Commercial Kitchen Disposables

Cups, lids and containers. A cafe gets through hot cups and lids faster than anything else, and a takeaway shop goes through containers and paper bags at a similar rate. Napkins and gloves are the next tier down, and cling wrap, foil, skewers and sauce pots will last weeks.

Order a fortnight of cover on the fast movers and a month on everything else, then adjust once you have watched it through a couple of busy weeks. Lids and gloves are the two most often forgotten, because they cost so little that nobody counts them until the box is empty.

Yes. A pack of 50 cups and a carton of 1000 are nowhere near the same price per cup, and the price per piece keeps improving as the pack size goes up. REO prices are sharp to begin with, and one order that covers the whole list costs less than a dozen top-up runs at retail.

How far you take it comes down to storage. Cartons of containers are light and bulky, so they fill shelf space quickly. Work out what can be stacked dry and off the floor before you commit to six months of anything, and remember that cups and containers nest into each other while napkins and gloves take their full carton space.

Most venues have moved to compostable and recyclable packaging. Single-use plastic rules have tightened in most states, and customers notice what their food arrives in.

The compostable packaging is bagasse, which is pressed sugarcane fibre, along with kraft board, paper and wood. The recyclable lines are paper and board, usually with a PET lid. Plastic still suits cold, wet food where nothing else seals as well.

Most compostable packaging needs commercial composting to break down properly, so if your waste goes to landfill it won't break down the way the name suggests. Check what your waste contractor actually collects before you advertise composting on the menu.

Match the container to how wet the food is. A hinged bagasse clam suits a burger, a schnitzel, a salad or chips. Anything with sauce needs a bowl or a food pail with a lid that presses on all the way round, and a curry or a soup needs a lidded round container rather than a clam. Sauces go in their own pots.

Test the container before the first delivery night. Fill one with the wettest dish on the menu, fit the lid, and lay it on its side on the bench for ten minutes. If it leaks on the bench it will leak in a driver's bag going round a corner. Carry the bags flat where possible, and never stack a heavy container on a soft one.

Bagasse is pressed sugarcane fibre, the beige moulded material used for trays, bowls, plates and clam containers. It takes hot food without going soft the way thin board does, and it holds heat reasonably well over a short trip. Very oily food left standing in it for a long time will soften the base.

Fried food needs venting, not a different material. Anything battered or crumbed steams itself soft under a sealed lid, so use a vented lid, a paper bag or a kraft box that breathes, and chips will reach the customer in far better condition. Wooden boats and cones do the same job on a counter.

Buy the lids and the bases from the same brand and the same line. Lids are made to a rim diameter, so a lid fits the cups or bases it is sold alongside, and two millimetres either way means it won't seat. Cups bought from one supplier and lids from another usually end in lids that don't fit.

Settle on as few sizes as the menu allows. Two hot cup sizes instead of four means two lids to stock, two dispensers on the counter and one less thing for new staff to get wrong. Containers work the same way, so choose one base size that covers most of the menu and let the odd dish be the exception.

Cups, containers and bowls nest into each other, so a carton takes up less room than the count printed on the box suggests. San Jamar dispensers mount on a wall or through the counter and hold cups, lids and straws in a tube, which keeps the bench clear and stops staff touching the rim of a cup.

In the storeroom, keep everything up off the floor and dry. Board and paper pick up damp and odours, and a carton of kraft bags that has sat on a wet concrete floor is wasted. Rotate the new stock in behind the old, the same way you would with food.

Vinyl gloves in S, M, L and XL, powder free, in clear or black, sold in boxes of 100. Black hides marks and looks tidier on a front counter, and clear is the usual choice for food prep. Order a mix of sizes rather than one size for everyone, because a glove that is too big catches on everything and one that is too small tears at the thumb.

Fit a wall or box dispenser at each station to keep the box off the bench and away from the sink. Gloves don't replace hand washing, they go on top of it, and they are changed between raw and ready-to-eat work in the same way a chopping board is.

Containers first, in one or two sizes with lids that match, then kraft bags in a couple of sizes, napkins, wooden cutlery and sauce pots. Add hot cups and lids if you're selling coffee, cling wrap for the prep fridge, and a box of gloves for each station. That covers most menus without a second order in the first week.

Then the equipment that keeps the food edible on the way. Insulated food carriers and delivery bags hold the heat that is already in the food and add none of their own, so the food has to go in hot and go out quickly. Put a probe thermometer in the driver's kit so the temperature can be checked at the other end.