How Broaster’s Frozen Food Line Provides Cost Savings for your Chicken Operation

According to a recent Forbes article, chicken prices are expected to increase after a recent U.S.-Department-of-Justice-approved poultry merger leading consumers to trade in beef for chicken and other more affordable cuts of meat.

Broaster Company’s frozen food line provides several benefits for restaurant, grocery store, and convenience store owners who don’t have fresh chicken products available or don’t want the complexities involved with handling fresh, raw chicken.

High-Quality, Whole Muscle Meat

No one likes frozen food that tastes like cafeteria food, especially when it comes to chicken. Here at Broaster, we make our frozen chicken items with our proprietary marinades and coatings that trap the juices during the frying process, making for a tastier bite of high restaurant quality.

We also make our chicken products from whole muscle meat cut into eight pieces (two wings, two legs, two thighs, and two breasts of the bird) with no surprise ingredients.

“One advantage we have over our competitors because we are private labeled is we have much more control within the process,” explains Brian Kenny, Director of Broaster Food Operations. “The specs that we write up are very strict with a very narrow lead way within them versus what I call the broadliner quality (or chopped and formed options). It’s a way to manufacture the product as fast as possible to get as much out as possible.”

Broaster’s process is more dialed in and runs slower than other processes. “We constantly grade our process, bringing in samples from our manufacturing partners that our quality team checks,” says Kenny. “They go through all of the measurements, weigh the product, check the color, and conduct a list of stringent tests to create restaurant quality food.”

An operator who invests in Broaster’s frozen product line is assured of a consistent quality product they can serve their customers.

Broaster frozen chicken products are all-natural, so there is slight variation in sizing within the spec, but they’re not uniform like chopped and formed products, which can drift in terms of quality.

Decreased Waste and Prep Time

Another benefit of Broaster’s frozen food items is the decreased amounts of waste and reduction in prep time.

Fresh chicken products require a lot of preparation steps, including draining, cleaning, and trimming the chicken. With frozen products, the overall execution is more straightforward because the operator can grab what they need from the freezer and throw it in the fryer. After all, it’s already coated and marinated.

Frozen products also do not require a lot of counter space compared to fresh products, which helps save on a kitchen’s overall real estate.

Finally, the shelf-life of frozen products is around 12 months, compared to fresh chicken, which lasts between 14 and 18 days depending on the refrigeration.

Increase Safety and Convenience

Frozen food products have increased safety and convenience because you do not have the intricacies or complexities associated with handling raw chicken. It is not required but highly recommended that any establishment handling raw food has ServeSafe certified employees.

This certification verifies that someone on the team or person in charge has sufficient food safety knowledge and won’t cross-contaminate which could potentially lead to a foodborne illness. Once the fresh chicken is prepped, there needs to be a process for cleaning and sanitation.

Frozen food options are all set to go as operators need them.

Cost Savings and Availability

The decreases in waste and prep time paired with the increases in safety and convenience result in significant savings for food service owners. The labor required to prepare raw products is significantly reduced, saving overall costs.

“An average store that’s going from fresh to frozen saves around 25% in labor,” says Kenny. “It really depends on the velocity and volume of the store.”

With the current costs of chicken, supply chain issues, and all the extra labor needed for fresh versus frozen, frozen options will be a better option.

“We started our frozen food line nearly 30 years ago as our Frozen MRB (marinated raw breaded) chicken line to help our customers who didn’t have fresh product available,” says Kenny. “Since then, we’ve added several other products, including mozzarella sticks, potato wedges and slices, cheese nuggets, handheld options, and a variety of seafood products.”

For those interested in our frozen products, you don’t have to be a trademark operator to buy them. You can get them from your local broadliner or contact us for a rep near you.