Food storage containers are very handy in restaurant kitchens to ensure safe storage of food. Since these products are required for routine use in restaurants, it is advisable to look around for quality products supplied at wholesale prices.
Benefit from Great Discounts
Buying wholesale is a great way to cut down the costs of running a food service business, especially in these financially difficult times. One of the best ways to shop and benefit from budget-friendly prices is to browse the inventory of a reliable foodservice online store. You can find the best deals for wholesale purchases in these stores.
Buying Food Storage Containers – Things to Considers
When you buy food containers in bulk, consider the following points:
• Purchase branded products for lasting performance • Ensure that the food containers you choose can meet your specific food storage requirements • Check out if the dealer offers convenient and timely shipping service
Be Selective
Quality food storage containers can ensure that the contents stay fresh as they are built to prevent damage by excessive moisture or airborne pathogens. You can choose from space-saving, multi-compartmented, dishwasher-safe and hinged-lid models. Some of popular container varieties available are:
• Paper food containers – Paper food containers are very popular in the food service industry. These are excellent for all types of food storage needs. They can be used to conveniently store hot or cold food. They are also useful for take-out needs.
• Aluminum Food Containers – Aluminum containers are insulated for safe food storage. You can find different types and models of aluminum food containers such as oblong aluminum food pan containers, round disposable aluminum containers and more. Leading manufacturers of these products include Reynolds, Handifoil, and Pactiv.
• Deli Containers – Deli containers are becomingly increasingly popular in the restaurant business these days. These food packaging containers are leak-proof and microwave safe and great for soup and sauce takeout needs. There are also models that can hold burgers, broiled meats, pastas, rice, sushi, desserts and salads and keep them fresh. They will not crack or dent in freezer applications, provide a better water-vapor and oxygen barrier, and are very durable.
• Plastic Food Containers – Made of durable polyethylene, plastic food storage bins come with spoonable bottoms and resealable lids. The translucent models provide a good view of the contents. FDA compliant air-tight bins with hinged lids are widely available.
Whichever models you use, it is advisable to buy food storage containers at wholesale prices. Approach an established online restaurant supply store to ensure good deals and discounts.
At Foodservice Firesale we carry thousands offood storage containers to safely store your food and drinks without them spilling on your customer. Here you can browse for a variety of food containers at wholesale prices.
Food photography is a skill that takes years to master. While it may seem like it is easy just to arrange some food on a plate, take a few photos and then (best of all) eat it afterwards, what actually goes into a food photography shoot is quite the contrary. Food photography takes time, careful planning and a healthy dose of creative vision, which is why professional food photographers generally don’t go it alone. Nowadays they will have a team working with them to help create those wonderful images, including a food stylist, creative director and a props assistant.
Most food also has a use by date, especially when exposed to heat, lighting and even air so the photographer will use different tricks of the trade to prevent the food from spoiling too soon. Here are just a few of the tricks food photographers often use to create those scrumptious images we see in cookbooks, advertising and on the internet:
Lighting
Food photographers opt for natural light these days – especially with the popularity of organic foods. Positioning food by the window or even outside will keep it looking much more natural than using artificial light. However, if you do need to rely on studio lighting, avoid using the camera flash as it will reflect off the food and make it look washed out – not to mention unappetising. Professional food photographers will generally opt for studio strobe lighting as it gives off the same colour effect as daylight.
Styling
The food needs to be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way and this is where the food stylist needs to step in. Food stylists need to understand food, what people want to eat, how foods react in varying conditions and what looks good in photos. Contrasting the differing food colours will make the image look more attractive. For instance, a plate of mashed potato is not going to look particularly interesting. However, contrast it with some bright yellow corn, fresh green peas, drizzled with steaming rich gravy (see below for more on adding steam) and it is transformed into a gastronomic delight that will have us all drooling.
Using props
Props are also an important element in food photography but should not overwhelm or crowd the shot so the food becomes less of the focal point. Add a fork, napkin or even a just an attractive table cloth for some added interest in the shot.
Adding steam
Steam is the perfect effect that makes dishes look piping hot in photos. However in reality steam rises off hot food and evaporates too quickly for the food photographer to capture it. The photographer needs to be resourceful and it is not uncommon for them to use smoke machines, the steamer off a cappuccino machine or vaporised liquid titanium that looks like steam. Using a dark background will also make the steam stand out more effectively in the photo.
While food photographers regularly use these tricks to create those wonderful-looking food images, it’s probably best not to eat the subjects after the photo shoot. Liquid titanium is really not that appetising!
The author, Neil Adams, is Managing Director of Powerhouse, a UK creative commercial photography company based in Leeds. Powerhouse offers a range of photography services, including food photography.
