How Fried Foods Can Expand Your Menu and Grow Profits

It doesn’t take a ledger book to prove Americans love their fried foods. From tater tots to coconut shrimp to fall foods, with just a little imagination, the right ingredients, and the right equipment to make it happen, you can fry just about anything.

This commitment to fried foods does look good in the ledger books, too. According to a report from Technavio that was detailed in a summary on Business Wire, fried foods account for a profit margin of around 75 percent, making them some of the most profitable items served in a restaurant.

“The high consumption of deep-fried food products such as chicken strips, French fries, and onion rings in the US influences profit margins of foodservice establishments,” says Manu Gupta, a lead analyst at Technavio responsible for foodservice research. “Due to the high profit margins from fried food items, more end-users may include such foods in their offerings.”

With an abundance of creativity and an entire range of ingredients, the last piece of the puzzle is the fryer, and as Gupta says, the profitability of fried foods is a big factor in the increased frequency of commercial fryer usage. The important thing for operators is picking the right option to deliver profits based on these three factors:

VOLUME

How much will fried foods contribute to the menu? Yes, fried foods are certainly popular but rarely do they comprise the entire range of options. In order to select the right type of fryer (or fryers), it’s important to consider how much fried foods will play a roll in the overall objectives of menu development, and then how much frying capacity will be needed to achieve that type of fried food volume.

SPACE

Some types of operations don’t have a lot of space to dedicate to fried foods. If menu expansion to include a fried food program is a goal, how can this be achieved in an efficient and cost-effective way? This is when it’s important to consider a full range of commercial fryers that are designed with different goals and spaces in mind.

TECHNOLOGY

Finally, technology and innovation play an important roll in commercial fryer selection. With the ability to power a commercial fryer with both gas and electric power sources, a range of heating and cleaning options, as well as ventless frying capabilities, technology can be a game-changer for operators looking to implement a frying program.

Finding the right commercial fryer to expand your profitability is an important yet difficult task. Get help from the frying experts, and let us help you determine which option is best for your needs.