to Consider before Choosing Packaging
  • Restaurant Convenience, Customer Peace of Mind
  • Safety in Heating
  • What to Choose, Which Menu Items Should They Be Used For?
  • You Must Have Your Supplies, On the Restaurant Tables and for Deliveries!

Customer Journey – Important Things to Consider before Selecting Packaging 


Before deciding on which type of packaging to use, the restaurant should know what the customer journey is for your food from the moment it leaves your restaurant to the moment it reaches your customers. If you know that, you will be able to decide on which type of packaging to use as well as how to arrange food appropriately. Consider the following example:

The food leaves the restaurant, --> is transported, --> reaches the customer's house and is accepted by the customer. --> The customer opens the lid of the first box.

--> The customer opens the second box. --> The customer pours everything together. --> The customer heats the food up in the microwave. -->

The customer tears the sauce packet and pours sauce/dip--> The customer uses spoons and forks provided by the restaurant. --> The customer eats.

The sequence of events might vary, depending on the type of food and the service standards set by the restaurant.

That said, the restaurant has to consider the customer journey because of the differences existing between eating at the restaurant and buying take-home or deliveries, including delivery time, appropriate packaging functions, food partitioning to preserve flavor and prevent food from mixing together, yet allowing customers to put everything together after delivery.  Customers also need to be able to heat the packaging up in the microwave or still retain the food's temperature from when it first left the restaurant. Additionally, it is necessary to consider hand cleanliness. Customers need to be able to pick and grab the contents of the packaging while still keeping their hands clean. Is it necessary for customers to have to wash their hands several times before they could eat the food that they order, or will several pieces of tissue be used up? Such a necessity would inconvenience customers.

 Restaurant Convenience, Customer Peace of Mind


In addition to giving primary consideration to customer convenience, you also need to consider convenience in your restaurant's operation.

- The packaging should be easy to obtain. – It should be available for purchase at all times in order to maintain your work standards. If you need to frequently change your packaging, mistakes might happen during food preparation.

- Changes should be minimal. – Choose packaging that's appropriate for the restaurant's delivery menu items. Otherwise, choose one that involves the fewest preparation steps.

- Effective cost control must be in place. – Don't forget to include the packaging cost in your food costs. There are many grades of packaging that can be used suitably for food and different target groups. In any case, the packaging indicates your service standard and contributes to the image of your restaurant.

Resolve the Issue of Microwaveable Plastic


Modern plastic has been developed so certain types are heat resistant and can be put inside microwave ovens.  These types include polypropylene (PP). You can identify it from the circular triangle containing the number 5 and "PP". Other types of plastics that can tolerate a small amount of warming in the microwave include those with the circular triangle containing numbers 1, 2 and 4; they shouldn't be exposed to high heat. Additionally, you can look for the "microwave safe" symbols, which  would appear like microwaves.

 What to Choose, Which Menu Items Should They Contain? 


One-Slot Food Boxes with Lids


These boxes are good for single-meal dishes such as rice with fried eggs, fried rice, Pad See Ew, stir-fried spaghetti (no sauce), steaks (dry types only) and other foods that do not contain a liquid. For single-meal dishes that come with sauces or soups, such as Hainanese chicken, red pork with rice and braised pork leg on rice, you can use one-slot food boxes by separating the sauces and soups into small cups.

Two-to-Five-Slot Food Boxes with Lids


These boxes are good for rice with foods that go with rice and foods that have side dishes like Japanese cuisine. In these cases, it is necessary to avoid mixing each kind of food together. Otherwise, flavor might be ruined. You can also separate rice and what goes with it so the rice doesn’t absorb all of the liquid. By separating food in slots inside a food box, in addition to helping with flavor, the neat organization makes your food look more appetizing.

Round Food Containers with Lids


These are suitable for foods with topping such as Japanese foods (that don't have a lot of sauces) such as Saba teriyaki on top of rice or Thai foods with rice and curries.

Long Food Trays with Lids


These are great for sushi, fried foods, kebabs and snacks such as dumplings, salad rolls, noodle rolls, Saba fish steak, salmon fish steak, and Tonkotsu pork. These trays are great for foods that have attractive appearances whose shapes and colors you want to show. The black trays are shallow, and the clear lids are deep, so the shapes and colors of the foods will be clearly visible.

  All of these six types of ARO packaging offer convenience to consumers. The black trays bear the circular triangle mark with the number 5 and PP, so the trays can be heated directly inside the microwave, and they can withstand up to 100 degrees Celsius (although the lids cannot be microwaved). If you are interested in buying single-slot food boxes or two-to-five-slot food boxes or the round food containers, you can buy them here at  Makro click 

 Two-Tier Food Boxes


These boxes are great for foods containing sauces as primary ingredients such as rice with curry or spaghetti with tomato sauce. Although you might originally put them in bags or separate the sauce, the two-tier food boxes are more convenient for your customers, because the sauces and noodles can be poured together inside the packages the restaurant used to deliver the food. In choosing this type of packaging, you need to make sure that hot food and liquids can be put inside the packaging. In particular, the lids have to be tightly closeable but easy to open. The two-tier food boxes would also make the restaurant's food appear more premium and unique.

The two-tier food boxes from ARO offer a lot of customer convenience, and both the boxes and lids contain the circular triangle bearing the number 5 and PP, so both the boxes and lids can be heated comfortably in the microwave. If interested, you can buy two-tier food boxes at any Makro branch.

You Must Have Your Supplies on the Restaurant Tables and Ready for Deliveries!


Try and imagine that, when customers eat at the restaurant, you serve their orders to their tables with all accessories prepared such as forks and spoons, side dishes, tissue paper, toothpicks, all easy to grab on the table. It's convenient for customers to eat that way. So, even for take-home food or delivered food, if you can still retain the experience of comfort and customers will continue to be impressed. However, when packing the food, don’t forget to wash your hands and be careful about greases and sauces to make sure that they don't contaminate the packaging or accessories.


 
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Covid-19วิกฤตร้านอาหารDeliveryการจัดการร้านอาหารบรรจุภัณฑ์กล่องอาหารFood grade

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