Food photography is a skill that takes years to master. While it may seem like it is easy just to arrange some food on a plate, take a few photos and then (best of all) eat it afterwards, what actually goes into a food photography shoot is quite the contrary. Food photography takes time, careful planning and a healthy dose of creative vision, which is why professional food photographers generally don’t go it alone. Nowadays they will have a team working with them to help create those wonderful images, including a food stylist, creative director and a props assistant.
Most food also has a use by date, especially when exposed to heat, lighting and even air so the photographer will use different tricks of the trade to prevent the food from spoiling too soon. Here are just a few of the tricks food photographers often use to create those scrumptious images we see in cookbooks, advertising and on the internet:
Lighting
Food photographers opt for natural light these days – especially with the popularity of organic foods. Positioning food by the window or even outside will keep it looking much more natural than using artificial light. However, if you do need to rely on studio lighting, avoid using the camera flash as it will reflect off the food and make it look washed out – not to mention unappetising. Professional food photographers will generally opt for studio strobe lighting as it gives off the same colour effect as daylight.
Styling
The food needs to be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way and this is where the food stylist needs to step in. Food stylists need to understand food, what people want to eat, how foods react in varying conditions and what looks good in photos. Contrasting the differing food colours will make the image look more attractive. For instance, a plate of mashed potato is not going to look particularly interesting. However, contrast it with some bright yellow corn, fresh green peas, drizzled with steaming rich gravy (see below for more on adding steam) and it is transformed into a gastronomic delight that will have us all drooling.
Using props
Props are also an important element in food photography but should not overwhelm or crowd the shot so the food becomes less of the focal point. Add a fork, napkin or even a just an attractive table cloth for some added interest in the shot.
Adding steam
Steam is the perfect effect that makes dishes look piping hot in photos. However in reality steam rises off hot food and evaporates too quickly for the food photographer to capture it. The photographer needs to be resourceful and it is not uncommon for them to use smoke machines, the steamer off a cappuccino machine or vaporised liquid titanium that looks like steam. Using a dark background will also make the steam stand out more effectively in the photo.
While food photographers regularly use these tricks to create those wonderful-looking food images, it’s probably best not to eat the subjects after the photo shoot. Liquid titanium is really not that appetising!
The author, Neil Adams, is Managing Director of Powerhouse, a UK creative commercial photography company based in Leeds. Powerhouse offers a range of photography services, including food photography.
Exotic birds such as parrots, macaws and cockatiels will benefit from a premium pellet bird pet food such as Zupreem or Harrison’s Bird Food; however providing your exotic bird with a nutritious, specialty cooked bird food like Crazy Corn or Beak Appetit is proven to improve its general health.
Approximately eighty percent of a bird pet foodintake should be food that is pelleted, that is to say there should be a twenty percent portion of bird pet food that is what is known as “people food” or cooker food.
Getting the correct mix of bird pet food is essential to the good health and well being of the bird while it is in your care.
Exotic birds in the wild will naturally find the food that is essential to their good health, good health which in a bird is indicated by bright and clear eyes, and plumage that has sheen and also will see in the bird an improved temperament.
Parrots as well as other exotic birds such as macaws and cockatiels prefer supplements that are full of flavor, and a good mix of parrot treats which can be placed in small puzzle toys that the inquisitive bird will unravel to get to the treats are an essential part of feeding.
A few carefully selected parrot treats will add a little bit of spice and variety, and combined with a good and varied selection will ensure your exotic bird receives regular, much required nutrients in its diet.
A parrot in captivity has to endure stress that it does not encounter in its natural habitat, and these stresses can have an adverse affect on a parrots’ health, all the more reason to ensure that the bird pet food that your parrot or exotic bird is fed is of the highest standard and quality.
Remember too that a parrot has to have available in its regular balanced food intake a selection of different mineral blocks.
Cuttlebone in particular will append the much needed minerals that your bird needs to keep its beak, plumage and skin in tip top health.
By making available to the bird, either in its cage or placed around the home or where the bird is kept some tasty, variable colored mineral blocks which will provide the much required regular nutrients it needs and will go to help it keep its beak ground down.
Birds beaks carry on growing all of their natural lives, and without something like a cuttle bone to grind its beak on, the bird would encounter big problems with an over growing beak.
The raw food diet is as much a life-style as an eating plan; a naturalistic approach which excludes, in addition to cooked and animal foods, processed and refined ingredients.
In the ever-hungry quest for new fads and health panaceas, the raw food diet, with adherents such as Woody Harrelson and Donna Karan, is growing in mainstream popularity. Unlike many other bandwagons however, raw foods (also referred to as ‘living foods’), offer unarguable health benefits and one can reap rewards even as a 50% dabbler. To be a 100% extremist takes commitment, discipline and education and is best introduced gradually to avoid the overwhelm of inevitable detoxification.
