When it comes to inventory management, everyone knows FIFO means "first in, first out." But when it comes to food safety at Pizza Patrón, FIFO could also mean "fast in, fast out."
For a several years, the 84-unit, Dallas-based chain's menu has included a Lista "now ready" offering designed for rapid transactions at peak times. By pre-baking a standard menu of three pizzas and holding them in a warming cabinet, customers can order, pay and be gone with their pizza in as little as two minutes.
Pizza Patrón's founder and CEO Antonio Swad said the Lista system is designed for frequent turnover of the pizzas to ensure high product standards and food safety. The holding cabinet is set at 180 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the fully baked pies at 140 degrees for a maximum of 30 minutes.
The same heated cabinet also houses pre-made orders of the chain's BreadStix, QuesoStix and Fiesta Wings. Those orders are time-stamped for 20-minute hold-and-discard times.
"We aim for 15 minute hold times, but there's no quality issue at all before 30 minutes for the pizzas," Swad said. "There's also no food safety problem at those temperatures. Plus, our new 'fast bake' ovens cook so fast, that even Lista pizzas can be replenished very quickly, and we can hold fewer."
Swad referred to new high-tech air impingement ovens installed in some Pizza Patrón units last year, big-time bakers that cook pizzas in a lightning-fast three and a half minutes. In the past, to ensure Lista demand was met, more pizzas were made up front, but the new ovens have reduced the pre-baked number significantly.
Swad said another food safety measure practiced in stores was the use of refrigerated pizza sauce. He said the common practice in many pizza operations is to allow the sauce to warm to room temperature so it spreads more easily. And despite tomato sauce's high acidity, he said letting it warm made him a little uncomfortable.
"All our pizzas are assembled from refrigerated components," he said. "Then they go right into super-heated ovens. You don't get much safer than that."