Food management is a broad term that refers to the process of selecting, preparing, presenting, and preserving food. The food service industry relies heavily on a number of different managers to oversee each step of the process to ensure that the food served or sold to the general public is healthy and up to local standards in terms of quality, taste, and safety. Because of the wide range of tasks involved in food management, anyone interested in working with food of any kind has a variety of career options.
Many people immediately think of the food service industry when they think of food management. Food service essentially aims to ensure that any food sold to businesses or individual consumers meets stringent quality standards. Food inspectors may be responsible for ensuring that preparation facilities are clean and free of contamination, as well as ensuring that raw and packaged foods are stored in a safe and temperature-controlled environment while awaiting shipment to customers.
Food service inspectors work in food processing plants to ensure that all packaged foods are prepared according to specifications and that they are prepared for shipment in such a way that the food remains fresh throughout the journey. Other inspectors will inspect the delivered foods after they arrive to ensure there was no damage during transport that could affect the food’s quality or freshness.
The preparation of meals that are served to the general public continues the food management process. An expert food manager will understand how to best organize a commercial kitchen, how to properly store foods, and how to determine if food is not fresh enough to use in any recipe. A manager in this position could be a chef at a nearby restaurant or a member of a hotel’s hospitality management team. Because they work closely with the food and the preparation of menu items, all members of the kitchen staff are considered part of the food management team to some extent.
Food management entails not only hotel and restaurant jobs, but also ensuring that food past its sell-by date is not sold in supermarkets. Today, many packaged foods have a date on them that indicates when they should be used by. It’s not uncommon for manufacturers of packaged cereals to send quality inspectors around to make sure their products don’t sit on supermarket shelves past their expiration dates. This helps to ensure that consumers have access to packaged food that is at its freshest and most delicious.
Anyone who works with food is considered to be involved in food management. Even at home, those in charge of meal preparation evaluate the quality of the food on hand, discarding items that are no longer fresh, and attempting to prepare meals that are both tasty and visually appealing. In addition to reducing the risks of consuming foods that are past their prime, paying attention to the preparation and presentation of the food makes it more enjoyable to consume.