A food is essentially ‘raw’ if it is kept below 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature above which enzymes are destroyed. Eating raw food ensures an opulent intake of nutrients, fibre, healthy oils and life-giving enzymes. Raw food is much more easily digested, taking half to a third of the time of cooked food, around 24-36 hours compared to 40-100 hours. Raw vegetables and fruits, are also predominantly alkaline so help to optmize the pH balance of the body (around 60-80% alkaline foods being recommended for a healthy internal environment resistant to disease).
Sprouts, raw juices and superfoods are favoured in a raw food diet, and dehydrating ‘ovens’ effectively concentrate the flavour of certain raw foods to assist in the creation of a mind-boggling array of as-cooked dishes. I’ve eaten a raw food pizza that unbelievably contained no wheat, no cheese and no cooked ingredients! It tasted delicious and I was stumped to figure out what it was actually made of!
Raw Power
Raw plant foods are healthy, regenerative, cleansing, energising, predominantly alkaline, and packed with vitamins, minerals, healthy oils, enzymes and antioxidants that promote health, beauty and longevity. As well as enhancing digestion and protecting against aging and disease, a raw food diet has noted weight loss benefits and promotes clear, beautiful skin.
The benefit of raw food becomes even more apparent in view of the effects cooking can have on constituents in food
The Effects of Cooking
Arthur Baker writes in Awakening Our Self-Healing Body, ‘Overly cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially, mostly, or wholly destroyed. Nutrients are coagulated, deaminized, caramelized and rendered inorganic and become toxic and pathogenic in the body.’
The indigestible end products of cooked foods can linger in the gut, clogging the intestines and interfering with healthy elimination. They can cause a build-up of toxins, mutagens and carcinogens. Carbohydrates ferment, proteins putrefy and fats become rancid, creating free radicals that enter the blood stream.
Lipufuscin, the ‘aging pigment’, is an example of a waste product created from damaged proteins and fats. It accumulates in the skin and nervous system and is visible as brown ‘liver spots’ on the skin and eyes.
Toxic by-products and excess free radicals from cooked foods can weaken the immune system and accelerate the aging process.
Enzymes
Cooking destroys enzymes in our food. These delicate, heat sensitive proteins can destabilise at temperatures as low as 115 degrees Fahrenheit, hence even light steaming can render them inactive.
Enzymes, so abundant in a raw food diet, are highly functional catalysts involved in various health-regulating tasks in the body, such as breaking down food in digestion, delivering nutrients, carrying away toxic wastes and strengthening the endocrine and immune system. All living cells contain enzymes which function in cooperation with other minerals. As there is not an unlimited supply of enzymes, eating them in our food lifts the burden off organs to produce digestive enzymes which allows a greater use of enzymes for other metabolic purposes, freeing up more energy for the performance of other tasks.
Nutrients
In cooking food we can loose up to 97% of water-soluble vitamins (B and C) and 40% of fat-soluble vitamins (namely A, D, E and K).
Proteins
Heat denatures proteins, modifying their molecular structure and rendering them unusable. The bacteria in the gut feeds upon undigested proteins that tend to putrefy, giving rise to toxins. Raw foods provide healthy, readily available protein in greater supply without unwanted residue.
Fats
As oils are heat, light and air sensitive, heating can destroy the goodness of the and can alter molecules generating toxins and free radicals. Unrefined oils that are cold-pressed contain all their natural healthful substances (olive oil for example is rich in phytonutrients, flaxseed oil a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and so on). They should be kept refrigerated in dark sealed containers.
Fibre
Fibre is essential for health and helps to flush out the intestines, scrubbing them clean and aiding elimination. With cooked food fibre becomes a soft substance, loosing its brush-like quality. It can partially rot, ferment and putrefy in the gut, causing toxins, gas and heartburn.
Super Raw
Eating superfoods enhances a raw food diet even further. Superfoods are the most potent, antioxidant rich, nutrient dense, disease fighting, anti aging, beautifying, mood enhancing, immune boosting foods on the planet. Raw superfoods ensure an optimum intake of nutrients and phytochemicals for ultimate health, beauty and longevity.
Raw Food Diets For Dogs and Cats
A raw food diet for dogs and cats is natural and species-appropriate. Not only does it provide a rich supply of nutrients, antioxidants and enzymes, but ensures a move a way from low grade, inappropriate, highly processed and toxic ingredients found in commercial pet foods that can damage your pets health. If embarking on a homemade raw food diet for your pet (sometimes referred to as BARF – Biologically Appropriate Raw Food), thoroughly research the area first as nutritional balance is essential.
